It seems that ethanol production in the United States has not been completely thought?

Question

through. We have just started our energy shift and believe that ethanol production is not dead, but could be tweaked such as using urban brown fields to grow crops for fuel instead of clearing wood and grasslands. What are your thoughts?http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080509/sc_afp/inflationpovertyfoodenergybiofuelsus;_ylt=ArroHdyuaQZ1ychaNj9misEDW7oF

Answer 1

Corn growers are NOT taking food out of the mouths of the poor.

http://www.hanskaco.com/index.aspx?ascxi...

Dramatically rising international corn prices have led to expensive tortillas.

http://www.ilfb.org/viewdocument.asp?did...

But who is profiting from these speculatory price rises? With all the noise the Media is making trying to blame U.S. farmers, maybe we should look at the owners of the media and their financial buddies. As usual, the real cause of financial strain can be traced to our 'overlords' in the financial district. They think they own us. And so long as we do nothing to disabuse them of the notion, they're RIGHT.

Answer 2

Scientific American had an interesting article on using switchgrass instead of corn to make ethanol: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=gras...

Unlike corn which gives at most 25% more energy than you have to put in to produce the fuel, switchgrass returns 540% as much energy. It doesn't require prime farmland, it can be grown on marginal land, it doesn't require replanting since the grass has a permanent root structure that also fixes most or all of the CO2 resulting from it's production and use. The US Dept of Energy is helping fund the building of biorefineries for cellusosic ethanol and the USDA helped test and prove the utility of switchgrass for this purpose.

The entrenched agricultural lobbies will eventually fail to keep using corn for ethanol, especially if it must compete with the fuel made from switchgrass. It wouldn't hurt to tell your congressional reps that you want this developed ASAP.

Answer 3

We are chasing our tails with Ethanol/Methanol... we are attempting to create through a chemical process using lots of energy a fuel that nature makes for free (crude oil)...  The real move should be to a modern version of steam power, utilizing pelletized (as in stove pellets) fuel made from wood trash and/or anything else that will burn.  A move that would put OPEC (and Exxon) out of business, stop the world buildup of trash in dumps, and take the manufacture of motor-fuel out of the hands of mega corporations and monopolies.....  Pelletizing machines are available cheaper than any home distillery and could comprise a new home spun mom and pop fuel source, like the small owner gasoline refineries of the 50's.

Answer 4

Forget about ethanol.  Please lobby everyone you can to switch research to bio-butanol.  It "is an inherently better fuel (than ethanol) because, unlike ethanol, it has as much energy for each gallon as gasoline does."  It is also compatible with current pipelines and pumps and can be used in existing vehicles.  Bio-butanol is made using genetically modified micro-organisms acting on sugar cane, corn byproducts, grasses and other biomass items (which means fallen leaves, forest waste branches, garbage etc).

  Not being a chemist, I don't "know" the above is true, but I sure hope so.

Answer 5

urban brown fields??? i dont think so Tim... farming is big business and needs large areas to be worth it..imposible to farm areas smaller than 300 acres [and make money]

Answer 6

The problem with ethanol is the fact that most of it is made from corn, which is a terrible crop to use to make ethanol. Although corn can be made into ethanol, the net energy from corn ethanol as compared to gasoline is 1.3 to 1 while gasoline yields 5 to 1. That means if you put 1 until of energy into the working and refining of corn into ethanol, you only get 1.3 units out. This combined with the massive amounts of fertilizer and constant clear cutting of forest to plant corn, makes corn ethanol worse for the environment than gasoline.

I actually disagree with your proposal to use brownfields as it just continues the use of corn which just doesn't make sense energy wise.

On the other hand, I love the idea of micro-algae based ethanol as it can yield 100 times more ethanol per acre than corn. Micro-algae ethanol really begins to start making sense because of the huge energy ratio and this is why large manufacturers are already building and operating micro-algae plants (see references).

Answer 7

The Left has blocked us from drilling between Florida and Cuba  but China is drilling there . Leave them alone ,as it might be the only fuel we could rely on. Eventually the Arabs will use oil as a weapon against us. When they do we will need every drop of fuel we can get. Encourage them to find better methods.

Answer 8

Yeah I agree, if we could somehow just use "corn oil or any other plant oit" as gas we can me it in to renewel energy, They will be more farms, and nature, because everyone will want to make oil, and it would be so easy that the prices, can drop to nothing, hack I even would buy my own farm lol and start growing corn!

Answer 9

Most ground mammals could be suppliers of methane gas.  Especially me.

Answer 10

My thought is that lobbyists should be run out of D.C. before the whole country goes down the drain.The corn growers lobbyists have pushed using corn for ethanol production.That is probably one of the worst choices they could use.It cost's almost as much to produce as it yields.The fertilizer it uses is very damaging to our environment also.Micro algae is a much better source for an energy source.But as long as lobbyists with large checkbook balances are allowed to buy votes we are going to keep getting poor decisions shoved down our throats by greedy politicians.