Fueling One's Imagination
By David Morris

When a person takes up a cause that touches their personal and professional interests, remarkable things can happen. The contributions made by Ontario Corn Producers’ Association (OCPA) Past-President Jim Johnson to the development of the fuel ethanol industry in Ontario is a case in point. In fuel ethanol, Johnson has found a cause that combines his two professional passions, agriculture and chemistry. His interest in fuel alcohol began when he was a chemistry student at St. Clair College in Windsor, during the oil crisis of the early 1970s. One of his instructors advanced the idea of alcohol as an alternative to gasoline and a seed was sown in very fertile ground.

After graduation, Johnson worked briefly in industry before returning to the family farm in Brooke Township, Lambton County, 25 years ago. He is the fourth-generation Johnson to work the family land, which he describes as “some of the hardest, heaviest clay in the province.” He cash-crops just over 500 acres, growing corn, soybeans and winter wheat.

When first elected as an OCPA Director, Johnson was appointed to the committee responsible for developing new markets for corn. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of fuel alcohol. At one time, it was a cause shared by few – just a handful of companies and OCPA. The proponents of fuel alcohol realized that being small in numbers meant their only hope of success was in cooperation. That sparked the formation of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), in 1984. Johnson has been president of that association since 1989.

Today, CRFA isn’t much bigger than it was when it started. But its accomplishments certainly are significant. Along with Ralph Ferguson, former Member of Parliament for Lambton-Middlesex, CRFA was instrumental in convincing the federal government to waive the excise tax on fuel alcohol. This initiative opened the door for the expansion of the fuel ethanol industry in Canada by making it possible to competitively market gasoline-alcohol blends with fuels containing lower-cost additives, such as MMT. In doing so, Johnson has seen the industry grow from little more than a dream into a well-established industry with virtually unlimited potential.

Johnson continues to see industrial use of corn as one of the few bright lights for the crop and believes the future of fuel alcohol could be particularly sparkling. Even now, use of corn for alcohol production is limited more by the lack of distilling capacity than by the demand for ethanol. Yet Johnson thinks the current scale of operation represents just a glimmer of what could come. If everything falls into place, the industry could potentially increase in size “by orders of magnitude” (i.e. by factors of 10 or even 100 times the current size), he says.

The ultimate size of the industry hinges largely on how the government chooses to address environmental concerns about gasoline use. What standards will it set for the level of toxic compounds in automobile exhausts and how will it attempt to meet the objectives for carbon dioxide reductions established in Kyoto?

Johnson expects the government will tighten up the standards for hazardous gases in automobile emissions. As this happens, he believes that oil companies will gradually (although perhaps grudgingly) replace fuels containing MMT with oxygenated fuels, such as gasoline-alcohol blends, they will represent the most economic way to comply with the coming regulations. This change would stimulate an incredible demand for ethanol, even if it only amounts to five percent of the blend. Over 35 billion litres of gasoline are used in Canada annually. A small proportion of that market would still add up to hundreds of millions more litres of alcohol per year.

As impressive as that sounds, it pales in comparison to the numbers involved in the reductions in CO2 output to which Canada is committed. Again, depending on how the government chooses to respond, meeting these objectives could create a market for fuels containing 15- to 20-per cent alcohol. Johnson estimates that to just begin meeting that demand would require construction of two facilities equivalent in size to those in Chatham, every year. The mind begins to boggle at the possibilities.

It’s unlikely that grain would be used to produce all that alcohol. It is just a matter of time before someone develops an efficient enzyme system for converting cellulose (i.e. woody materials) to simple sugars, making it feasible to use almost any plant material for ethanol production. When this happens, the industry will probably use whichever “crop” that produces a high yield of alcohol, most economically. Time will tell whether this will be an existing agricultural crop, a type of fast-growing tree, an exotic grass or some altogether new product of biotechnology.

This enzyme technology could also open up a market for materials, like corn cobs and other crop residues, now viewed as little more than wastes. (Johnson can almost envision the return of the corn crib – new and improved, of course – since corn cobs could become a marketable commodity.) Although the ethanol industry of the future might not be using grain exclusively, he sees any form of growth in the ethanol industry as beneficial for agriculture. Regardless of what the feedstock of the future is, it will be a renewable resource grown on farmland. Whether it is a grain crop, a grass, a tree species that can be grown sustainably on marginal land or a market for crop residues, it will still mean extra income for producers. And as he says, “One has to feel good about that.”

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