If ethanol is so great why does it take more fossil fuel energy to produce it than ethanol will produce?

Question

A drought or fungus could bring the United Staes to a halt if we depend on ethanol produced from corn. It is not economically prudent to depend on this type of fuel. See the link.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071007D

Answer 1

I'm with you. Every study I've seen indicates that it takes anywhere from 0.75 to 1.25 gallons of oil to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Someone here noted that you produce ethanol from fermentation, but they failed to point out that you have to distill this (by heating) to separate the alcohol from the mash. You might as well burn the oil directly in the car as to use it for distillation.

Another point that people simply ignore is that we don't have enough farmable land area to grow enough corn to make enough ethanol to replace all our oil demands. The most optimistic projection I've seen is that we can make enough for 10% of our needs.

And, a final point that you've already made is that this will increase the demand for corn. We've already seen prices going up for milk, corn meal, meat, and vegetable oil.

In other words, ethanol can never be an alternative for oil. About the only viable use for ethanol is our energy policy is in the production of biodiesel (you need about 0.25 gallons of ethanol to make 1 gallon of biodiesel).

Answer 2

Boy, I've never seen my friend grizzbr1 make this big a mistake before.

Of course the manufacture of ethanol from corn requires energy input. One big thing is that you have to distill the ethanol out. You also have to harvest and transport the corn. Then there's the energy used to make fertilizer.

Whether the total is more or less than the energy from the ethanol depends on exactly how you do the analysis. Do you include things like transporting the ethanol? Useful byproducts? The best estimate is that ethanol, even from corn, is a small win for energy independence.

The big win will come when we develop processes for making ethanol from things like saw grass, which grow on poor land with little water.

In the meantime ethanol from corn isn't so bad. It helps develop the vehicles and infrastructure to use ethanol. It's also a small win for global warming.

We'll start doing ethanol better soon.

Answer 3

Requiring more fuel energy to produce ethanol than the ethanol itself produces is a very old statistic. When the idea was first conceived, that was true. But that problem has, of course been resolved. Some anti-ethanol people still circulate that outdated information though, as a type of propaganda.

Answer 4

Fossil fuels are definitely more efficient. With E85 your MPG is usually 30% less than that of gasoline. E85 is cleaner burning. I'm assuming you mean is it cheaper for the US to pump our own oil vs. growing corn and turning it into fuel, in which case I do not know which is cheaper and how much margin there is? I look at it this way, were only now starting to produce E85 as an alternative fuel for daily drivers and the price at the pump is almost comparable to gasoline.

Answer 5

I do not have the inside knowledge to calculate how much energy it takes to produce ethanol, that is: calculating all processing costs from the moment one put the seed in the ground. Also unfortunately rain is not a reliable ingredient for us in Australia. I also heard that after the harvest, they burn everything back to the soil for new seeding. Air pollution and global warming issues! However we need to go from A to B and how can we, if there is no oil left in the world?

Answer 6

Because the people who came up with this conclusion did not consider that the by-product left from the creation of ethanol is in itself a usable product. They assume the only result from creation of bio-fuels is ethanol. The by-product left from the creation of ethanol is in itself suitable for animal feed (the primary use for corn).

Just goes to show, you can't believe everything you read!

Answer 7

If ethanol was better and cheaper than gasoline we would have switched by now. Ethanol means subsidies to producers. Ecowarriers you should pay attention to South America and see how much of the rainforest gets cut down to produce palm oil to make ethanol. The CITES treaty ,another misguided eco brain wave, means the South Americans have difficulty exporting wood so if they can't sell it they cut it down and grow something they can sell.

Answer 8

Ethanol is great because it puts more money in the pockets of corn producers, refiners, marketers, etc.

Ethanol is great because politicians can get major contributions from corn producers, refiners and marketers while pretending to do something about our addiction to fossil fuels.

Ethanol is great because it gives us the appearance of doing something good for the country and energy independence.

Answer 9

Ethanol is going to bite us in the _ _ _! one day. Food prices are already at historical highs. It does not burn as efficiently as gasoline, so fuel economy is going down. Which means we buy more and pollute more. E85 is a hoax. Another big businees lobby group succeding in buying our government.

Answer 10

One thing Bob forgot to mention, is that animal feed and cereals that have anything to do with corn have gone up in price and will continue to do so.

Farmers are putting prices up as per consumer demands.

This seems to be a fact of life!