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I guess my concern is that the amount of energy needed to process the manure is more than it produces.

That's the case in any production of fuel. But, at 85% effeciency, it's in the right range of pumping and processing raw crude. Plus, we would be getting rid of millions of tons of waste saving us money. It's not profitable yet (no industry is at the beginning) but it has the potential of being very profitable.

Is this process 85% efficient? If that is right, it beats any other "renewable energy" in existence. Anybody got a source of good info on this? (I am a chemical engineer, so this sounds just crazy enough it might be feasible).

As far as being profitable, I worked for 5 years in ethanol and most of the time the companies I worked for/with did not make a profit. Talking with some of the old hands, if the subsidy was removed the ethanol industry would disappear. As it is, many of the small plants won't make it.

However, the economics are improving. The cattle market is up, so the demand for DDG (dried distillers grains, cattle feed) a byproduct is up, so maybe the ethanol plants will start being solidly in the black soon.