[Howie]

"A day will come when we produce the fuel for our cars from the plants that grow along the road", Henry Ford. (as close as I can remember)

Actually we could use soybean oil or alcohol from corn or some other plant today if we had to. The Germans did it during ww2. They had trucks that ran on cow manure (No sh__.)

[doug from upland]

Indeed, there are some states pushing hard for biodiesel. I write for GREEN CAR JOURNAL, an industry newsletter, and have been exposed to all of this technology. Almost two years ago I was in Stutgart driving fuel cell protypes on the Mercedes test track. The technology has significantly advanced in the last 8 years.

[mamelukesabre]

Yeah, they also had wheels made of steel springs. They did it because they had no other choice, not because it was a good idea.

[kaktuskid]

The Germans ran on synthetic oil made from coal(like S Africa uses today)...it takes more energy to produce alcohol than the energy alcohol produces.

[MainFrame65]

We currently have about 70 million acres in corn, and produce about 140 bushels per acre. Actual yield varies from 35-65 bushels on dry land to over 200 with optimal irrigation. Some of this is used to produce ethanol for fuel. This is not a simple process, because ordinary distillation will only produce about 95% ethanol / 5% water, which must then be further purified for use as fuel. A bushel of corn yields about 2.5 gallons of Ethanol, so on average that gives 340 gallons, or just over 8 barrels per acre.

We use about 21 Million barrels per day (7.5 Billion per year) of petroleum for all purposes, with gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and heating oil being the largest. The conversion ratio is such that a barrel of crude produces just a little bit MORE than a barrel of lighter weight fuel, but lets ignore that for now.

Replacing 20% of our current petroleum demand, or 1.5 Billion barrels per year, would require about 181 million acres of new average yield land, or 10% greater than the area of Texas, if I did my math right.