Ethanol: Silly Senator, Corn is for Food!

[WestSkier11]

I only buy premium and mid grade because Regular is riddled with ethanol that destroys engines.

Gasoline combustion engines are becoming more and more efficient. 60mpgs are coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

[felpaluche]

Better be careful

[9971explorer]

Keep putting crappy ethanol in your gas tank and you will end up having to get the engine in your car repaired. I found out the hard way. And now i only buy gas at the only station in town that does not have ethanol in their gas.

[WelshWebb]

If one really want s a renewable energy source, let's create one based upon a politician's hot air. Imagine the possibilities! We'd have full sized vehicles capable of getting at least 1000 miles per gallon!

[nrkgalt]

This whole ethanol thing reminds me of something I saw on an old TV show. A loony scientist came up with a formula to manufacture gold. Some bad guys kidnapped him and made him show them how to do it. When they saw that one of the component parts was a bar of platinum, they lost interest.

[xexorz]

#1 - Dent corn (used to make ethanol) is not a food stuff... it is a feed stock for beef etc...

#2 - "Spent Grains" (whats left over after making ethanol from corn) is a BETTER FOOD STOCK for cattle than the corn was to begin with (it has much lower carbs which is what makes corn such a POOR food stock!!!)

GO FIGURE

CORN can become ETHANOL - !AND! - Food at the SAME TIME.

The liberals don't tell you that....

Subsidies are stupid though :-)

[Teflonish]

shit dawg let the africans die we need green energy and corn is green if you dont peel it

[daizee106]

It took the enviro-nazis long enough to see that ethanol is a bad idea. Oh well, they are a slow bunch. Better late than never

[pegcitybenzino]

Keep food products for food. You want renewable energy how about nuclear, hydrogen and solar power?

[Harold1305]

I prefer to enjoy it as an alcoholic beverage !!!

[JaredDubstep]

Hemp is the answer!

Hemp is at least four times richer in biomass/cellulose potential than its nearest rivals: cornstalks, sugarcane, kenaf, trees, etc. Hemp can produce 10 tons of biomass per acre every four months. Enough energy could be produced on 6% of the land in the U.S. to provide enough energy for our entire country (cars, heat homes, electricity, industry) -- and we use 25% of the world's energy.

[PanzerDivisionBOM]

In the absence of lazzeis faire, there is no rational means of resource allocation. It is impossible to know what potential fuel source is best, how one might "protect the environment" and how important such measures are.

6:48 is right on. If investors making rational cost-benefit analyses in a nominally private sector are not presently being drugged by interventionism, then they will find the most efficient possible solution to any social problem.

[nextthought]

Ideas for fools and crazy people; crazy people stick to there beliefs no matter what data is presented. On average per acre gross production of ethanol is 100 litres or 25 gallons but first you have to grow it; harvest it, proccess it and the deliver it. Net production of ethanol per acre is super low maybe 25 to 50 litres or 6-12 gallons. A section of land is 640arces or 1mile by 1mile sqaure; which will produce about enough fuel to run 4.5 -9 vehicles per year. America has 100million vehicles

[alleyghost]

I fear that they won't let the technology evolve if they can't have exclusive rights to it. Like, if it were too easy to produce they'd probably let the idea just die out...

I mean the industries...

[Jimbogf]

Cellulosic ethanol will be MUCH better than corn ethanol, not just a 'little' bit better. Replacing food cropland for fuel cropland will be negligible, corn stover (stalks, leaves) can be made into fuel. Switch grass fields can be grown without fertilizer, no need to plough fields, and can be grown on land that ordinary crops can't. It is a native grass, all it needs is to be mowed and hauled off. Advancements in cellulosic ethanol production will make it a much more viable fuel source.

[itbarthur4u]

Waste not want not! The first priority is cut out waste of resources. Vanity tonnage, such as driving a vehicle bigger than one needs, goes faster than one needs, and carries excessive luxuries one does not need are to be frowned upon. Efficiency will get us through this time of challenge. Waste will destroy us.

Plug in Hybrid Electric vehicles PHEVs are the most efficient solution available at present. The next best thing is driving the smallest vehicle that will meet your needs.

