Gasoline or Bread 1928Arif Khokar Says who ? There's a lot of outdated data out there ! I've seen that many ppl quote a 70s document ( that's unfavourable to ethanol ) still ! If that were true then...
On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:29:42 +0100, Pooh Bear
"buttuming state-of-the-art practices, the net energy ratio could be as much as 2.51:1." Note the "could be." According to this report (from 1995) the actual ratio is 1.38:1, *IF* the replacement energy it would take to make the by-products is considered: "buttuming an average efficiency corn farm and an average efficiency ethanol plant, the total energy used in growing the corn and processing it into ethanol and other products is 81,090 BTUs. Ethanol contains 84,100 BTUs per gallon and the replacement energy value for the other co-products is 27,579 BTUs. Thus, the total energy output is 111,679 BTUs and the net energy gain is 30,589 BTUs for an energy output-input ratio of 1.38:1." Note the 81,090 BTUs it takes to produce the 84,100 BTUs in a gallon of ethonal. That brings the ratio *for ethanol itself* to 1.03:1. It's reasonable to conclude that in the decade since this was written, the ratio is actually higher due to technological advances, but I think it's better to use a more reralistic figure that more properly represents the actual energy in to energy out. Using figures that include "replacement values" for by-products that aren't used as energy sources themselves only confuses things, and misrepresents the actual energy needed to make ethanol.
rude drivers nope. rude TRUCKERSjust made the drive west from the area of san antonio, TX all the way to las cruces, NM on I-10 today... pretty long stretch, about nine hours total. quite the...
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