That ‘waste of corn’ nonsense is something I’ve heard for years and years.
It’s just that, nonsense, he said as he stood beside a mountain of corn.
I think quite a few farms in the US are subsidized, Big Time.
How Much Energy Does It Take to Make a Gallon of Ethanol?Assuming an average efficiency corn farm and an average efficiency ethanol plant, the total energy used in growing the corn and processing it into ethanol and other products is 81,090 BTUs. Ethanol contains 84,100 BTUs per gallon and the replacement energy value for the other co-products is 27,579 BTUs. Thus, the total energy output is 111,679 BTUs and the net energy gain is 30,589 BTUs for an energy output-input ratio of 1.38:1.
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