1. Sangwon Suh Dept. Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering University of Minnesota

2. Ethanol mandates 2

3. 3 Where the water is used? Source: Delta-T corp.

4. MN ethanol plants’ water use rate Source: DNR (2006) and own data collected Water use / ethanol production (gallon/gallon)

5. Where the water come from?

6. FacilityCounty Ethanol Capacity Reported Annual Water Usage (MGY) MGY 1 wells (owned)well (public)surface (owned)surface (public)others AlbertLea(Exol/Agri resources)Freeborn412050 Atwater(BushmillsEthanol)Kandiyohi48 200 Benson(CVEC)Swift461600000 BinghamLake(Ethanol2000)Cottonwood350129000 BuffaloLake(MN energy)Renville1988.5 Claremont(Al-Corn)Dodge38146.616 GraniteFallsEnergyYellow Medicine480.1515.2108.406 HeronLakeBioenergyJackson50 210 LakeCrystalBlue Earth54 230 LittleFalls(CMEC)Morrison22088.75000 Luverne(Corn-erStone)Rock22 95 Marshall(ADM)*Lyon400469000 Melrose(DairyProteins)Stearns3 12 Morris(DENCO)Stevens25152.4 Preston(Pro-Corn)Fillmore42 165 Winnebago(Corn Plus)Faribault471350000 Winthrop(Heartland)Sibley10090200

7. Comparing with state total Billion Gallons per year (in year 2007)

8. Water-intensive industry? Estimations based on water use, water price, and ethanol production data (own data collected; Smith et al., 2008; Dept. public health, 2008; DNR, 2007)

9. Demand: Ethanol Water Footprint Approximately 9.6 trillion gallons of water were appropriated by the U.S. ethanol industry in 2007 806 billion gallons: irrigated water from aquifers 475 billion gallons: irrigated water from surface water sources 26 billion gallons: ethanol facilities process water (mostly groundwater). Water appropriation for ethanol industry is equivalent to 10% of Mississippi River’s annual flow

10. Comparing EtOH Water Appropriation

11. Source Water

12. Multidisciplinary Efforts Two testimonials to Legislative Citizens Commission for Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). Substantial media coverage on the issue, but often with conflicting information. Two new projects: (1) from LCCMR, (2) USDA/DOE. Meeting with John Wells – various activities around the issue across MN.

13. Serial Meetings We’ll continually arrange integrated meetings How the issue is perceived by the expert groups? What can we do as a group of experts to better inform the general public and policy makers on water implications of energy industry development? What are the knowledge/data gaps to better understand the issue? Is there a common methodological/modeling ground for analysis?

14. Objectives of the Meetings Information/perspective sharing Ongoing activities by various institutions around MN. Available data and resources. Modeling frameworks. Water implications of biofuel development in general. Key knowledge/data gaps. Discuss possible consensus building Common methodological/modeling ground. The current state and the future prospects of water implications of ethanol development.

15. Our overall observation Water use by biofuel conversion processes does not seem to be a major threat for MN water resource at the state-level. At a local level, however, water use by biofuel plant can be a problem depending on the ground water availability and public water supply capacity of the area. Broad range of cost-effective water conservation measures should be discussed in all areas of water use (not only in biofuel conversion processes). Standardized data, model and analytical method to determine location-specific water availability will be helpful to site biofuel plants considering water availability.