Canadian-made biofuel more efficient, study claims

Thursday, May 5, 2011

by PAT CURRIE

If the most recent study on biofuels released this week by the Guelph-based Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) has a familiar look, it’s because "it’s the same as one we did in April, only from a different (global) perspective," Dr. Terry Daynard said today.

Daynard, a retired crop sciences professor at the University of Guelph and a former chief of staff for Ontario corn producers for 19 years, authored both studies and his daughter, owner of KD Communications in Guelph, helped produce it.

Asked if the GFO has an interest in maintaining currently high prices for grain, corn and soybeans, Daynard said: "Very much so. They’re looking for alternative markets."

GFO spokesperson Erin Fletcher said the farm organization asked Daynard to include his April study in a newer work "taking in the entire body of research, a review of all biofuel efforts around the world." She said she was not authorized to divulge the cost of the study.

Daynard said the later study takes in factors such as food prices, world hunger, gasoline prices and ecological effects of gasoline fuel laced with five per cent ethanol, which, his report said, has cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2.3 million tonnes annually.

"That’s equivalent to removing 440,000 Canadian cars from the road. About two-thirds of this benefit is in Ontario," Daynard said.

The study attributed higher efficiencies in Canadian biofuel to differences in farming practices and the fact that all Canadian ethanol plants use natural gas rather than coal as their source of energy. BF