producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops is not worth the energy

[Stretch]

Cornell ecologist's study finds that producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops is not worth the energy

Turning plants such as corn, soybeans and sunflowers into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates, according to a new Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study.
Posted Apr 3, 2007 08:22 AM PST
Category: SCIENCE/HEALTH


This is an excellent example of how the Global Warming cult races headlong into advocating actions without fully understanding the implications of what it is they are talking about. All these plant conversion techniques being "sold" by the cult actually use up MORE fossil fuel than the final product replaces, i.e. every ten gallons of ethanol produced takes 13 gallons of fossil fuel to manufacture.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July05/ethanol.toocostly.ssl.html

 

[karrie]

Some of the solutions I have seen for that issue, involved parallel processing of the product. So, instead of growing corn strictly for food, or strictly for biodiesel, you would grow corn, and ship the whole field to a plant, where it would then be seperated out for food products, and the unusable matter used for fuel. By processing them at the same locations, you would be able to cut down on the fossil fuel cost of the ethanol. Another route I'd seen was to take the byproducts, and use them to power the plants that create the food in the first place. Thus, no trucking of the final product.

Energy scavenging will essentially be the way of the future. Each area will come up with its own means of meeting its needs, according to what works the best given their environment.

 

[Zzarchov]

Burning oil uses more energy too. Thats the nature of energy, you can't create new energy, only transfer its forms.

Fossil fuels just use build up energy stored over a long period of time. The issue of energy isn't a problem, with Nuclear power (fission and hopefully soon fusion) we won't be running out of power anytime soon.

The issue with Ethanol and Biodiesel is to make a seemless transition in how that power is delivered. Think of "green fuels" as a battery. You still need to charge the battery.

They are promising because they don't require a complete overhaul of our equipment.