Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt L
Today, it may take more energy to produce ethanol than can be extracted. Or it may not. The figures on both sides are exaggerated. I'll wait and see what happens with this one. Note that they're making it in South America from sugar. Also, remember why I said I wanted to burn it. I think it would give power approaching that of race gas. Have you ever bought any race gas? That stuff isn't $3/gallon. Note that Saab has a mass-market flex-fuel vehicle on the market today that produces more power on E85 than gasoline. Others will follow.
Why are the refineries at the coasts, and what do they refine? Any connection here? I thought so. New ethanol plants are being built in the heartland.
Electric cars burn fuel, yes. But a massive electrical generator is at least twice as efficient as your gasoline engine in your car. So there is a huge potential gain here too, but some interests just won't admit it.
One way to conserve is to get where we're going while using less energy.
Come up with better arguments.
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Not sure where to start, how about your first sentence where you admit you have no idea what the facts are. You are proclaiming knowledge of a subject at the same time admitting you have no clue.
Refineries REFINE crude oil into gasoline. This is what cars burn. You mix ethanol with it. Do you know what ethanol is and why it is used? Its an oxygenator. It is meant to replace MTBE due to to environmental issues with MTBE and ground water. Refineries are usually near ports so crude can be brought in by ship. Corn is grown in the agricultural regions, mostly middle America. Putting an ethanol plant anywhere makes no difference, you either have to ship the feedstock (corn) to it or ship the ethanol to the refineries for mixing with gasoline.
And you have absolutely no idea how efficient an electrical generator is compared to my car, or at what scale those numbers might flip. You don't seem to comprehend the inefficiencies of electrical power transmission either. So you might want to have some sort of backup to your claims. AT least you admitted your lack of knowledge. Now if you can QUANTIFY your statement about how you think an electrical generator is twice as efficient as my car, I would be glad to hear it. Just to make things interesting, how many different types of generators do you think there are?
I can't tell if you are serious about conservation, or you just have a personal hangup against oil. Either way, it will be hard to generate much reepect for your opinion until you roll into work on your wooden wheeled bicycle.