Ethanol

I just listened to a discussion that disussed the future of ethanol, where the professor said that when you take in all the energy used to produce ethanol that it take 30 percent more energy to produce that it will yield.

He also went on to say that if all the corn produced in the US was used for ethanol, that it would only produce 6% of our energy needs. Hmmmm...

I also heard that they found out it could be made from what was thrown out from making beer, So maybe Coors and all them could start up another business,

The problem being that you have to use more energy than you make to make the ethanol.

I think that there is a place for ethanol. I think that science has to make the process more effiecent so that ethanol can mak itself or have a positive energy value. I think that it is a way to gain enery from waste products like the one that you mentoned. My problem right now is that many politictian are waving the ethanol bannner to show how green they are and that it is the way we are going to wean ourselves off foriegn oil. The part that really has me concerned is that most of the congressmen who are all for ethanol are from the corn belt. Go figure...they must be telling the truth.

In time, producers may find ways to produce ethanol more efficiently like they
do in Brazil, from sugar. I don't think it's a long term solution to the energy
problem, though.

wat the heck is ethanol???

Ethanol is an ethyl alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling
starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars.

Google is a good way to look up things you don't know.

haha

New Zealand is trying to do that with a plant called salex (I think) its sort of like willow. Very quick at growing and ethanol will be produced from that

wow im so out of the loop

Anything that contains some form of sugar can be fermented into alcohol.
The trick is to do it at an affordable price.

Woohoo, let's take a huge volume of one of the world's most basic staple crops and use it to fuel vehicles instead of feeding people.

Lord knows that since we solved that pesky hunger/poverty problem we can waste all this s*** to fuel our SUVs instead of our bodies.


Seriously, I hate the whole idea. Every bushel of corn we use to produce fuel is a bushel of corn that could feed a family that is literally starving to death as we speak.

I agree, corn is the wrong thing. The government is using it to support
farmer's corn revenues, I think.

BTW, for what it's worth:

Lots of gasoline around the country is actually 10% ethanol already. It is in New York State. It runs fine in all gasoline engines with no conversion. A couple of companies are slowly introducing vehicles that run on 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, a fuel called "E-85." These vehicles can also run on regular gasoline, making a transition to ethanol-based fuels easier.

Fuel economy on E-85 is significantly lower than on gasoline, so you end up consuming a larger volume of fuel.. plus it costs more, so you end up spending way more per mile than on gasoline, but that's to be expected with any new fuel. It won't necessarily get cheaper unless we actually start to run out of oil, which doesn't appear to be happening anytime in the near future.

Anyway, in the end, I think it's a dumbass idea. Ethanol burns slightly cleaner, but it's not a long-term answer by any stretch of the imagination.

What do you propose as an alternate fuel source, if anything? I've heard that there is plenty
of oil for 200 more years, but it is not being produced because of costs and politics.

I have no idea. If I did I would be rich and the world would be saved.

Ultimately, we are going to have to figure out how to most efficiently turn radiative energy from the sun into kinetic energy. I don't know if that's going to be direct solar-to-electricity, or solar-to-plant-to-chemical, or solar-to-electricity-to-hydrogen-to-fuel-cell, or what.

I think the latter is a long-term solution. It's renewable and can work. Using solar power to generate hydrogen from water, then we can store the hydrogen and use it to power fuel cells, which generate... water. Pretty decent cycle. We have years and years and years of development before this can begin to be practical, but IMO it's the best shot we have.

I love the idea of solar power and am hopeful that the technology will grow
faster. Fossil fuels are too dirty.