Posted on 10/06/2011 6:14:29 AM PDT by shortstop
Bottomline: Cost.
It cost me $ to fix my older car because some gas station are less than honest about their ethanol content.
It cost me more at the feedstore because corn is so friggin’ high.
It cost me $ because every 2 years I have to buy a new lawnmower, despite near OCD-like maintenance. (Never had that problem until recently.)
The MPG leaves a lot to be desired as well.
Cost, cowboy, the stuff costs me dearly.
Thanks - another fact that is always ignored. In fact I know of one company which has created new jobs by processing DDGS from an ethanol plant into a high-value hog feed that is being exported almost exclusively to China, where hog production is huge.
Unfortunately, ethanol is one of those things on FR were internet meme and the echo-chamber are seen as substitutes for independent research and analysis.
One of you chemists/engineers do the math for the rest of us.
How much energy does it take to produce a unit of ethanol? I think that cost is the big hidden item. Until someone posts a useable figure, let’s say ethanol costs (in terms of gallons of gasoline or BTU equivalents) oh, maybe .5 gal gasoline/per gallon ethonal, then we can create an equation that shows just how much MORE ethanol costs than just 40% less efficient than a gallon of regualr gasoline....
I’d be interested in the overall utility cost of ethanol per gallon from bare ground to end-state MPG in a E85 burning vehicle....
I will bet though, that it is much, much more than a gallon of gasoline costs to produce-even from our overseas monopolistic sources....
let us know, petro chemist!
best;
I have a chemistry background but you don't need that to do the math.
People never knew or they forgot that the ultimate goal was not/is not to produce ethanol from corn.
The goal is to produce cellulosic alcohol, which requires new technology.
The decision to kick off with corn alcohol was to get cash flow to defray R and D costs.
The math on producing alcohol from switch grass or corn stalks is different from alcohol from corn.
This has been a hot topic in the last couple of weeks because one of the corn alcohol producers has developed cellulosic technology and Obama wants to give them a loan guarantee to build the plant.
The only reason we even have that now is because the corn growers literally invented a market for their excess produce.
And they continually lobby their representatives to "protect" their interests.
Ethanol contains energy that may have a market. For example a tractor may be designed to run on ethanol, or a water heater, space heater. This will make some consumers independent from the world oil prices. But to mandate it was a mistake.
Every thing likes water. Right now 14% of your exhaust is water. I have yet to see an unvarnished breakdown on the cost of producing ethanol. I have seen costs on producing ethanol blended gas. And imo it's full of politics and spin. The blender gets ~$2 a gallon while the producer gets a ~$0.10 credit. And the farmer is painted as a gouger.
All told, it takes a barrel of oil to produce a barrel of ethanol.
Can you break it down into components? I like detials, a bit at least.
This has been posted many times. the latest is ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050329132436.htm
Study: Ethanol Production Consumes Six Units Of Energy To Produce Just One
.........According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it......
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