Did you know that it takes more than a gallon of gas to make a gallon of ethanol?

Question

So tell me again how it will do more than raise food prices to use ethanol.

Answer 1

It's not bad to use ethanol. It is bad to subsidize ethanol. Ethanol is a great fuel that could eventually replace gasoline, we are just not ready for it yet. Capitalism will decide when and how much we use ethanol. Subsidies provide false incentive for ethanol. That is what artificially drives up food prices.

Answer 2

It doesn't take more then a gallon of gas, it takes more then a gallon of petroleum (oil) which when refined comes out to far less then a gallon of gas.

Also, the current processes for making ethanol are relatively inefficient and don't benefit from economies of scale.

This is only true if you are talking about corn ethanol - which requires the cultivation and use of corn that can be used for food / feed.  It takes far less petroleum to distill ethanol from other sources since they grow without / with less human cultivation.

Answer 3

You use gasoline to make ethanol?  Why do you do that?

Answer 4

So????????????????????????

Answer 5

Ethanol is horrible, read this

http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/pf_bio....

Ok, it takes more energy to make ethanol than it contains.  To make 1 gallon of ethanol, it take 98,000 BTU to make ethanol and ethanol only contains 76,000 BTU

http://www.slate.com/id/2122961/

Raised prices.

Corn up over 300%

Soybeans up over 400%

Wheat is up 300% in 10 months

Answer 6

The math is complex .I think that light weight vehicles is the future. Since the price of grain is predicted to skyrocket as a result of the coming ice age ,I wouldn't invest in ethanol.

Answer 7

it also slows down the process of moving oil because it has to be mixed with ethanol.

Answer 8

If that was true than it would cost $3 in gas to produce 1 gallon of ethanol.  Plus the price of the corn plus yeast.

Yet they can make it for $ .70 a gallon.   How is that possible?

Maybe since it doesn't take a gallon of gas to make a gallon of ethanol on a large scale.

But you are right it has raised the price of corn which raised other products that use or eat corn like meat and milk and other crops which are grown less because they switched to corn.  They should have used switch blade grass to avoid this but farmers would have quit growing corn to grow switch blade grass which would have raised the price of corn anyway.  All we can do now is find a way to lower the price of oil so ethanol is not as attractive.  Hint, develop battery cars.