Water Use in Ethanol Production and Petroleum Refinery for Gasoline
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Consumptive Water Use in the Production of Ethanol and Petroleum Gasoline — 2011 Update by May Wu and Yiwen Chiu Center for Transportation Research Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory December 2008 Updated July 2011 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ xi NOTATION .............................................................................................................................. xii UPDATE NOTES ..................................................................................................................... 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... 3 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 9 1.1 Water and Biofuel Feedstocks ................................................................................. 10 1.2 Water Use in Crude Oil Recovery ........................................................................... 12 1.3 Study Scope ............................................................................................................. 13 2 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................ 15 2.1 Data Collection and Processing .................................................................................. 15 2.2 System Boundaries and Water Balance ...................................................................... 16 3 ETHANOL ........................................................................................................................ 21 3.1 Corn Ethanol ............................................................................................................ 21 3.1.1 Corn Irrigation ............................................................................................ 22 3.1.2 Corn Ethanol Production............................................................................. 29 3.1.3 Co-Products................................................................................................. 32 3.1.4 Consumptive Water Use in Major Steps of the Corn Ethanol Life Cycle .. 33 3.2 Cellulosic Ethanol .................................................................................................... 34 3.2.1 Feedstock Irrigation .................................................................................... 35 3.2.2 Cellulosic Ethanol Production and Co-Products Allocation ....................... 35 3.2.3 Consumptive Water Use in Major Steps of the Cellulosic Ethanol Life Cycle ...................................................................................... 36 4 GASOLINE ....................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 39 4.1.1 Domestic Crude Oil .................................................................................... 39 4.1.2 Canadian Oil Sands ..................................................................................... 41 4.2 Onshore Recovery of Domestic Crude Oil .............................................................. 42 4.2.1 Recovery Technologies and Water Consumption ....................................... 42 4.2.1.1 Recovery Technologies ............................................................... 42 4.2.1.2 Injection Water Consumption for Oil Recovery ......................... 45 4.2.2 Produced Water Re-injection for Oil Recovery .......................................... 47 4.2.3 Regional Water Use .................................................................................... 49 v CONTENTS (CONT.) 4.3 Recovery of Saudi Arabian Crude Oil ..................................................................... 52 4.4 Recovery and Upgrading of Canadian Oil Sands .................................................... 52 4.4.1 Oil Sands Recovery..................................................................................... 54 4.4.1.1 Surface Mining............................................................................ 54 4.4.1.2 In-Situ Recovery ......................................................................... 55 4.4.2 Oil Sands Upgrading ................................................................................... 56 4.4.3 Technology Shares ...................................................................................... 57 4.5 Refining .................................................................................................................... 59 4.6 Water Consumption in Major Steps of the Gasoline Life cycle .............................. 61 4.6.1 Conventional Petroleum to Gasoline Life Cycle ........................................ 61 4.6.2 Oil Sands to Gasoline Life Cycle................................................................ 63 5 ADDITIONAL ISSUES .................................................................................................... 65 5.1 Aquifer Depletion .................................................................................................... 65 5.2 Water Quality ........................................................................................................... 66 5.3 Soil Erosion .............................................................................................................. 68 5.4 Land Degradation ..................................................................................................... 69 5.5 Ecosystem Disruption .............................................................................................. 69 5.6 Energy–Water Interdependence ............................................................................... 70 6 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................... 71 6.1 Comparative Water Consumption ............................................................................ 71 6.2 Limitations and Uncertainties .................................................................................. 72 6.2.1 Data Gaps .................................................................................................... 72 6.2.2 Representative Fuel Pathways .................................................................... 73 6.3 Summary .................................................................................................................. 74 7 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 77 FIGURES 1 Hydrologic Cycle............................................................................................................... 10 2 U.S. Freshwater Withdrawals and Consumption, All Sectors and Agricultural Sector, 1960–1995 ........................................................................................ 12 3 System Boundary, Water Inputs, Outputs, and Losses of a Conceptual Fuel Production System ............................................................................................................. 17 vi FIGURES (CONT.) 4 Water Inputs and Outputs for (a) Biofuel Feedstock Production, (b) Petroleum Oil Production, and (c) Biofuel Production/Oil Refining ................................................. 18 5 Typical Onshore Oil Field ................................................................................................. 19 6 USDA Farm Production Regions ...................................................................................... 21 7 Annual Precipitation in USDA Regions 5, 6, and 7 .......................................................... 22 8 Distribution of Water Withdrawals for Irrigation and Non-irrigation Uses in U.S. Regions ...................................................................................................................... 23 9 Irrigation Rate for the Irrigated Corn Acreage by USDA Region. .................................... 25 10 Consumptive Irrigation Water Use for Corn from Ground and Surface Water ................ 26 11 Groundwater Consumed for Corn Irrigation by USDA Region in 1998, 2003, and 2008 .................................................................................................................. 27 12 Historical Trend of Corn Yield and Harvested Corn Acreage in the United States .......... 28 13 Corn Production and Consumptive Irrigation Groundwater Use in USDA Regions 5, 6, and 7 ................................................................................................ 28 14 Consumptive Irrigation Water Use for Corn as percent of U.S. total for corn by Source in USDA Regions 5, 6, and 7 ............................................................. 29 15 Water System in a Typical Dry Mill Ethanol Plant ........................................................... 30 16 Breakdown of Water Consumed in Ethanol Production via Corn Dry Milling ............................................................................................................... 31 17 Consumptive Water Use in Minnesota Dry Mill Corn Ethanol Plants, 1998-2005 .......... 31 18 Average Water Consumption in Existing Corn Dry Mill Ethanol Plants ......................... 32 19 Irrigation Water Input and Consumption to Produce One Bushel of Corn in USDA Regions 5, 6, and