E85

Not even close. I do not have the info at hand, but saw a report that looked at that and we would have to plant something like 500% of the current agricultural land in the US to replace the oil we currently import. Ethanol is not an entirely bad idea, but it is not even close to a solution.

Steve T

 

Oh, yeah. It's certainly only a complementary solution, not the complete one. Though in some countries it's been a real success. Brazil wiped out it's oil imports by ramping up it's ethanol production (via sugarcane, not corn). Still, you're only looking at corn ethanol with that scenario. Cellulosic Ethanol can potentially provide a much larger portion of our energy needs WITHOUT increasing land use.

 

Right on tripp, Im with you. E85 is not the end all solution to our fuel situation, a complementary solution is the correct way to look at it. Also corn isnt the only way to make ethanol. There is an ethanol manufacturing facility near me in Corona, California that produces its ethanol from the waste products of its cheese manufacturing plants. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. E85, Biodiesels, hybrids, EV's, renewable energies.. all these used together can make a HUGE difference in our environment.

 

Truth is everyone, there is NO perfect solution to the oil problem. That seems the reason people are hesitant to endorse ethanhol, wind power, solar, and even hydrogen. It just that no matter what is tried, there always is someone to find faults. Hybrids are finally getting out from under this cloud of suspicion. Another 4 or 5 years, I hope the cloud will lift for good for hybrids. True, ethanhol does not solve the problem, but it helps. Is that not the important thing? ( opinon not sponsered by priuschat.com) :lol:

 

Bob,

At least one of the nice things about ethanol produced from grains and corn is that there is a by-product called distillers grains. These are appearently a high quality animal feed. There in a lot of cases the feedstock gets used twice. It also helps lower the operating cost of the ethanol plant because there are two revenue streams. if you couple this with biogas fueled ethanol plants (methane produced from cow manure) you also get a greener production process. In addtion to that, the left over material from the anerobic digestion of the cow crap is an excellent fertilizer than can be sold or given back to the farmers who ship to stuff to the plant for energy production. You're right though, the lower on the food chain we eat the more energy we save. It's just too bad that the critters taste so good.

 

Animals are relatively inefficient at consuming energy in biomass. There is still a lot of left after the animals are through with it.

 

It's not about finding fault, Panther. Rather, it's important that we understand the limitations of alternative energy sources. None of them, not even nuclear power, gives as much bang for the buck as oil. Not even close. Just as importantly, none of them are truly independent of oil. If our country embraced conservation of oil and used alternative sources wherever we could as much as we could, we'd be far less dependent on importing foreign oil and also less susceptible to a major disruption. Alternative energy sources are great, I'm all for them, but we need to keep in mind that none of them will be able to replace oil. We need to be asking these questions so that we aren't caught off guard when the next oil shock comes along.