James,
Great site. Keep up the great work. Here are two interesting links about the market dominance of ethanol in Brazil: CBS News and Washington Post.
Brazil plans to be energy independent by next year, based on conversion of sugar cane to ethanol.
In comparison, the ethanol extracted from corn yields only about 15 to 25 percent more fuel than the fossil fuels that were used to produce it. In Brazil, according to industry studies, the sugar-based ethanol yields about 830 percent more. Sugar cane may not the answer here in the US, but it does show what can happen when an entire country focuses on becoming energy dependent. Cheers, – Rookie in VA
Mr. Rawles
I come from ethanol country. There has not been an increase in corn planting to provide fuel for the ethanol plants that are springing up nearby. The broken farm subsidy system that in years past has had field corn rotting on the ground is also funding the ethanol process. These studies that show the amount of energy used to produce ethanol are not pointing out that we are not using new production corn to produce ethanol. The production energy(most of it anyway) will already be used up as farmers in this country continue to over-produce feed corn. Corn that has been used to produce ethanol can also be used for feed. Assuming Washington is not interested in fixing the subsidy system shouldn’t we be doing our best to get the most out of our money? By producing ethanol we are getting more usage out of each bushel of corn.
Hello again,
As I was reading Jim’s letter regarding alternative fuels I noticed him discussing biodiesel and its inadequacy for large scale usage. I believe he is mistaken. And Tim P’s letter is incorrect in that biodiesel currently sells for about the same price as regular diesel. And, at least for now, you get a tax break for using it.
My father is the Director of Maintenance at a Transit Authority in the Midwestern United States. With the rise in fuel costs, he has done a good deal of research into the matter. During the summer months, every bus they have on the streets runs on 100% biodiesel. During spring and fall they go to 70% and then down to 20-30% during winter because it does tend to cloud up. That’s 327 buses and 12,956,000 or so street miles every year. 3,000,000 or so miles on 100 % Biodiesel. Almost 13 million on some sort of mixture. At the very least that could prolong things for a while. That is in no way a little utilization.
As far as biodiesel’s petroleum use/output ratio, I don’t know for sure. It is worth considering that Proctor and Gamble produces soy biodiesel as a BYPRODUCT of making soap, cosmetics, etc. They use it to produce Olestra (the fat replacement oil for cooking chips etc.) They refine/distil soy to get glycerin for soap (P&G makes a little soap) and other goods and soy biodiesel is left over.
Could we then use biodiesel to distil more soy to get more soap/ biodiesel at an efficient rate? I don’t know, but I would think it merits consideration. – DD