Ethanol production: good or bad?
Eric Fry - Tue 06 Feb, 2007
"Unsustainable subsidised food-burning." That's how David Pimental, a researcher at Cornell University, characterises corn-based ethanol production....
That's how David Pimental, a researcher at Cornell University, characterises corn-based ethanol production. "Ethanol does not provide energy security for the future," he says. "It is not a renewable energy source, is costly in terms of production and subsidies, and its production causes serious environmental degradation." According to Pimental's research, ethanol production actually CONSUMES energy. "The total energy input to produce one gallon of ethanol is 129,600 BTU [British Thermal units]," Pimental asserted in a 1998 research paper. "However, one gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 76,000 BTU. Thus, a net energy loss of 53,600 BTU occurs for each gallon of ethanol produced. Put another way, about 71% more energy is required to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy that is contained in a gallon of ethanol." Over on the pro-ethanol side of this debate, a variety of industry experts dismiss Pimental's findings, while insisting that ethanol production does yield a net positive quantity of energy, albeit a modest one. Even in the best of circumstances, however, corn-based ethanol production contains significant drawbacks. It does, in fact, consume food to produce fuel; but it does not, in fact, yield a tremendous amount of energy relative to the energy it consumes.
"Unsustainable subsidised food-burning."
Regards
Eric Fry
for The Daily Reckoning
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