Bush State of the Union: Work with me

[JET]

Ethanol isn't bad, corn based ethanol is. Corn has nearly doubled in price in the last year, good for the farmer but the consumer will start seeing more signs of it shortly. There are some new ways to make ethanol that are just coming around now, cellulistic ethanol seems to be the one with the most promise. This can be use on the switch grass that AJ was talking about. There are a lot of things coming out that could really change the future of energy, it is a pretty exciting time!

[Jakey]

Originally Posted by JET

There are some new ways to make ethanol that are just coming around now, cellulistic ethanol seems to be the one with the most promise.

Yes and no. The problem with cellulistic ethanol is that there has yet to be any recommendations on how much biomass can be safely removed from fields without causing detrimental effects to the soil structure and whole carbon sequestration process. Plus, the issue of harvesting biomass is still in the air. My roommates are both heavily involved with biomass harvest through their graduate research:
http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/ne...c/stover.shtml

Originally Posted by rst95eclipse

From what I've read about Brazil, they should have claimed energy independance last year and they make their ethanol from sugarcane. Every new car that hits the road can run gasoline or ethanol. And Ford is putting most of them out.

Correct and they're getting an incredible amount of ethanol out of their inputs compared to what we are simply because they're using sugarcane.

[rst95eclipse]

Originally Posted by Jakey

Correct and they're getting an incredible amount of ethanol out of their inputs compared to what we are simply because they're using sugarcane.

What was most interesting about what I've read about Brazil is that the factories that make the ethanol do not use energy from an outside source. Therefore, the production of their main source for energy is completely renewable. Apparently they burn the waste material from the sugarcane to make power, which the plants run on.