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Water Resource Implications of Minnesota’s Biofuel Development

This study examines the water resource implications of biofuel development in Minnesota, particularly focusing on the water usage and its potential implications on local water availability. The objective is to inform the general public and policy makers about the water implications of ethanol production and identify knowledge/data gaps to better understand the issue.

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Water Resource Implications of Minnesota’s Biofuel Development

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  1. Water Resource Implications of Minnesota’s Biofuel Development Sangwon Suh Dept. Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering University of Minnesota

  2. Ethanol mandates

  3. Where the water is used? 17,700 Source: Delta-T corp.

  4. MN ethanol plants’ water use rate Water use / ethanol production (gallon/gallon) Source: DNR (2006) and own data collected

  5. Where the water come from?

  6. Comparing with state total Billion Gallons per year (in year 2007)

  7. Water-intensive industry? Estimations based on water use, water price, and ethanol production data (own data collected; Smith et al., 2008; Dept. public health, 2008; DNR, 2007)

  8. Demand: Ethanol Water Footprint • Approximately 9.6 trillion gallons of water were appropriated by the U.S. ethanol industry in 2007 • 806 billion gallons: irrigated water from aquifers • 475 billion gallons: irrigated water from surface water sources • 26 billion gallons: ethanol facilities process water (mostly groundwater). • Water appropriation for ethanol industry is equivalent to 10% of Mississippi River’s annual flow

  9. Comparing EtOH Water Appropriation

  10. Source Water

  11. Multidisciplinary Efforts • Two testimonials to Legislative Citizens Commission for Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). • Substantial media coverage on the issue, but often with conflicting information. • Two new projects: (1) from LCCMR, (2) USDA/DOE. • Meeting with John Wells – various activities around the issue across MN.

  12. Serial Meetings • We’ll continually arrange integrated meetings • How the issue is perceived by the expert groups? • What can we do as a group of experts to better inform the general public and policy makers on water implications of energy industry development? • What are the knowledge/data gaps to better understand the issue? • Is there a common methodological/modeling ground for analysis?

  13. Objectives of the Meetings • Information/perspective sharing • Ongoing activities by various institutions around MN. • Available data and resources. • Modeling frameworks. • Water implications of biofuel development in general. • Key knowledge/data gaps. • Discuss possible consensus building • Common methodological/modeling ground. • The current state and the future prospects of water implications of ethanol development.

  14. Our overall observation • Water use by biofuel conversion processes does not seem to be a major threat for MN water resource at the state-level. • At a local level, however, water use by biofuel plant can be a problem depending on the ground water availability and public water supply capacity of the area. • Broad range of cost-effective water conservation measures should be discussed in all areas of water use (not only in biofuel conversion processes). • Standardized data, model and analytical method to determine location-specific water availability will be helpful to site biofuel plants considering water availability.

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