Why isn"t corn stover being shipped to ethyl refineries for generation of heat to for use in distilling?

Question

Stover will eventually be shipped for cellulosic. Why not front load any new handling or shipping equipment costs.

Stover not added back to the soil could be sent to the refineries as fuel. Its value as a fuel might compare favorably with gas for close in farmers.

The stover would burn clean, certainly the cobs, and would probably merit EPA approval, since it is carbon neutral and would not add any additional CO2 to the environment.

It would improve the "energy returned for energy invested" for corn based ethanol which lags behind other feedstocks.

Answer 1

there is debate about this at the moment. However, there are ethical issues about using food crops for fuel with half of the world population living in poverty.

Also, distillation is a process that requires a lot of energy. You are true that burning it would be carbon neutral, but the actual break down to be used as a fuel needs a lot of energy which doesnot make the process co2 neutral.

Answer 2

i think corn wastes ARE being used for fuel in distillation.