Making ethanol from corn only takes almost as much energy as the final
product can produce, if not more. Isn't that true?
Once they get the enzymes to process most crop waste debris into
fermentable material we can start getting there. Look what they can do
with corn starch into high fructose corn syrup!
Bill
On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:36:26 -0700 (PDT) EDWARD BARNARD
<edwardbarnard@prodigy.net> writes:
> Bill: from what I understand sugar has an even greater gain! Brazil
> has been using sugar cane since the embargo of the ' 70's, are
> almost completely ethanol fueled, and have $1.50 per gallon gas.
> Cuba, who shut down their cane fields after Russia pulled their
> support, is now ramping up again to become a major player in the
> cane market. Could Fidel have the last laugh before he meets Marx
> and Lenin in the great commune in the sky? - Ed
>
> Bill Babcock <BillB@bnj.com> wrote: Actually, regarding the net
> energy production of Biofuels I appear to
> be very wrong. I asked an energy economist friend of mine for recent
>
> numbers and he said I was all wet to begin with. The study I am most
>
> familar with by a guy named Pimental and a Berkley economist named
> Paztek (as I recall) have been supplanted by newer data. Of course
> most of the new data comes from somewhat suspect sources, but so was
>
> Pimental, and the new data looks fairly convincing. Ethanol may
> deliver as much as a 34 percent gain on the fuel used to make it.
> Biodiesel is about the same currently, but could achieve higher
> efficiencies and the byproducts have value and represent energy. As
>
> usual there is a lot of variation in available data, but I just
> spent
> an enjoyable morning reading some of the papers. I forsee a sea of
> waving soy all across Kansas (does soy wave?).
>
> Thirty four percent ain't bad, especially since most of the energy
> expended (about 60 percent) is non-liquid fuel. My friend tells me
> we
> are also the Saudi Arabia of Corn. We don't currently have enough
> production to come close to meeting demand, but that will probably
> change.
>
>
> === Help keep Team.Net on the air
> === http://www.team.net/donate.html
>
>
> === Help keep Team.Net on the air
> === http://www.team.net/donate.html
|