Ethanol gets hosed: Texas researchers say the biofuel consumes 443 times the water of petroleum-based gasoline

From Cleantech:

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin say not enough people are considering whether they have the necessary water resources to meet the needs of new biofuel technologies.

Energy analysts Carey King and Michael Webber calculated the water usage of several fuels being developed in the United States as alternatives to petroleum-based gasoline and diesel. Ethanol and soybean-oil biodiesel were among the biggest water culprits in the study, which followed their research earlier this year showing the high water-cost of plug-in electric vehicles.

“We looked at it just from the irrigated water perspective, a proxy for, ‘Are you in a place where it rains or not?’” King, a research associate at the University of Texas Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, told the Cleantech Group.

King and Webber looked both at the amount of water consumed—water taken from a surface water or groundwater source and not returned—and water withdrawn, used in a process and then returned to the source. Areas that require irrigation systems have higher water-usage figures because the water has to travel farther, he said.

Their study appears in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Some of their findings include:

* Typical gasoline consumes up to 0.14 gallons of water per mile and withdraws up to 0.63 gallons of water per mile.
* Converting coal into fuel via the Fischer-Tropsch method (coal gasification) consumes up to 0.58 gallons of water per mile and withdraws up to 0.43 gallons of water per mile.
* Biodiesel from irrigated soybean fields consumes as much as 24 gallons of water per mile and withdraws up to 26 gallons of water. If the biodiesel was made from non-irrigated soybean fields, it would consume up to 0.02 gallons of water per mile and withdraw up to 0.12 gallons of water per mile.
* Ethanol (E85) made from corn grown in irrigated fields consumes up to 62 gallons of water per mile and withdraws as much as 110 gallons of water per mile. Ethanol produced from corn grown in non-irrigated fields on the other hand, consumes up to 0.35 gallons of water per mile and withdraws up to 0.56 gallons of water per mile.
* Hydrogen produced via electrolysis consumes as much as 0.42 gallons per mile and withdraws up to 13 gallons of water per mile.
* Hydrogen derived from natural gas consumes up to 0.06 gallons of water per mile and withdraws up to 0.07 gallons of water per mile.

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