London Free Press, Canada
07-27-07
Ethanol plant builder bullish
By NORMAN DE BONO, SUN MEDIA
HENSALL -- The builder of a new ethanol plant here is confident demand for the
corn-based bio-fuel will grow, despite mounting criticism.
GreenField Ethanol -- formerly Commercial Alcohols Inc. -- is building a $150
million, 200-million-litre ethanol plant to employ 50 people when it opens late next
year, using 20 million bushels of Ontario corn a year.
But a backlash against ethanol is mounting, as environmentalists question its
use. Ethanol takes too much energy to make, relies on pesticides and fertilizers
and must be shipped to the plant by truck and then to gas stations,
environmentalists say.
They contend it's also driving up the cost of food, harming the world's poor.
"We are convinced it's a closed-loop system. Our studies show it is done out of
respect for the environment," Manon Berube, project manager of the Hensall
plant for GreenField, said at the site yesterday.
A closed-loop system is one that recycles the same materials over again.
"We are fairly confident the ethanol demand should increase," Berube said.
But a growing number of Internet sites question the fuel and the government
subsidies handed out to create it.
A recent article in the online magazine NewScientist.com argues intensive
harvesting of corn erodes soil. Runoff from the "massive use" of nitrogen
increases nutrients in rivers and lakes, causing plants to thrive and depriving fish
and other aquatic life of oxygen, the article said.
The BBC reported recently using food for fuel is driving up the cost of food.
Food prices have climbed an average of US$47 a person since last July due to
the ethanol surge, according to an Iowa State University study published in
May. Corn price futures reached a 10-year high of US$4.28 a bushel in February,
a Bloomberg.com story stated.
"These are good questions people need to think about," said Berube of the
criticism. "I am not surprised people are asking this. It is necessary, but I am
confident with what we are doing, that it is the right thing."
There is little doubt demand will increase. The Hensall plant will supply stations
in the United States as well as Canada.
In January, U.S. President George W. Bush declared the U.S. should be
producing 35 billion gallons of ethanol and other alternative fuels by 2017. In
2005, subsidies in the U.S. totalled US $9.4 billion
GreenField is also building a plant near Prescott, east of Brockville, and it has
plants in Chatham and Tiverton. It also has a plant in Varennes, Que., near
Montreal.
The province has contributed $32 million to build ethanol plants in Aylmer,
Hensall and Cornwall. The Hensall plant received $12.5 million.
The $87-million ethanol plant planned for Aylmer is to be operated by Integrated
Grain Processors Co-Operative.