NPR - Corn Ethanol worse than oil

[Conan71]

Unless I've gotten bunk info, I believe you can extract ethanol from any carbohydrate source.  

The dependence on corn in U.S.-based ethanol has more to do with a farm subsidy mentality by the gov't and the ag lobby, not unlike programs in the 1980's where they were paying corn farmers not to plant corn, because there was an over-abundance.

[dggriffi]

i think that is correct.   But that mentality has held out long enough that we have discovered about using other sources.

[si_uk_lon_ok]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Unless I've gotten bunk info, I believe you can extract ethanol from any carbohydrate source.  

The dependence on corn in U.S.-based ethanol has more to do with a farm subsidy mentality by the gov't and the ag lobby, not unlike programs in the 1980's where they were paying corn farmers not to plant corn, because there was an over-abundance.

That's very true and many other sources are much better at producing ethanol than corn. The sugar cane used in Brazil for instance produces ten times more energy per acre of land than corn. It makes much more sense in the move to ethanol to let countries with the right climate produce the ethanol, then we sell them the food that they would have grown on the land.

[sauerkraut]

it's never good to use a food item as a fuel source. This corn oil is bad all around since it gives you less power and you get less "bang for the buck" if your car gets 20 miles per gallon on pure gasoline, using corn oil mixed it your miles will drop to something like 18 per gallon. It really ends up costing you more. The price of the two are not that far apart, and gasoline gives you more miles and power..