Do you think its a good idea we use Corn as fuel ?

Question

Did you realize how many food products contain corn in them ? Food prices would skyrocket, Its already affecting Mexican peasants where tortilla prices are skyrocketing, I my self think its a bad move we should try a crop that we don't eat like Sugar Beets.

Answer 1

The land area taken to produce enough bio fuel to fill ONE tank is the same required to feed 10 people for a YEAR.

This is a hopelessly inefficient way to produce fuel.

More worrying, it is creating a distorion in the market for grain. Not only is this hurting the poorest people on Earth, it is prompting accelerating deforestation to create open land for grain. Often this land is only viable for grain for a few seasons. Hence biofuels may actually lead to increased CO2 levels.

Answer 2

The actual truth is that while using corn (or any other grain) to produce ethanol does remove some food products from the chain, it does not remove it all. In the case of corn, only the starch is converted to ethanol. The protein is left behind in material known as distillers dry. This is a prefectly edible material and can be used for food. It is, in fact, probably healthier than whole corn since it is a high protien, low carbohydrate food. The yeast extract from the distillation process is also edible.

Answer 3

do you realize more then 30% of fertile lands lie fallow in the US alone b/c of Federal Subsidies? ie...farmers are paid more to let the land lay fallow then to grow something on it and take product to market. Fire up the ethanol fueled tractors on that land and get planting...

Corn is recyclable/renewable, while farmers cannot produce enough to totally eliminate the existing fossil fuels, it IS enough to slow down fossil fuel use while we continue our search for something better... I will disagree with the first poster saying one tankful requires more corn then can feed a single human for a year. Where did you get your data? People like Bill Gates do not invest in companies like PEIX, and companies like GM (not neccesarily the smartest company/example) would not make the move to E-85 if such data were a: real and b: available and proven..



Something is better then nothing, b/c the more we do nothing, the sooner we run out of Middle Eastern Gold..


And on a "health" note. Corn is one of the worst food products you can pass through your colon...ever notice how the shell of the corn is NEVER broken down by the digestive juices in your stomach/digestive tract? You're talking one food source that has a track record of causing more health problems then solving (corn oil bad for the heart, High Fructose Corn Syrup causes what psyhobabblers call ADD/ADHD). Eliminating corn from the diet is a healthy move, especially if it can be moved from the stomach to the fuel tank..(wow I must be hungry that's two food references in one answer)..

Corn however is used b/c it creates ethanol as a by product, however any other product that creates any oil "safflower,soybean,coconut,olive etc.." can be used as a fuel-product. It's called BIO-Diesel and has been around for YEARS. In fact when the Diesel engine was created it was built to run on said fuel sources..

Answer 4

Better yet would be something like saw grass. Grows where food crops can't, more efficient source of biofuels.

The problem is everyone is set up to produce large amounts of corn. Mostly, as noted above, to feed animals, which, vegetarianism aside, is an inefficient way to make food.

The other biofuel crops will take work to get going. It will happen.

Answer 5

Tortilla prices have have problems since the passing of NAFTA. The US subsidation of corn and agrobusiness makes US corn cheaper than domestic corn in Mexico. In fact, the US loaned Mexico a 30% billion loan to bail them from a depression because of the corn inflation.
They are completely unrelated issues.

Let's not forget to mention that 90% of corn goes to feed for animals. So, the price of your beef will go up, not the corn. And as for me, a vegetarian, I could care less.
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To propose something that isn't corn is to go against the agricultural interests of America, which i slike lobbying against tobacco.

Answer 6

Any bio fuel crop is not as good as you'd think because it will require vast areas to be taken away from food production.

One car tank of bioethanol uses the same amount of corn that will keep somebody alive for a year.

Answer 7

I believe that it is Brazil which uses sugarcane for its biofuel for the past fifteen years. The United States doesn't have a lot of sugarcane but the U.S. does have lots of corn.

It seems that corn is not as effecient to convert into biofuel as sugarcane. It costs more to make the biofuel from corn than from sugarcane.

The resultant ethanol derived from corn seems to be of inferior quality and gums up valves and other movable parts.

Other than being a poor source of biofuel there really is nothing wrong with using corn for conversion into ethanol.

Answer 8

certainly -no- undesirable time to pass to ethanol , specific ,as maximum understand ethanol grew to become into used for gas and ( very ) actual produced (and drank often ) at or till now gas grew to become into to be mass produced ! to gas our vee hicles (hee ! ) besides the two greed or loss of corn,potato,and different stuff -production ? who is conscious we coulda had each and all of the mid-west nevertheless spurting black stuff ! yet every time you dug a hollow oil got here out so the corn does not advance in the stuff i assume if we expend it then we are able to advance the stable stuff on that soil ?? with-me? so now we've not have been given any oil ( heavy ) production ,consequently with each and all of the correct subject concerns ,we are actually falling back and going after guy (helped )made aspects, and we want purely wait from seed to tank ( approximately 9-12 mo's.) purely like a sprint one ,returned !

Answer 9

HI
I think they should use soy beans. Corn is not a good idea. They use soy bean to make air plane fuel because it is less combustible and soy isn't that great of a food in high demand.
Lammy

Answer 10

I think that using corn might be bad, as you said, for other products and they will sky rocket, and it will use more space, space the world doesn't really have, but I think it's better than using gases that can destroy the earth.