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Re: [RC] [RC] Cost of hay - Truman PrevattThere is nothing wrong with Ethanol per se. However, the concept of using such a product is not new - adding Ethanol to gas in certain locations to reduce smog has been going on for years. There were, however, many problems associated with it. Those need to be address before a full transition to Ethanol. Ethanol contains less energy per gram than gas (I think ethanol's energy content is about 87% of that of gas from what I read). Engines will need to be redesigned and there is no reason to believe they won't be more expensive. The expense of the cars to run ethanol, the cost of ethanol and the cost differential between ethanol and gas - when all is factored in will determine the payback time for a person converting to ethanol. Too long and people would pump on the bandwagon to convert.The thing I find interesting is the net energy gain after production of the Ethanol compared to gas is not a lot - because there is not a lot of sugar in corn. It takes energy to plant corn. It takes fertilizer (requires a lot of energy to produce ) to grow it. It takes energy to harvest and transport it. It takes energy to convert it. The best product for the production of Ethanol is not corn but sugar cane. That is what is primarily used in the countries that rely on Ethanol, e.g. Brazil. There is a lot more sugar per gram of sugar cane than per gram of corn. Time will tell if Ethanol will have much an impact. I am somewhat dubious. However, if we converted our electric production world wide to nuclear power, we would free up a lot of oil based resources and probably would not need ethanol. Anyway taking all that into account we decided to plant all beans on the family farm this year because there is going to be a projected severe shortage of beans because of the "jumping onto the ethanol bandwagon." Low supply, same demand - very good price. Now if we would just get some rain in Western KY. Truman Chastain, Shannon L. wrote: I guess I don't understand anyone dislike of ethanol. I live in the corn belt and I see thousands of pounds of corn sitting on the ground at elevators, rotting because we are not "using" it. I see hundreds of acres of great farm ground in set aside again because we are not using the crops the land could be producing. I would love to see all cars/trucks using a product from the USA instead of foreign oil then all that corn would be used. I am paying up to 30 cents less a gallon for ethanol here. Sure it does use energy to produce ethanol but it can and should use energy we produce in the USA again getting us away from foreign oil. This country is finally again seeing the value in Nuke and wind power. -- “It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong” Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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