PickensPlan

What's the feeling regarding ethanol?

Help me out. Is ethanol a reasonable and responsible part of this effort to escape middle east oil bills or not?

Views: 0

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Antonio on July 27, 2008 at 11:23am
In Brazil they are using ethanol from sugarcane since 1980s with great success. But here in US ethanol is made from corn which is a major source for a variety of products. Some claims that engine that uses ethanol is not powerful. In cities you don't need a powerful car!

Once again you are showing that average American does not know where the bulk of oil import is coming from. For the month of May only 29% of imported oil is from Middle East. Most is coming from our neighbors: Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Permalink Reply by Kathryn Bryant on July 27, 2008 at 3:25pm
It's still importation and Hugo Chavez is not a friend of the U.S.
Permalink Reply by Kathryn Bryant on July 27, 2008 at 3:23pm
Ethanol from switchgrass or other plants might be viable in some areas but not from corn. With currently existing technology ethanol is very expensive and dirty. It only appears to be clean because people don't think about all that goes into getting it to the pump, and it only appears to be inexpensive at the pump because taxpayer dollars are being poured into it. Once people have other options and government subsidies stop, ethanol will not be able to stand on its own.
Permalink Reply by Nathan Campbell on July 27, 2008 at 3:33pm
US ethanol profits up

The subsidy only makes oil companies want to sell gas that contains 10% ethanol. It does not directly effect the profit of making a gallon of ethanol. Ethanol is made mostly from natural gas, and as such will be cheaper compared to oil as oil prices increase. At 25 cents a gallon profit corn ethanol is more profitable then oil refining.
Permalink Reply by Kathryn Bryant on July 27, 2008 at 3:54pm
Not to those of us who like to EAT corn.
Permalink Reply by Pat Henner on July 28, 2008 at 8:02am
Appreciate all your responses. Here's the final question for me. Do we know whether ethanol from switch grass or forest waste (cellulosic distillation) or citrus peels (etc) - not grain, could ever be a fuel worth pursuing, given the energy necessary to produce it?
Permalink Reply by SJC on August 4, 2008 at 4:03pm
Of course we do. Range Fuels is building a plant in Georgia to gasify forest biomass waste and make million of gallons of ethanol at $1 per gallon. They would not be doing this is they were losing money.
Permalink Reply by Colt Lewis on October 9, 2008 at 5:42pm
Great Answer! You beat me to the punchline. People should quit balling up ethanol with the price of your stupid corn. I can't believe in 2008 in the United States of America we would have people wining about corn so much when the price of all food has gone up. Yes corn prices have increased, but so has everything else the only thing decreasing is the value of the dollar.

Quit crying about ethanol if you do not realize that ethanol can be made for $1.00 per gallon using no food crops. You winers are going to keep paying for your foreign oil. The smart people are going to make our fuel in the U.S.
Permalink Reply by J. Bruce Gabriel on August 4, 2008 at 4:33pm
I think that cellulosic ethanol has to be included in the mix of energy sources. There are a number of different conversion processes including conversion to "syngas" process that could be used.
Permalink Reply by J. Bruce Gabriel on August 4, 2008 at 4:36pm
The "syngas" process I am referring to can be found at www.Coskata.com.
Permalink Reply by Kenny on August 4, 2008 at 5:47pm
You're right on the syngas part, but think chemistry instead of biology. The Pearson Process runs the syngas through a catalyst to produce alcohols directly... No tempermental bugs to deal with... Read more on George Johnson's profile:

http://push.pickensplan.com/profile/GeorgeJohnson

I've been following this technology for about four or five years now, and it's definitely the real deal...
Permalink Reply by SJC on August 7, 2008 at 12:01am
Gasification is definitely real. It has been proven over many decades. Companies like Range Fuels and Syntec are gasifying farm and forest waste to methanol and ethanol.

It is very easy to gasify biomass waste to synthesis gas and synthesize methane. Some people associate biomass and methane with digesters. Gasification is much more cost effective and and produces many different kinds of fuels much more quickly for higher volumes at lower costs.

RSS

© 2013   Created by PickensPlan.   Powered by

Badges  |  Community Guidelines  | Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service