Corn Ethanol Isn't the Answer

[ProudDad]

http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/Summer2007cornethanol.cfm

http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/Summer2007...

"While corn-based ethanol has been touted as a way to solve the climate crisis, it simply isn’t a major improvement over gasoline when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

"In the US today, about 95 percent of our ethanol is derived from corn kernels. Because corn is such an energy-intensive plant to grow, and because the methods to process corn into ethanol are also energy intensive, it takes seven barrels of oil to produce eight barrels of corn ethanol, from field to processing plant, according to research by the traditionally right-leaning Cato Institute. So when you factor in production, ethanol curbs climate-changing vehicle emissions by a mere 12 percent over gasoline, according to a 2006 University of Minnesota study by Jason Hill and David Tilman. (With blends like E85—85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gas—that emissions reduction plummets to 2 percent.) And that’s only if the corn is grown on existing fields. Converting wildlife preserves to cropland to grow more ethanol would result in a net greenhouse gas release that would exacerbate global warming and negate any benefit, Hill told the University of Minnesota’s alumni magazine.

"An earlier study published in BioScience in 2005 concurs with Hill and Tilman’s findings. The researchers looked at the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, cropland area requirements, and other environmental consequences of growing corn and sugarcane to produce fuel ethanol, and found that “the environmental impacts far exceed any value in developing this energy resource on a large scale.”

Not to mention the artificial rise in food prices as a result of this short-sighted wrong-headed response to Climate Change...

Decentralized, Solar electric and electric cars. The technology is already HERE it just needs the kind of subsidies that oil, coal and nuclear get... the best way is to TAKE the subsidies from oil, coal and nuclear and give it to Solar Electric...

[IndyOp]

1. I just watched "End of Suburbia" last night - online - and it says the same thing...

End of Suburbia, The: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004)
http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/4/5021

Excellent documentary!

:hi:

[ProudDad]

2. Thanks

:hi:

[ProudDad]

4. Wow

Just watched it.

It was amusing to see $1.89 per gallon gas -- just 3 short years ago...

I think we WILL get solar put on the house...

[IndyOp]

5. I just found a site last night that installs solar on commercial/institution

buildings with NO capital outlay for the cells.

SunEdison
http://www.sunedison.com/index.php

I've also heard of businesses that install solar on homes and then you can pay off the cost of the panels over time - essentially paying the electric bill becomes the way you pay off the panels. Once you've paid for them, then electricity from them becomes free. I haven't found one yet online - but if you see anything, let me know.

[Inkyfuzzbottom]

3. Also add to the mix...

ethanol gets less mpg than gas.

[razzleberry]

6. one barrel of petroleum --> thirteen barrels of ethanol

now, correct for energy content...

one barrel of petroleum --> ten barrels of petroleum equivalent.


I have posted the link to the
Argonne national lab study,
a billion times already.

[NickB79]

7. And you have been debunked a billion times already

The EROEI of corn ethanol is approximately 1.5:1,, not 13:1, but you've been told this over, and over, and over again already.

[razzleberry]

8. petroleum is not the only source of energy

what about that, can't you understand?

[NickB79]

9. Oh, I fully understand that there are other energy sources than petroleum

But that isn't what we were talking about. Do you understand what EROEI means, and how it relates to ethanol production from corn?

[razzleberry]

10. the OP's author, does not seem to understand that

from the origanal post, second paragraph

>it takes seven barrels of oil to produce eight barrels of corn ethanol, from<

that is blatantly untrue.

it is probably more like this

input .................... output
petroleum .1 ....... ... 1.0 units, liquid energy
coal/nuke .3 .........
nat-gas .3 .......
total .7 units, various energy

with the energy gain being about 30%,
but the liquid energy gain being ten to one (900%)

[4dsc]

11. Boy is your math screwed up...

This is a correct statement "it takes seven barrels of oil to produce eight barrels of corn ethanol" per the EROEI of 1.14, which is the EROEI of ethanol!!

There is no such a thing as a 30% "energy gain" for ethanol.. Besides, even Dr Wang of the Argonne lab clearly stated that no one should make an arguement using energy gain as part of the equation!!

[razzleberry]

12. here is the link to the Argonne study ...

http://www.ncga.com/public_policy/PDF/03_28_05ArgonneNatlLabEthanolStudy.pdf

I direct you attention to,
page two,
top set of graphs,
rightmost set of the three sets,
rightmost three of the four indications.


the three similiar indications show
approx. 0.1

the 0.1 in the petroleun input to make
1.0 unit of (liquid) ethanol energy