From: Dr. Blake Nelson (bnelson301@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Jan 19 2003 - 18:39:06 EST
The thing I find odd about ethanol is that I have
heard it said that modern food production to be at a
caloric loss. That is the amount of energy that it
costs to grow the plants is greater than the amount of
energy in the parts that are eaten.
Certainly, corn with the petroleum based fertilizers,
the gas to run the equipment to plant and harvest,
etc. cannot be an efficient way to make gasoline. In
fact, with the additional energy necessary to make the
ethanol, I would figure that the energy in the
gasoline thus produced may be less than the sum total
of energy to produce that gasoline, making it not
viable as a replacement for gasoline. But I may be
misinformed on the data re the cost of ethanol.
--- John Burgeson <burgythree@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Glenn: I found the following at the
> www.whybiotech.com website:
>
> Higher Corn Yields are Making Ethanol More Energy
> Efficient
>
> New USDA study says ethanol now yields 34 percent
> more energy than it takes
> to produce it.
>
> A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture study found
> that ethanol production
> is becoming more energy-efficient all the time
> because corn yields are
> rising, less energy is required to grow it, and
> ethanol conversion
> technologies are becoming more efficient.
>
> Is this consistent with the views of the oil
> industry? What might be the
> limitations of replacing gas derived from oil with
> gas derived from corn?
>
> John W. Burgeson (Burgy)
> www.burgy.50megs.com
>
>
>
>
>
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