Pipelines For Ethanol
One of the favorite canards of the anti-biofuels crowd is that ethanol can’t be distributed via pipeline the way oil and gas can. The reality is that it certainly could be.
In fact, the Brazilian oil company Petrobas is already embarking on an ethanol pipeline construction project that will be capable of transporting more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol per year through its main trunk line. Several feasibility studies for ethanol pipelines are also underway in America.
The most recent announcement came last week from Magellan Midstream Partners LP and Buckeye Partners
LP. Their proposed pipeline project would span nearly 1,700 miles and supply more than 10 million gallons of ethanol per day from the Midwest to distribution terminals in the northeast.
But even without such a pipeline, the American ethanol industry is able to move its product to market through a flexible “virtual pipeline” of railways, trucks and barges. That was true in 2007 as the industry supplied more than 6.5 billion gallons — and it will remain true in the years ahead as the industry continues to grow.
Sources:
CNN Money, “Magellan Midstream, Buckeye Partners assessing construction of ethanol pipeline,” February
19, 2008.
“Petrobras signs partnership for an ethanol pipeline project,” Press Release, February 19, 2008.
