Simply enough. Ethanol has 35% fewer BTU/volume, but the gas mileage is only 30% less. Which means that it is a more efficient fuel.
The comparison was with E85, not ethanol. Apply those percentages and do the math again.
When I can buy E85 for 35% less than gas let me know.
I'm looking at efficiency as miles per gallon, miles per tank, miles per dollar. On just about every comparison E85 looses.
Granted miles per BTU is a wash, but which takes more energy to produce?
Oh, I see the problem here... The problem is that when you're comparing BTU/volume, you're comparing ethanol to gasoline. However, when discussing milage, you're comparing E85 (85% ethanol / 15% gasoline blend) to gasoline. That's where your mistake is coming from.
Mark
Would not the 5% "extra efficiency" be explained by the fact that 15 percent of the blend is gasoline?
Also, I'm pretty sure that E85 isn't priced 30% less than regular gasoline, so it's not a more price-efficient fuel.
Ethanol will get worse mileage than gasoline in an engine which is optomized for gasoline. It is possible to optimize an engine for ethanol, but it wouldn't run worth a crap on gasoline. The 105 octane rating of E85 would support about a 14:1 compression ratio, but that engine would knock something fierce if you tried to run it on gasoline.