Burning Alcohol

[Smed]

I just read an excerpt from a book that I thought made a lot of sense.

The New Atlantis » Achieving Energy Victory

The world economy currently runs on oil, a resource controlled by our enemies. This threatens to leave us prostrate. It must change—and it can change, quickly.

In the back of my head was something I had heard a while back - that it takes more energy to make alcohol than you get from it. It seems that there are studies on both sides of the fence on this one. Personally, I don't believe it, but I think you can make it look like it does if you make some poor assumptions and use worst case scenarios....

Can anyone can inteligentally dispute what he says, with hard logic and evidence?

[Smed]

His results indicate that corn ethanol has almost twice the energy balance compared to gasoline, yet this crucial fact is seldom mentioned in the press. According to the majority of studies, corn ethanol has an energy balance between 1.3-1.8 while gasoline is substantially worse, at about 0.8 (since it takes energy to extract, transport, refine and handle gasoline). Electricity has an energy balance four times worse than corn ethanol. Do we stop using electricity? No, because as Dr. Wang concludes, this is not even the right question. Dr. Wang goes on to say that energy balance is “not a meaningful number for any fuel in evaluating its benefits."

Ethanol: A Few Myths Debunked - Seeking Alpha

[Codiac]

Originally Posted by Smed

I just read an excerpt from a book that I thought made a lot of sense.

The New Atlantis » Achieving Energy Victory




In the back of my head was something I had heard a while back - that it takes more energy to make alcohol than you get from it. It seems that there are studies on both sides of the fence on this one. Personally, I don't believe it, but I think you can make it look like it does if you make some poor assumptions and use worst case scenarios....

Can anyone can inteligentally dispute what he says, with hard logic and evidence?

Very good article!