Corn Power Put to the Test

[RedEarth]

AMES, Iowa — The endless fields of corn in the Midwest can be distilled into endless gallons of ethanol, a clean-burning, high-octane fuel that could end any worldwide oil shortage, reduce emissions that cause global warming, and free the United States from dependence on foreign energy.

There is only one catch: Turning corn into ethanol takes energy. For every gallon that an ethanol manufacturing plant produces, it uses the equivalent of almost two-fifths of a gallon of fuel (usually natural gas), and that does not count the fuel needed to make fertilizer for the corn, run the farm machinery or truck the ethanol to market.

The use of all that fossil fuel to make ethanol substantially reduces its value as an alternative source of energy. Not that ethanol is useless. For one thing, it is far easier than natural gas to use in motor vehicles.

Production is expected to hit five billion gallons this year, equal to more than 3 percent of gasoline supplies, and more ethanol distilleries are being built.

But if ethanol is to realize its potential, its proponents recognize that they will have to develop new ways to make it without using so much natural gas — or coal, as some distilleries are doing to save money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/science/07fuel.html?pagewanted=print

[Catch22Dem]

1. What about the other uses of petrolem

Like all the plastics and stuff. Is ethanol an alternative there too, or is it just for fuel. Sorry, I've never learned much about it.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Generally, no.

Your car engine will run on ethanol, but without the benefits of roads, tires, or indeed a hose to fill it with.

There are solutions to some of these problems, but the secondary effects of running out of oil are still barely whispered.

[Massacure]

2. Endless gallons!?!?

Excuse me while I go puke. :puke:

[Dead_Parrot]

4. what else whould you get from endless cornfields?

:eyes:

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Endless scarecrows

They'll watch over the Amber Waves for us after we are all dead.

--p!

[Oerdin]

6. As usual the NY Times gets it wrong.

People don't want to turn the corn into ethanol (though that is a traditional way) and instead want to turn surplus corn stocks, wheat stocks, and other high cellulose plant fibers into ethanol. You wouldn't count things like fertilizer since the fertilizer is already used to produce the corn which the farmer is selling so the ethanol is just a free bonus (or at least the energy costs of the fertiler should be split between the corn and the ethanol).