Yes, ethanol has been exposed as somewhat of a scam. It takes a lot to make it - a lot of corn (corn crops are terrible & I blame them for deforesting some of my forest as the farmer had a corn field for years and probably sprayed when the wind was blowing toward the trees, which bordered the corn field) and it ain't all THAT clean.
here's looking forward then to Treethanol -- ethanol made from trees.
ethanol from corn is very ineffective because it takes so much corn to make it. cane sugar is better but can't grow everywhere & in Brazil they cut down their forests to grow the sugar to fuel cars ...
I'd attach a link to the Economist article on the subject (in their most recent Technology Quarterly), which I haven't read heard an audio interview about it, but work has decided that we can't visit economist.com at work anymore. they're getting a little ridiculious with the restrictions.
I listened to a CBC podcast that talked about the corn ethanol taking a lot of corn like you said and it works out to one tank of gas for an SUV equals the amount of corn that can feed a person for a year. Holy! It's also just as expensive to refine and with land for farming disappearing more each year (from putting it under parking lots to the growing desert) it has become a battle for resources between what they called on the CBC "the battle between the plate and the tank" so anything we eat can be made into fuel but people need to eat!
I kind of imagine it like the Simpson's episode with the monorail where Bart and Homer are on the out of control monorail and Homer is trying to think of a way to save them and envisions Bart as an anchor as Bart says "think harder Homer". :) We need to think harder about this one. :)
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ethanol from corn is very ineffective because it takes so much corn to make it. cane sugar is better but can't grow everywhere & in Brazil they cut down their forests to grow the sugar to fuel cars ...
I'd attach a link to the Economist article on the subject (in their most recent Technology Quarterly), which I haven't read heard an audio interview about it, but work has decided that we can't visit economist.com at work anymore. they're getting a little ridiculious with the restrictions.
Reply
I kind of imagine it like the Simpson's episode with the monorail where Bart and Homer are on the out of control monorail and Homer is trying to think of a way to save them and envisions Bart as an anchor as Bart says "think harder Homer". :) We need to think harder about this one. :)
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