Old news..biodiesel is the way

This info. has been around for a while, not really new’s LLN.

So are we going to put the blame on Brazil or not?

I have been preaching that ethanol is not the replacement for fossil fuel. Nuclear, Wind and solar are the possible replacement with lithium-ion battery and hydrogen as possible storage media for transportation. Yes there is energy loss from converting these energy sources to hydrogen but the advantage is, you can store hydrogen. Battery has their place in the mix, but is not very practical by them self because of the time they take to charge.

Yeah I agree Biodiesel is also a very good alternative

No Duh!

I had thought Ethanol was interesting and maybe even an answer, but the production was woefully inadequate to satisfy demand or even supplement supply. Work is being done to find more effective, less carbon intensive methods of making biofuels.

But for now, I’m more interested in improving fuel economy and hydrogen and improving power generation to support pure-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

This is no big surprise. Too much attention was paid to the end product instead of how it was made. Now more attention is being set on how to make bio-fuels and so they should start getting cleaner quickly.

The whole corn-based idea is heavily pushed by major corn conglomerates like ADM and their political supporters in Washington. It increases demand as corn is also used as human food, animal feed, and industrial production. Brazilian ethanol is primarily based on sugarcane, not corn, and is more relatively more environmentally compatible. The real payoff is when we figure out how to make cellulosic ethanol (from switchgrass and other fiberous plants). For example, we could use a cellulosic process to process the entire corn plant into ethanol, not just the cobs.

Old news, and more proof that the “environmental” movement isn’t about the environment at all. It’s about politics and economics, and who can hijack the “climate change” farce to fit their own agenda.

Stupid asses on the hill got played again. Like thats a big surprise. Where is this countries leadership? Somebody needs to step up in the U.S. and take a leading role in finding direction and solutions to our woeful energy policies, infrastructures and most importantly technologies. Turn NASA and all the weapons labs into an energy think tanks for a year. Hell why cant all the top nations work on it in pieces like the human genome project.

A perfect example of hysteria based business and government involvement. A culture and society cannot be run and railroaded by the excitable and naïve. It will be the downfall of all.

global_lightning, “The real payoff is when we figure out how to make cellulosic ethanol (from switchgrass and other fiberous plants).” This is being done with a new process: AE Biofuels

just when i was about to stock up on corn in my stock portfolio

since when does E85 ever work?

HAHA how about some more CORN commercials GM

global_lightning’s right on. Ethanol has long since been a politically charged issue and not a very practical one. It’s the classic case of politicians saying what they know they have to say to please their Midwest constituents, versus what’s best in the long haul.

Cellulosic ethanol is much more appealing, because Amercan mouths don’t have to compete with fuel tanks, but the logistical problems alone of transporting ethanol will make it suspect…. Of course, Brazil is almost as big as the U.S., and they seemed to have made it work….

Ricardohead: 3
Al Gore: -5

Actually Al Gore never said Ethanol was the answer, but one of many. More over George Bush pushed and signed off policy to make more Ethanol.

Al Gore can not a did not make the policy or push Ethanol. He only sighted, repeatedly and emphatically, that we need to work on reducing, if not reversing, global warming.

Even if he did and does support bio-fuels, he has probably known about this problem long before we did or this article ever crossed LLN’s servers.

He has a larger range of concerns than just Bio-fuels. His goal has been to make people very aware of the problem, which is why we has the articles here and elsewhere, web-wide, to begin with.

Al Gore has been batting a thousand.

He’s not an engineer or a scientist. He did not develop the process to create Ethanol from Corn… He would not have approved of it if he did. What he did do resulted in interest in ethanol, which in and of itself is a good thing even if the process sucks, and this article.

Put the blame where it belongs, the standing politicians who do write policy and dole out the funding for crappy processes in order to make their “fat cat” friends happy.

Not the Farmers. They have enough problems just keeping their farms. They just want to make a living. But lobbyists and those they represent who want more subsidies for Corn, one of the most petroleum intensive crops around.

Scarface,

You have it right. We need to find a better source for ethanol. The problem is getting farmers to grow the stuff, which are essentially weeds, to mow down in order to process into fuel. Those weeds required nothing but space, sunlight, and water, sounds pretty cheap compared to Corn.

