Food for Fuel

[mjarrels]

As most of you know, the current lack of rainfall has hit American farmers hard. Corn crop is basically non existent this year. Listened to the assistant Department of Aig on the radio last week. When asked if bio-fuel requirements would be relaxed this year, he said absolutely not. Actions speak for this admistration.

mark

 

[Locoweed]

Geez, you weren't expecting intelligent behavior from the gov't were you?

 

[vabiker23518]

I'm not an expert, but I wonder: How much gas does it take to make a gallon of ethenol fuel? You use your tractor to prepare the ground, plant, tend to and then harvest the corn...how much fuel was used? Then, you distill, with lots of heat, the ethanol...again, how much fuel used? I bet less fuel is produced than consumed in making ethanol.

 

[Bigfoot62]

I'm not an expert, but I wonder: How much gas does it take to make a gallon of ethenol fuel? . . . I bet less fuel is produced than consumed in making ethanol.

There was a lengthy article in PopMech magazine, probably 2-3 years ago. IIRC, it takes 1.3 gallons equivalent of gasoline to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Now that's efficiency! :confused3:
To add insult to injury, the Federal Govt subsidizes the refinery (with our tax dollars, of course) something like 65 cents per gallon for all of the "blended" fuel they produce.

 

[dmccarty]

There was a lengthy article in PopMech magazine, probably 2-3 years ago. IIRC, it takes 1.3 gallons equivalent of gasoline to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Now that's efficiency! :confused3:
To add insult to injury, the Federal Govt subsidizes the refinery (with our tax dollars, of course) something like 65 cents per gallon for all of the "blended" fuel they produce.

The Ethanol subsidy ended this year or last....

However, there is still a Federal mandate to use Ethanol, so instead of paying a tax to the Feds who give it to the Ethanol producer, we buy the fuel from a gas company and they pay the Ethanol producer.

There was a story in yesterdays Wall Street Journal about how much corn production is used to make fuel....

What percentage of corn is converted to Ethanol?

Pick a percentage.....

Got a number in your head....

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About 45% of US corn will be converted to Ethanol. I think the percentage is going to be a bit high this year because overall corn production will be a lower because of the drought in some parts of the country.

I was surprised that the number was that high. I figured maybe 20%.

Later,
Dan

 

[johnrex62]

It is not really our Food for Fuel, though is it? As I understand from a documentary on corn production I saw a couple years ago.... most of the US corn production is a hybrid corn that is high starch and not directly edible by humans. It is used mostly for animal feeds, ethanol, and corn syrup production. It is not the sweet corn you find in the stores, that is produced largely in Mexico and South America and imported for US consumption.

 

[crazyal]

One thing that also ended was a tariff on cheaper ethanol from South American sugar (not eatable). So with some luck we will move away from corn based Ethanol and return to lower prices for food.

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . So with some luck we will move away from corn based Ethanol and return to lower prices for food.

I hope you're correct, but I have my doubts. In my experience, most price increases, with any commodity, seem to hang around forever. Price goes up quick, but falls slowly, if at all.

 

[Soundguy]

It is not really our Food for Fuel, though is it? As I understand from a documentary on corn production I saw a couple years ago.... most of the US corn production is a hybrid corn that is high starch and not directly edible by humans. It is used mostly for animal feeds, ethanol, and corn syrup production. It is not the sweet corn you find in the stores, that is produced largely in Mexico and South America and imported for US consumption.

and where does that land come from?

if you have 5000ac to grow on, and most of it is ethanol corn.. or animal feed corn.. where you growing the human feed corn?

no free lunch.

corn to ethanol is a bad scam.. switchgrass or sugarcane pressings are better biomass.. and not in direct competition with resources for human or animal feed stuffs.

 

[Bigfoot62]

and where does that land come from?

if you have 5000ac to grow on, and most of it is ethanol corn.. or animal feed corn.. where you growing the human feed corn?

no free lunch.

corn to ethanol is a bad scam.. switchgrass or sugarcane pressings are better biomass.. and not in direct competition with resources for human or animal feed stuffs.

Well said. :thumbsup: