I have been involved in environmental concerns since I began teaching in 1967 at Augsburg University, where I taught, did research and consulted at major companies for 45 years.
We are facing a tremendous environmental challenge through the buildup of so-called greenhouse gases. We can combat this challenge in Minnesota and elsewhere, partly by continuing to develop low-carbon biofuels, including through the catalytic Mcgyan process, which uses waste fats and oils to produce biodiesel.
The metal oxide catalyst employed by the Mcgyan process was developed more than three decades ago at the University of Minnesota's chemistry department by Prof. Peter W. Carr and then conceived of for biodiesel catalysis in 2006 by a former student, Clayton McNeff, his colleagues, and me and Augsburg University chemistry student Brian Krohn. This discovery led to a research project supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was then commercialized in 2009 by McNeff, who had co-founded Ever Cat Fuels, of Minnesota.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar was at the 2009 grand opening of Ever Cat's 3 million gallon per year biodiesel plant in Isanti. The company, started by a feed-supplement supplier for farmers, uses innovative technology to create biodiesel from waste that has produced tens of millions of gallons of clean-burning biodiesel and 25 production jobs.
"That's just one example of a Minnesota biofuel company that is helping strengthen our economy while decreasing our dependence on foreign oil," Klobuchar said two years ago in a statement that also mentioned Claremont's Al-Corn Clean Fuel plant, Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company in Benson, one of the first farmer-owned, ethanol-producing companies in the state, and Highwater Ethanol in Lamberton.
Across Minnesota, about 25 ethanol and biodiesel plants generate about $5 billion in combined economic output and have made our state the fourth-largest ethanol producer, Klobuchar noted. A study by ABF Economics showed that the ethanol industry generated $7.37 billion in gross sales in 2015 for Minnesota businesses, $1.6 billion in income for households and supports more than 18,000 full-time jobs in the state.
The biofuels industry over the last 30 years has produced more product using less energy and water and contributes far less carbon-dioxide emissions than petroleum fuels.
The last 400,000 years a regular cycle of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide has occurred every 100,000 years with a peak of about 300 ppm of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide after which the level would decrease to about 180 ppm in an ice age and increase to about 300 ppm again before decreasing again. Scientists became alarmed in the 1970s when the levels kept increasing to a level of about 320 ppm. It is now at about 385 ppm and at 400 ppm models predict major climate change.
