which are shipped around the country to be burned, injecting carbon into the atmosphere.
While I broadly agree with your comment, this line is a stretch. The carbon released is only from transportation and fertilizer production. The carbon inside the ethanol itself is actually pulled from the environment, so that part is actually carbon neutral.
The big problem with ethanol production is that it takes 5 gallons of fuel to produce 4 gallons of ethanol. It’s literally just pissing away time, money, and resources just to subsidize farmers.
I should say that the corn is carbon neutral but the other inputs, such as the fertilizer and the machinery used to irrigate and harvest it do product net positive carbon. In addition, the opportunity cost is that we’re not using that water and land to grow food creating secondary affects for the people that need to eat food.
And EV’s are even better at it. And public transportation.
Overall, we need to work towards on mass public transport, EV’s in smaller vehicles, and hydrogen fuels for larger vehicles. Ethanol could still be produced for the things that absolutely can’t work as an EV or fuel cell, but the scale we make it at is way larger than needed for that
Basically nobody in the current era is suggesting ethanol as an alternative to any of the things you are mentioning, and realistically ethanol is not being used as a primary fuel source. Most cars can’t even take E85 without modifications. It’s used as a fuel additive, for which is has significant public health benefits, and for industrial uses like a perfumery ingredient or a solvent
While I broadly agree with your comment, this line is a stretch. The carbon released is only from transportation and fertilizer production. The carbon inside the ethanol itself is actually pulled from the environment, so that part is actually carbon neutral.
The big problem with ethanol production is that it takes 5 gallons of fuel to produce 4 gallons of ethanol. It’s literally just pissing away time, money, and resources just to subsidize farmers.
Yeah it isn’t the strongest point, I’ll admit.
I should say that the corn is carbon neutral but the other inputs, such as the fertilizer and the machinery used to irrigate and harvest it do product net positive carbon. In addition, the opportunity cost is that we’re not using that water and land to grow food creating secondary affects for the people that need to eat food.
It’s valuable for reducing smog and makes great fuel for performance cars
@nBodyProblem @mnemonicmonkeys at a 40% efficiency hit yes. It is great for turbos!
And EV’s are even better at it. And public transportation.
Overall, we need to work towards on mass public transport, EV’s in smaller vehicles, and hydrogen fuels for larger vehicles. Ethanol could still be produced for the things that absolutely can’t work as an EV or fuel cell, but the scale we make it at is way larger than needed for that
Okay? How is that relevant?
Basically nobody in the current era is suggesting ethanol as an alternative to any of the things you are mentioning, and realistically ethanol is not being used as a primary fuel source. Most cars can’t even take E85 without modifications. It’s used as a fuel additive, for which is has significant public health benefits, and for industrial uses like a perfumery ingredient or a solvent