[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I've seen comercials on TV pushing ethenol - suggesting if everyone used it > there would not be a fuel shortage,
And where would the billions of gallons of alcohol come from so everybody could use it? > > Didn't I read on this list someone say Ethenol is a negative return? i.e., > it takes more than a gallon of gasoline to produce a gallon of ethenol? Clearly true 20-30 years ago, almost certainly not true now. Most of the heat used in distillation can be recovered, and even corn yields a lot of calories per calorie of tractor fuel & fertilizer. Unfortunately, corn isn't the ideal source, but the corn industry owns the ethanol laws, much as the soy growers own the biodiesel subsidies. Brazil is ahead of us there, they make wide use of cane sugar ethanol. OTOH, there are oil extraction methods in use that use 0.5 bbl or more of oil to pump a barrel out of the ground. We do a lot of stupid things with energy in this world. Mitch.