[sarahreaume]

I'm a major environmentalist, and while I do support this advancement, there is a slight glitch. If I were to buy a plug-in vehicle, that would mean that there would be energy needed to recharge my car. I live in an area where most home energy comes from coal-powered energy plants. Is burning coal instead of burning oil REALLY more efficient?

[ronpaul101789]

You really should go live in the woods. Oh wait, they're cutting down all the trees! I guess your screwed. lol.

[sarahreaume]

Pretty much... I've lost much hope. *sigh*

[patrick42h]

@sarahreaume That's a fair question. It's actually a really important question to ask as plug-in vehicles get closer to hitting showrooms again.

The great thing about electricity is that it can be generated in a number of ways, many of which are renewable and non-polluting. For example: wind, solar, and geothermal.

If we drove electric cars, our transportation fleet would get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner.

[Darkwizzrobe]

@itbarthur4u Thank you father government

[bastardchild17]

krayzewolf how do u expect to even get hydrogen? The only way to get it is two ways 1:Through conversion of hydrocarbon fossil fuels(i.e using fossils fuels) and electrolysis of water(i.e taking H20 and seperating them into base elements) Oviously, converting fossils fuels makes no sense, as we can just use straight oil instead of doing more work. Electrolysis shows promise but you strain water resources a lot. so hydrogen still sucks:)

[phippsed]

Your right hydrogen doesn't work. I thought eloctrolysius didn't work because there is little or no net gain in energy since the primary mechanism uses electricity.

Additional problems with hydrogen include

-storing a compressed gas at fuel stations and in the fuel tank is dangerous

-hydrogen is explosive,so explosive that it can autoignite.

-hydrogen is a gas at room temperature so the fueling apparatus would have to be airtight.

-there are additional problems but these are sufficient.

[sgtrock68]

Do they know ethanol corn isn't people food? Its animal feed. When you make ethanol all the protein is still in the left overs and can still be fed to animals. If you feed the corn streight to the animal you just through away the BTUs in the corn. Come on do the hard research.

[redbaron1943]

Think farm subsidies go to farmers? Ha, they go to every family member a farmer signs up. This includes housewives, teachers, grand-parents, and children. Millions to those who already have milliions. What a scam.....

[velvethandofdarkness]

Can't hemp be used for fuel?

Wouldn't that make more sense, if grown/used legally with government approval/oversight, than using a plant so heavily tied to the food supply?

[benjamaiLL]

Too true. This video came way too late.

[ZiggyStardust2329]

Its funny that people like me, who advocate nuclear energy, don't really have to. Nuclear energy is growing rapidly thanks to the market, and so I don't really need to argue for it because its already happening, which is natural because the market dictates which energy source is best, which nuclear energy has proved to be.

[greyflcn]

==Nuclear energy is growing rapidly thanks to the market==

Heh, that couldn't be more wrong.

Nearly every country in the world runs their Nuclear program as a Federal Monopoly.

And we're not far off from that either.

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Nuclear power is the most "Central Planning" form of electricity in the world.

[Darkwizzrobe]

@greyflcn Nuclear is a great power source and with Gen 4 reactors on the way we can reused spent fuel and make use of U-238 and have power for more than a thousand years. Also there is new research being done with Thorium that could power our world for 10s of thousands of years. As well as some more conventional reactors that are safer and more efficient.

[greyflcn]

@Darkwizzrobe

You do realize that U238 makes up something like 0.0001% of the radiation in radioactive waste, right?

Reusing it doesn't really benefit you at all from a radioactivity standpoint.

And radioactivity is the limit to dealing with nuclear waste.

[Darkwizzrobe]

@greyflcn But the U238 makes up 99.6% of the fuel meaning we have cheap fuel for thousands of years. The waste only last for about 500 years before its down to the level the ore was mined at. Also we have plenty of ways to shield waste. Alpha particles can be stopped with a sheet of paper, beta can be stopped with a sheet of aluminum and gamma with a half inch of lead or a few inches of steel and concrete.

