The forecast for annual US production is expected to be at 11 billion gallons. This is the equivalent of 262 million barrels. A barrel is 42 gallons. 216 million barrels results in about 718,000 barrels per day. This is the equivalent of replacing two super tankers of foreign oil daily. Sounds like a lot right? Wrong.
When we further break this down it equals less than six percent of this countries daily oil imports. When we then further factor in that ethanol contains only 59.5% of the energy of an equivalent barrel of oil we begin to see that ethanol is not the answer. Ethanol contains 26.8 megajoules of energy compared to 45 megajoules for an equivalent barrel of oil. When we consider the energy that is needed to produce ethanol, 718,000 barrels will replace less than three and a half percent of our daily consumption rate of 21 million barrels of oil a day.
As these numbers show, ethanol is less economically viable than oil. The amount of corn required to fill a twenty five gallon gas tank once with ethanol could feed one person for a year. As I have said before we need to kick our addiction to oil, but ethanol is not the way to go. I think it is great for high performance race engines, but is not viable or sustainable for wide use.
Please take a few minutes to contact our elected officials and ask them to support 100% clean electricity. We as a country are being asked to determine the future of transportation and energy in this country. If we do not tell our leaders what we want we can be sure special interests will.
As a side note to the economics of energy, the Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund is a green mutual fund that invests in clean energy companies. It has a 24.80% return rate year to date. To see more about this fund visit GAAEX on Google Finance.
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3 comments:
Dear Friend;
I agree with you corn ethanol will not be fuel for future but cane ethanol can be a alternative fuel.
Thanks
You should continue your research. A kernel of corn is comprised of equal parts oil, starch and protein. Ethanol uses the starch, and leaves the protein and oil for livestock feed, where most corn is used. Virtually all recognized studies conclude ethanol production has little impact on food.
A second major error is the impact on foreign oil. One gallon of ethanol replaces 9 gallons of foreign oil on a fossil fuel basis. Plus ethanol from corn has established a market that soon will use most other biomass as fuel stock.
The energy argument you make is not relevant. What you omit is that it requires more energy to produce gasoline from oil than it provides. Ethanol, based upon the conclusion of research by the United States research laboratory at Argonne, delivers more energy than it requires to produce.
And where did you get the number one tank of ethanol could feed a person for a year? 25 gallons of ethanol requires 8.6 bushels of corn, about 4 ounces of corn per day. I would be curious to know how life can be sustained on 150 calories per day.
John,
First thank you for your comments. I took your advice and continued my research and here is what I have come across.
I will concede on the net energy argument that more independent study needs to be done to truly determine the net balance of ethanol vs. carbon. There have been many studies done with different data, and different methods. Most opposed to ethanol as fuel claim a negative balance.
Most in favor of ethanol as fuel claim a positive balance.
As for the other side effects, We have all seen a significant rise in food costs. This is not all due to corn being diverted to ethanol production, but it has had an impact, that other technologies would not have on food prices. The price of milk is up because of the cost of corn is rising to feed dairy cows. The costs associated with corn will trickle down to the American people. Beef, chicken, eggs, and cheese will all be higher priced. One positive side effect will be the decline in America's addiction to soda and sweetend drinks which contain high fructose corn syrup.
"If the benefits are in doubt, the costs are not. It would take 450 pounds of corn to yield enough ethanol to fill the tank of an SUV. Producing enough ethanol to replace America’s imported oil alone would require putting nearly 900 million acres under cultivation—or roughly 95 percent of the active farmland in the country. Once we’ve turned our farms into filling stations, where will the food come from?"--James B. Miegs Popular Mechanics 02/08
The fact is that ethanol is not cost effective. Yes it is clean, but I am curious as to why the production of ethanol needs government subsidies if it is cost effective. Vehicles using ethanol as fuel experience a 1-3% decrease in miles per gallon. In all I have read, nowhere did I see that 1gallon of ethanol replaces 9 gallons of foreign oil. I believe that number to simply be made up.
Let us take into consideration the environmental issues surrounding ethanol production.
The industry has been a challenge to regulate and is a "fairly big emitter of contaminants," said Wayne Gieselman, administrator of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' environmental services division. This is from an AP report in October 2006
It takes approximately 300 million gallons of water to make the 100 million gallons of ethanol. This is just obscene. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed by the President mandates 15 billion gallons a year of corn ethanol useage by 2015. This is even more obscene when many parts of the country have been experiencing severe drought for many years. Our aquifers cannot take it.
Maybe ethanol is a bridge to the future, but it is not the answer. It is a scam by our politicians and big agribusiness to make us feel good. As I read somewhere the government is not so good at picking new technologies. It is time for the to fund the research and let the open market decide the future.
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