Can we do it with corn? Using 20% of our corn crop, we are 98.5% as energy dependent as ever. And it costs a fortune. This is straight from the pro-ethanol US Dept. of Agriculture, Jan. 2007. On top of that, they forgot that ethanol uses up natural gas--and causes more energy imports. The fact is we're only 1.1% more independent. The real purpose is just to buy farm votes. The USDA doesn't think we can even go 5% independent on corn.
They project ethanol production will grow from 5 billion to 12 billion gallons by Bush's target date of 2017. That will make us only 96.5% as energy dependent. But, by that point, they don't think corn can support much more ethanol. Is this an energy policy, or just a way to win votes in the corn states? Here's what the USDA's chief economist said to Congress in Jan 2007.In 2006, ethanol production on an energy content basis was equivalent to only 1.5 percent of U.S. crude oil imports. —USDA
Taking into account that corn uses lots of nitrogen fertilizer, and that is made with natural gas, and any additional natural gas must be imported, the net result is that in 2006 we saved only 1.1% of energy imports, not 1.5%.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Ethanol vs Dependence?
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2 comments:
Steve,
I just found zfacts web page not too long ago. I Found http://zfacts.com/p/83.html
I like your graphics.
I wanted to point out that if you look at your fossil fuel saving, you show saving 2 GGE of fossil fuel with ethanol. You would actually save 6 GGE of fossil fuel.
You have 5 GGE of fossil fuel to make 4 GGE of gasoline. (Which is also fossil fuel) That would be 9 GGE of fossil fuel that is being replaced by the 4 GGE of ethanol.
9 GGE minus the 3 GGE of fossil fuel it took to make the ethanol.
That leaves us left with 6 GGE of fossil fuel saved.
Also the difference in MPG of gasoline and E85 are not the same as the difference in the BTU content of the two fuels.
E85 will get around 15-20 MPG less than gasoline.
Thanks for your time,
Jeremy Nicholls
Mr. Stoft--while obviously corn ethanol is not a magic bullet, and is incapable of replacing U.S. oil consumption, if the main problem with corn ethanol is the low net energy and the roughly 2/3rds of input energy that consists of fossil fuel sources of process heat and electricity in the refinery, what would your opinion be of a corn ethanol plant burning corn stovers for process heat and electricity? And--isn't this scalable to the industry as a whole--less expensively than attempting direct ethanol conversion of this cellulose ag trash?
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