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, Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:00:03
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I live in Wisconsin, and the ethanol that is available to me is produced by local farmers. When I put ethanol in my car I save money, I get more power from my car, I significantly lower my emissions, I put less money in the hands of oil companies, and I put more money into the hands of people in my own community, bettering my local economy. While I agree ethanol isn't the answer, a major part of the problem is that people dismiss good ideas because they aren't the solution to a problem NOBODY fully understands. Like everything else, ethanol is going through an evolutionary process. While ethanol is currently being produced from corn and only provides a nominal energy gain, a good deal of research and development is in process, and in a few years ethanol will be able to be produced from a variety of sources, and corn will no longer be the fuelstock. Currently there is one company in Oregon (I think, could have been Washington) producing large amounts of ethanol at <$1/gallon, from landfill waste. The two byproducts of their process are small amounts of metals that would otherwise stay in a landfill, and a glass-like material that makes a high strength building material. Another company is producing methanol from hydrogen, and Co2 collected from breweries; and lets not forget about all the research perfecting the production of ethanol from cellulosic biomass. So, while corn-based ethanol is not going to solve our energy crisis, no other single technology will either. However, if we stop using ethanol, there will not be enough infrastructure in place to facilitate the spread of new technologies, and research will cease because of the lack of distribution network making entrepreneurial business ventures uneconomical.
posted by 98.144.60...
, Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:50:09, Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:00:03, Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:27:52
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