Pipeline Transport for Ethanol – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has introduced the “Ethanol Infrastructure Expansion Act of 2006.” This legislation would have the Department of Energy initiate studies of the feasibility of transporting ethanol by pipeline and make recommendations to Congress. Harkin said, “We continue to hear comments that ethanol transport by pipeline can’t be done efficiently, but is happening right now in Brazil, and that country is planning to expand its ethanol pipeline system. We need to examine the issues and get all the facts on the table. Dedicated ethanol pipelines may be critical to maximize ethanol’s contribution to meeting our national energy needs.”
Ethanol is pretty corrosive so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would suspect that the Brazilian pipelines are either too new to find out the long-range effects or they are lined with a corrosion-resistant coating.
I am absolutely positive that there would be a NIMBY not in my backyard response to any pipeline proposals.
The major sources of oil in this country are the south and west coasts. The original oil pipelines were construct during WWII to conteract the losses incurred by the U-boats at the beginning of our involvement in that war. Organic feedstocks, such as corn, can be grown in virtually portion of the U.S. that gets a decent amount of rainfall (This might exclude the desert Southwest). Consequently, extensive ethanol pipelines should only be necessary where existing transportation systems (highway and rail) are at there maximum capacity. Eitherway, the pipeline should not have to run all the way between Texas and New York . The Mid-Atlantic State refineries probably can be fully supplied from just the East Coast States.