[greyflcn]

@Darkwizzrobe

Since when was fuel costs every a concern for nuclear power plants?

The things are almost entirely capital cost driven.

And hell if we're talking about "cost of the fuel" and size of the resource, how about we use a little perspective?

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And as for "plenty of ways to shield", is that why it costs over 90 billion dollars just to build 1 Yucca Mountain scale facility?

[LibertyAtYourService]

@Darkwizzrobe

From a particle standpoint, activation and degradation of shielding materials from neutrons is the real issue. But, yes, we do have ways of containing waste very reasonably.

[KladionicaCity]

i saw recently a doc.on Discovery about future fuels,and actually they found how to produce ethanol from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash with some sort of bacteria which consume far more less water and energy to make.They already szarted to produce it ,and is gonna cost only 1$ gallon

[stick1to2the3issue]

Ethanol: no renewable. Hydrogen fuel cells (water): non renewable. Gasoline: non renewable. So what IS the answer? Renewable resources like nuclear, solar and wind. The problem is these don't mesh with the internal combustion engine. So the transistion to battery needs to be made. The problem with battery is they still need more development to bring the price down and the efficiency up. The worst thing we can do is prevent or slow the development by getting sidetracked by things like ethanol

[krayzewolf]

I don't know. Hydrogen does have a lot of potential to be a great fuel, especially for automobiles. Ethanol is definitely not the answer, but hydrogen and electric are a great direction to pursue.

[stick1to2the3issue]

Ya hyrdogen is probably 100 times better than ethanol. But water shortages can be a problem too.

[krayzewolf]

Ya, I can see your point about the danger of using fresh water. I didn't even consider a water shortage, but I think you can fuel hydrogen cells from nuclear power plants. Also what about utilizing ocean water to pull hydrogen out of? I am still learning about this and how it all works. I also have seen a video about being able, in a sense, to basically "grow" oil. HA! HA! Wouldn't that be nice.

[happymyster]

Why not pursue solar energy instead? It's the cleanest, most available fuel source out there, and the source of all biological energy on Earth, and we'd die without it anyway.

[krayzewolf]

Sure, nothing wrong with solar power. I'd like to see it used more often commercially as well as wind farms, but they aren't the best power source for internal combustible engines. ;-) Plus the by-product emissions of a hydrogen automobile, is water. So it is also an environmentally friendly means of fuel, plus it's all about keeping the horse power. HA! HA!

[happymyster]

Well when solar power is perfected it will probably mean having a new engine design. Anyway, it seems to take a lot more energy to produce hydrogen fuel than you get out of it. Also, while hydrogen releases water as a by-product, solar energy releases nothing, because there is no chemical reaction from the combustion of fuels.

[krayzewolf]

Right, when it is perfected, but we can make a faster transition now/near future to hydrogen. I'm sure 10, 20, 30, or 40 years from now solar most likely could exceed the power of hydrogen considering how much energy the sun gives off. What to do until then? We still have to consider those who can afford to update or modify their current autos, and those who can afford to get a new one altogether, and then the ones who can't make the change over just yet.

[greyflcn]

re: Krayzewolf

Why would we want to do Hydrogen instead of Electric or PHEV?

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[krayzewolf]

Simply, for the practicality. I haven't knocked electric vehicles, but like I said not everyone can buy a 45-60k car right now, and personally I many others don't really like the design of the great majority of the electric cars. However with a conversion kit to hydrogen, I can convert my truck and motorcycles to hydrogen a lot easier than to make them electric. ;-)

[frisco1529]

Solar is very environmentally destructive once you factor in the infrastructure needed to make it work.

[blur880]

Not if you just throw solar panels on your roof and use the existing grid to sell extra power back to the power company.

Every American should power their own house!

[Pathfinder767]

Imagine a wind mill in every back yard, solar panels on every roof and a hybrid car in every garage in America.

[blur880]

Pathfinder767. I know a number of people who power their own homes and sell their surplus power back to the grid; and, they don't even have a wind turbine. All you have to have is some solar panels, and some really effeciant planning, like geothermal heating.

[not8upwthit]

puffpuffpass asshole