The future is not now for biomass ethanol industry

LINCOLN – The logistics of collecting and storing a million tons of corn stubble each year for an ethanol refinery are mind-numbing.

It would take 67,000 semitrailer loads to haul the baled stubble out of the field. That’s 187 truckloads a day, or one every eight minutes. To complicate matters, the need for trucks, machinery and manpower would come during harvest, already the busiest time of the year on the farm.

And that’s where a massive federal initiative into cellulosic ethanol may find its biggest bottleneck – on the farm.

“Naturally, the farmer says, ‘Wait a minute. I’ve got enough stuff in my field,’” said Lex Thompson, president of the Imperial, Neb., Young Farmers and Ranchers Association.

The question is whether farmers will harvest and sell the nongrain plant material, known as cellulose or biomass, to make the federal government’s plan for renewable fuels work.

Kansas City Star