Antibiotics Added to the List of Biofuel Production Concerns

The more research I do into biofuels, the more I question my belief they are an excellent energy source. I am still holding out hope, but reports like this are concerning.

Here's the story:

At one time considered the best answer to fossil fuel dependency, biofuels and their production have run into several considerable obstacles in maintaining favor with the climate change movement. The latest? Hazardous antibiotic levels in biofuel plant byproducts.

A recent study (started this past February) by the FDA has shown that high levels of antibiotics have been found in distillers grain, a highly economical feed ingredient for ruminants (cattle, sheep etc) resulting in yet another obstacle in the campaign for increased biofuel production-- not to mention a potential threat to human health.

Link: http://www.energyboom.com/antibiotics-added-list-biofuel-production-concerns

... but burning it?

I don't get it.

"The addition of antibiotics to biofuel plants is one of several methods ethanol manufacturers use to control bacterial contamination"

Do those who produce alcohol for drinking use antibiotics to control bacteria? Essentially the same products are involved, including the yeast, and the leftover mash is also used for cattle feed. Granted, we consume more fuel for gasoline than we consume by drinking, so maybe the scale is the answer.

:shrug:

:banghead:

That is a wise move since biofuels, at best, provide an extremely, extremely, extremely poor energy return on energy invested. Experts do not consider them to be a "source" of energy but instead view biofuels as a means of storing energy in a portable, energy dense form (in other words as a liquid fuel).

If you wanted to run the country on the energy surplus obtained by the ethanol industry, you'd have to plant a minimum of one acre of corn to fuel the process to obtain the energy in another 1.6 acres of corn. As the OP notes, much of that energy (virtually all the excess, in fact) isn't even in the preferred liquid form; it is in the form of the energy in the waste that is fed to cattle. Of course that has legitimate value, but it certainly isn't what people are thinking of when they are evaluating ethanol as a potential "energy source" that can rescue us from fossil fuels.