But Farmers are not going to if they can get money for planting corn instead of fuel weeds.

The Farm Bill needs to be amended but no one on the hill has the stones to do it.

Transporting it may be hard at first, but not that hard. We’ve been transporting mass loads of Alcohol of on type or another in tankers for decades, nigh on a century at least. Ethanol may require a slight difference in methodology, but it can be done.

It’s best to work it out now while the problem in only looming a ways off, rather than wait until it’s standing on your toes.

So who didnt know this?

Sorry you hate the guy so much. Not my problem.

WVO anyone?

LOL, I just like how Al is brought into these threads all the time but the people who wish he would go away…

I suppose giving all of our money to the Saudis and crazy muslim extremist countries is a better solution?? The story doesn’t even address the big picture with corn ethanol…dried distillers grain. Most of the corn in production goes to feed animals so we can eat them. If you first distill the corn, then feed the “waste” product to the animals, they gain weight faster and need less time to mature. Big ag thats not associated with ethanol is scared to death of this change in the feed chain. Corn should all be distilled first then fed to the animals…its the best practice. Oh yah, by the way, is big oil upset about ethanol?? Lets put it this way…currently in our state there is still NO ethanol, E85 pumps here…0! Thousands of GASOLINE stations, 0 E85 pumps! And tons of misinformation to boot.

Gore is full of it.

global_lightning- Where does it say that Brazilian ethanol based off of Sugarcane is more enviromentally friendly?

jdash1- Holds some truth.
There’s a few E85 pumps here in NY, but I know of a few farms that produce it, and you can simply go straight to them.

Blakkar is right about Gore, he’s closer to batting a thousand than weighing a thousand.

I’ve said before, I’m not an eco-alarmist, but I’ve been exposed to both sides of the global warming argument, and I think Gore’s been most intelligent and scientific in putting his argument together.

I also admire him for his dedication to his cause. I would have put good money on his running for president. Imagine a Nobel Laureate who’s steadily gained in popularity even since he left politics. And keep in mind, when he left politics, the majority of Americans had voted him President. But, he steered clear mostly to keep his focus on spreading his message.

But to champion the opposite side, you have the occasional minimally to moderately informed Lutzes swearing off-handedly to the press, and industry lobbyists citing to high temperatures the year we fought the American Revolution as a preamble to an “Up yours, Gore!….” Industry polluters have everything to gain by making global warming a nonissue. There’s a study or two that may support them, but where’s the consensus?

The best part of Gore’s batting average is how he never even suited up for the game back in the 90s when he could have attempted to make these “changes” he’s now preaching to us about. And don’t tell me he just had these visions, because he wrote that piece of **** book Earth in the Balance before he because VP.

So, before you decide to blow Gore you enviro freaks, remember which president increased the CAFE standards or which president created the EPA. All Gore is known for is bull**** talk, and no action. From his record in the Senate, to his record as VP, to his 20,000 sq/ft house, to his SUV driving and private jet flying, to his strip mining family. He’s probably the most environmentally unfriendly “leader” in our nations recent history. But keep on stroking his ego and balls you global warmists.

Batting a thousand indeed. Batting .120 is more like it.

Whether or not you’re right, I read your name as “dumb pearl”, so I’m not sure I should trust your opinions…

I just find it funny how much venom people have for Gore, especially if he’s as “do nothing” as they say. I don’t know how many times he’s been accused of saying he invented the internet on these boards – that it’s not true be damned.

BUT, I’d like to know who funded this study, or maybe more to the point, which oil company funded it. Of course it takes more energy to produce ethanol. There’s no such thing as free energy (or they’d have been able to make a perpetual motion machine by now). Obviously, if you just find something lying around and use it, it’s easier than making it from scratch, then using it.

The real benefit of ethanol is breaking our dependence on Arab oil and benefiting someone inside our borders for a change.

The above is partially true only. They looked at using oil fueled tractors in their study. Now what if the tractors were ethonal fueled? What a concept.

wow! did they find this out now??? old news

George W.Has discovered that gas prices are going up!