Ethanol: Friend or Foe?
The topic of ethanol comes up frequently in my family. One of my brothers thinks it's the answer to all our problems. Another thinks it's a complete waste of time because the inferior performance and taxes on our environment outweigh the positives.
I was driving down the road with my dad the other day, and apropos of nothing, he shook his head and said, "With all the people dying of hunger in this world, it's a damn shame we're busy turning food into fuel for our cars."
Gah. At the very least... ironic. Right?
What do you think about the fuel situation and the ethanol "solution"? Do you have any better ideas?
Let's be friends!
4 comments--Add your own!!:
http://cleantech.com/news/2360/why-ethanol-production-will-drive-world-food-prices-even-higher-in-2008
Indeed. Your father is right.
One problem with ethanol as a long-term fuel is that its true price is distorted, since there are huge corn subsidies. It's not very efficient at all.
Corn-based ethanol doesn't seem worth it. It's got less energy per unit than gasoline (which means you'd be filling up more often), but costs nearly the same to produce by some estimates (so you'd pay about the same per fill-up ... ). It also takes an inordinate amount of produce that's actually usable as food.
http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/cost_of_ethanol
Cellulosic ethanol, on the other hand, *could* be cheaper and seems more sensible; waste plant material (the non-edible parts) are used to produce ethanol. Currently, it's not cheaper, and it has yet to benefit from economy of scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol
Of course, there's a lot of complexity hidden in any proper discussion of ethanol ...
Your Dad's right, especially since we have an abundant supply of fuel not made from food.
There is a guy that can run his car using used cooking oil. I'm not sure how it works, but with all the fast food places and the amount of cooking oil they use daily, it seems that there should be enough oil to go around.
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