Posted on 07/07/2006 9:06:32 AM PDT by newgeezer
By the way, the mandate has caused the price of ethanol to go through the roof. Last year, it was about $1.50/gallon. This year, it's around $4.00.
Here in Iowa, thanks to favorable tax treatment for ethanol, E10 has been priced lower than straight gasoline for many years. But now, with the high price of ethanol, E10 is priced the same or higher. Therefore, I'm burning straight gasoline again.
We might be pumping ethanol, but gasoline is and will be cheaper for a long time to come.
Bio-diesel and SVO diesel will be the future.........
Have you taken a look at how much fresh water is consumed in the production of Ethanol?
We're seeing the same high prices for E-85 here in Southern Iowa, ng. The West Coast is buying up all the ethanol for blending in their markets, which causes intense competition for the product.
These price spikes are only temporary, as more and more plants will be going online within the next year.
I confess I didn't read the entire 7 pages of your initial post. So I don't know if the potential for facilies currently being built being obsolete before they become operational was discussed. This is my biggest concern.
A new generation of manufacturing is right around the corner, using celulose. What a pity to have invested all that money and have a plant be obsolete when it comes online.
"Micro algaes present the best option for producing biodiesel in quantities sufficient to completely replace petroleum. While traditional crops have yields of around 50-150 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year, algaes can yield 5,000-20,000 gallons per acre per year. Algaes grow best off of waste streams . agricultural, animal, or human. Some other studies have looked into designing raceway algae ponds to be fed by agricultural or animal waste."
Ultimately biofuels will come up short, for the simple reason that they can't be produced in the quantities needed to run an economy the size of the USA's.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — City officials in Champaign and Urbana took notice when they heard that an ethanol plant proposed nearby would use about 2 million gallons of water per day, most likely from the aquifer that also supplies both cities.
"There was concern about impacting a pretty valuable resource," said Matt Wempe, a city planner for Urbana. "It should raise red flags."
The proposal for a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant is just one of many that have popped up in the past several months across Illinois, which already has seven operating plants and is the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer after Iowa.
High oil prices and support from Washington have inspired such interest in the corn-based gasoline additive that the Illinois Corn Growers Association now says at least 30 plants are in various stages of planning across the state.
All will use a lot of water.
It would take about 300 million gallons of water for processing the product and cooling equipment to make 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200158,00.html?sPage=business.foxnews/personalfinance/energy
If only we had land on the equator......and an economy 95% smaller, we could do the same.
See above regarding algae-produced biodiesel. It is possible, using algae, to replace all of our transportation fuel and then some. Whether it is feasible or economical is another question.
Se the link on post #5, actually we can do it, with a cost far cheaper than people think.
We did a comparison test of two fuels, regular gasoline (87 octane) and E85 (100 to 105 octane). Our test vehicle was a flex-fuel 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD LT powered by a 5.3-liter V-8 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission.
...the fuel economy on E85 was diminished more than 30 percent in two of the three tests, about what we expected. The EPA’s numbers suggest that fuel economy worsens by 28 percent on E85 compared with regular gas.
Look for Corn to go up to $3 a can. The EPA and DOE will then regulate corn. Mexicans will riot. "No Blood for Tortias!"
Great chart.
Renewable energy should be much higher. Windmills, solar, etc.
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