Quick somebody notify Brazil. Ethanol isnt cost effective.
Cheers,
Cordain
Dulles VA
PS Sorry about the one liner, but if paid enough I can come up with a study
that says are fears of dino-fuel shortage are unjustified. Also global
warming is a myth. Those 80 degree days last december didnt happen.
>http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug01/corn-basedethanol.hrs.html
>
>[i]Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as 'unsustainable subsidized food
>burning' in analysis by Cornell scientist
>FOR RELEASE: Aug. 6, 2001
>Contact: Roger Segelken
>Office: 607-255-9736
>E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>ITHACA, N.Y. -- Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-
>based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome
>what one Cornell University agricultural scientist calls a
>fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol
>from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.
>
>At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the
>American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food
>processors and some lawmakers, Cornell's David Pimentel takes a
>longer range view.
>
>"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-
>inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to
>unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says the Cornell professor
>in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who
>chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the
>energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production
>several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of the
>corn-to-car fuel process. His findings will be published in
>September, 2001 in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences
>and Technology .
>
>Among his findings are:
>
>o An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for
>processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and
>harvesting that much corn requires about 1,000 gallons of fossil
>fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel's analysis.
>Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs
>$1.05 per gallon of ethanol.
>
>o The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the
>grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps
>are needed to separate the 8 percent ethanol from the 92 percent
>water. Additional treatment and energy are required to produce the
>99.8 percent pure ethanol for mixing with gasoline. o Adding up the
>energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol,
>131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of
>ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way,"
>Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce
>ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you
>make 1 gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU."
>
>o Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared
>with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline. "That helps
>explain why fossil fuels -- not ethanol -- are used to produce
>ethanol," Pimentel says. "The growers and processors can't afford to
>burn ethanol to make ethanol. U.S. drivers couldn't afford it,
>either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower
>the price."
>
>o Most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production overlook the
>costs of environmental damages, which Pimentel says should add
>another 23 cents per gallon. "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil
>about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating
>corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge
>rate of ground water. The environmental system in which corn is being
>produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a
>renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when
>human food is being converted into ethanol."
>
>o The approximately $1 billion a year in current federal and state
>subsidies (mainly to large corporations) for ethanol production are
>not the only costs to consumers, the Cornell scientist observes.
>Subsidized corn results in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs
>because about 70 percent of corn grain is fed to livestock and
>poultry in the United States Increasing ethanol production would
>further inflate corn prices, Pimentel says, noting: "In addition to
>paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, consumers would be paying
>significantly higher food prices in the marketplace."
>
>Nickels and dimes aside, some drivers still would rather see their
>cars fueled by farms in the Midwest than by oil wells in the Middle
>East, Pimentel acknowledges, so he calculated the amount of corn
>needed to power an automobile:
>
>o The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure
>ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of
>the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net
>ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to
>feed seven Americans.
>
>o If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100
>percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would
>be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the
>total land area of the United States. [/i]
>
>Any rebuttal? Has anyone seen any similar net energy studies on
>Biodiesel?
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