There is a difference. Let’s at least agree that ethanol is a liquid fuel that can be used in a diluted state in internal combustion engines. It has a lot of problems, but it is a fuel.
Ethanol is a profitable product of grain fermentation when the DDGS are part of the economic equation. The main problem is that it is still being heavily subsidized.
“Cellulosic ethanol” is a scam. The yield of ethanol is miniscule to barely existent, and there are no useful co-products. The more ethanol on the market, the cheaper it becomes and the more important co-products become.
Between cost of feedstock production, transportation, storage, processing, fermentation, and storage, there is no equation that will bring the process into the black. It is a scam of monumental proportions.
>>“Cellulosic ethanol” is a scam.
I get the impression from the neighbors of some folks who’ve been conned into literally betting the Farm on Tommy Daschle’s Ethanol bidness that Corn ethanol is a scam too.
It certainly would not be profitable without subsidization AND government mandate for its consumption.