Energy production costs of ethanol and E85?

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2006-08-27 04:57pm

Okay. A couple days ago at work, one of the county councilmen came in like he does every morning to get his coffee. At the time, I happened to be handing over a CD of some things I'd gotten from the Internet to the local police lieutenant, who'd asked me to look some stuff up for him. I had some down time with no other customers, so I sat down at the bar and we all talked for awhile, and the topic eventually shifted to ethanol fuels and how practical they might or might not be to produce. This particular councilman is a big farmer, and is particularly interested in the topic.

So I find myself suddenly hearing that he'd pay someone to get this information for him. He didn't say how much, but I've done contract work for the town helping my dad catalogue the trees in the town parks before, and if the county pays anything near that, it'll be a worthwhile chunk of change.

So I need good studies on the production costs of E85, particularly an answer as to whether it really takes more energy to produce it than you get out of the fuel. Anything and everything credible would be nice. I'm already looking on Google and turning up some good stuff, but I thought that some of you might know enough about the subject to have some good material.

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2006-08-27 08:13pm

I don't know much about it, but I do know that Brazil is nearly energy independent, and 40% of their cars run strictly on ethanol, and the other 60% run on a gasoline/ethanol mix. Ethanol isn't as effecient as gasoline, but when you can buy it for less than a buck a gallon, would you really care if your only getting 80% the fuel economy your getting now?

That was what I got from an hour long documentary on CNN a few weeks ago. The program's name was something to the effect of The looming crisis: we've been warned. I'm not a big CNN fan, but it was an interesting story. Apparently, the power plants that turn the sugar cane into ethanol don't need any external power source. The stuff that normally is used for sugar, gets sold as sugar; the part that can be turned into ethanol is turned into ethanol; and the rest is used to power the plant itself. I have absolutely NO knowledge of the process beyond that, and I know I butchered the terminology, but it seems to work pretty well. Like yourself, I'd be interested to learn more.

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2006-08-28 06:39am

Mhm, a family friend is a PhD working in that field.
I will see if I can make contact ^_^.

Natorgator · Post by **Natorgator** » 2006-08-28 06:47am

IIRC, ethanol made from corn is a net energy loss since it takes so much resources to grow it. Brazil definitely has an absolute advantage when it comes to producing sugar cane, and it has helped them quite a bit.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2006-09-19 09:29am

Sorry to bump this, but I need as much advice as I can get, and stat. I didn't know what the material I agreed to research was going to be used for; apparently I'm doing the bulk of a feasibility study on putting an ethanol plant in Spencer County. (I had been under the impression that it was just wanted as a fact-check on some of Mike Sodrel's campaign promises in his run for the House of Representatives, but apparently that's not the extent of it.) I need to make sure my material's good; the local economy might be riding on this if ethanol should turn out to not be as good as the hype and wind up busting in favor of another fuel.

If anyone has any sources on ethanol's future prospects as a viable alternative fuel, that would be great.