[The_Victor]

How much energy is required to produce the ethanol?

I'm guessing this is still an energy sink, not an energy source.

[Jeff Chandler]

The next step is to produce ethanol from petroleum.

[VetoBill]

July 2002 by the United States Department of Agriculture analyzes many of the previous studies on the energy balance of producing ethanol. The conclusion by the study's authors is that there is 34% more energy in a gallon of ethanol than it takes to produce it.

Here (PDF file)

[Lee'sGhost]

"The media thinks they are a peer review."

You misunderstood. The media thinks they are a QUEER review.

[Cobra Scott]

All the obstacles of ethanol production come into play. For a substitute to liquid hydrocarbons, why take it to another step?

Although, the real good part, that I see, is possible easy/efficient conversion of extraterrestrial alcohols into hydrogen fuels. Who says the mars objective won't bring tech benefits to the future of China? ;)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Probably more BTUs go in to cooking corn than the BTUs coming out as ethanol. The rank of the fuel used should be considered, however...

[American_Centurion]

Not just the ethanol, but an article about this from yesterday mentioned a catylist. You don't just pick catylists up off the ground, they have to be produced also, especially if you intend to have any consistency at all in your reactions.

[Kozak]

How much energy is required to produce the ethanol? I'm guessing this is still an energy sink, not an energy source

And what are the waste products produced? Co2, Co, ?????

[babyface00]

How much energy is required to produce the ethanol?

Isn't there some amount of energy required to produce gasoline from petroleum? Crude is pretty useless in and of itself.

I'm not disputing your point, just curious how the costs compare if you consider the entire process - i.e. extracting crude from the ground all the way to gasoline vs planting corn all the way to hydrogen.

[oyez]

Looks like a big waste of ethanol to me. It wound be more beneficial to burn the alcohol as fuel. Cheers!

[Dogrobber]

Yes, it is; but the issue is not total energy efficiency, rather available energy in a bio-friendly form. Ethenol is easy to transport, relatively safe (safer than gas or raw hydrogen) and can be manufactured by use of bio-stock.

If we postulate advances in the bio-production of ethenol (better yeasts eating rougher bio-mass) the system, as a whole will get better efficiency. I don't think it will ever do as well as petrochemicals or centralized power systems, but it will provide a better mix for public consumption.

On a totally "ungreen" level, it is probably better to have a diverse mix of techno which provides power to this county. The metro east has more than sufficient problems maintaining the net it has now and removing some of the load on that system would not be bad. The only really issue (as with all alternative power schemes) is whether or not it is ecomonically viable. If it is, or becomes so, people will use it. If not, it goes on the ash heap of invention.