Study:Ethanol Economy Better Off Than Hydrogen Economy

http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage352.html





Go to www.congress.org and email your representatives. Tell them we must aggressively promote and invest in renewable fuels. The Global Warming issue as well as the importance of reducing our imports of foriegn oil as quickly as possible demands that we act and act quickly and decisively.

Ethanol is the quickest and most cost effective way to make an impact on our imports of foreign oil. It will start reducing GHGs, can be used in cars currently on the road (any gasoline powered car can use ethanol blended gas up to 15%), is domestically sourced (no money going to terrorists or dubious governments). So it will strengthen our economy (improve our balance of payments) and increase jobs (and NOT JUST IN the agricultural sector) and help hold the price of gasoline down - not to mention help preserve a precious and finite natural resource (oil). ONce you burn up a gallon of gasoline you'll never get it back again. But you can always replant your fields in corn or switchgrass next year. Biodiesel is made from animal waste that is currently treated, at no small expense, as,,, waste!(a challenge to a clean environment). It can be converted into something of economic value, a clean fuel, which can replace more imported oil.

e-mail you senators and congressmen. Give it a try. You just might make a difference.

Right now, all of the corn that is grown is used for something else.

Like feeding the planet.

Hey, it's a Friday and it's past 4:20 in the afternoon. Do you know where your stash is?

I'm sorry, but biofuels are not a complete answer to our problems. Farming is already an ecological disaster.

RESPECT THE LAND.

And that ecological disaster(s) will be the direct consequence.

without fertilizers. Even the corporations can't screw it up. Why not let POT save the family farm? It is already the #1 cash crop in New Mexico.

ethanol.

Ethanol may not be able to do it all. In one to two decades Fuel Cell cars using hydrocarbons (such as ethanol or ethylene glycol) to supply the needed hydrogen for the fuel cell will be available. Fuel Cell cars are about 2 to 3 times as efficient as Internal Combustion engines. The Oak Ridge National laboratory estimates Bio fuels could meet about a third of the transportation sectors energy demands. But that conclusion is based on the ethanol being used in an ICE. If used in Fuel Cell cars that 33% of total gasoline demand becomes 66%-80% of the total demand. Sounding better?

also, in the near future we should see plug-in hybrids. IF these cars are powered up using electricity generated by wind farms - less GHGs and less imports of foreign oil!

Consevation and greater efficiency in the design and construction of electricaal appliances, buildings and homes will add a lot. In fact greater efficiency in the design and construction of appliances and buildings offers the BEST return on investment for energy savings of all options available to us!

We need to do all of these things. So go to www.congress.org and email your senators and congressmen and tell them this should be a national priority. Something like when KEnnedy said we would put a man on the moon in a decade. Nobody at the time believed we could really do it that fast. But NASA set about shooting for that target and we did it! Amazing things can be done if people stop quibbling about side issues and just set about working together to get it done! And a lot more is riding on this issue, global warming, than was riding on getting to the moon!

BTW, the WTO (World Trade Organization) ruled against the U.S. two years ago and said we were using 'Export Subsidies' to help our cotton 'farmers' (many are corporations) in making our cotton competitive with other countries' cotton. A bill has been passed by Congress and sent to Bush for signature which would repeal cotton export subsidies (cost: about $4 Billion per yr) and is awaiting his signature. Now if we stop supporting cotton with export subsidies cotton growers will LOSE money growing cotton. they will get out of cotton.. Now, given the demand for corn now (because of demand for ethanol) it's quite likely the cotton growers would elect to grow corn - as it would be profitable to do so. HOw much acreage is now planted in cotton? an amount just about equal to the acreage planted in corn sold for ethanol. So this would mean almost a doubling of the acreage planted in corn for ethanol. IF BUSH SIGNS THE LEGISLATION INTO LAW.

The simple step of improving fuel efficiency by just 1 mile per gallon, easily achieved just by having the proper tire pressure, would cut fuel consumption equal to the total amount of ethanol federally mandated for production in 2012.

To produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet current U.S. demand for automotive fuel would require a doubling of land used for all harvested crops, planted solely with corn and none of used for human food consumption.

Conservation is the best way to go.

remember, "corn based" ethanol is merely
Ethanol 1.0.
when we start using, first, the whole
corn plant, as well as other sources of
cellulosic fiber, and then other processes are
brought in using crops with much greater
ethanol productivity, including, eventually,
Algae, which may be thousands of times
more efficient, we will have a much more
productive ethanol industry.

And remember, Toyota's 2008 Prius model
aims for 94 mpg, and we're just getting
started. Auto companies that are
unwilling to compete with that standard will
simply be absorbed.

at the current rate at which we use energy or gas for our cars, ethanol (at full production) will account for only 25% of our needs.

However, we as a nation use 25% of the worlds resources. To me, the best way to solve all this is very simple. Conservation.

Did you know, that just the A/C used in cars today, would use twice the amount of ethanol produced at it's full output? That's including the land for food production.

So to me, some simple things to cut the use. Ride the bus more, ride your bicycle more, DON'T USE THE A/C IN YOUR CAR, use fluoresces in your home, set your thermostat higher, eat local food.

These aren't major things, we live as if we are entitled to this energy. We aren't, no one is. Unless we get a real grip on the situation that is ahead of us, we are in a simple word: fucked.

Ethanol is only part of the answer, not the total answer.

What's scaring me about all this ethanol propaganda is that we aren't being given the whole story. I'm getting the feeling that our nation of know nothings, never reading, never listening, never researching public is going to be in for a major ass shock when they find out that ethanol only is a partial solution.

Life is going to change folks, which side do you want to be on? the ones that survive or the ones that whine and die?

I have stated before that The Oak Ridge national Laboratory estimates Biofuels (ethanol being the biggest part) will meet about 1/3 of the total gasoline demand. Now this is predicated on ethanol being used in ICEs. There is much work being pursued by a number of companies adn research institutions, developing fuel cells which will be supplied hydrogen by various hydrocarbons (including ethanol and ethylene glycol). Reformers using much cheaper alloys than platinum alloys are being developed which will make fuel cells a pracatical realiaty in one to two decades. Now fuel cells are 2 to 3 times as efficient as ICE's. So if you consider we can supply 33% of the gasoline demand using ICEs then using fuel cells that 33% becomes something like 66% to 80%.

Also, in the future plug in hybrids will become available. IF they are charged up using power generated by wind turbines - you get reduction of gasoline usage and GHGs.

Ethanol is probably not going to be the whole answer. Greater efficiency in automobiles, building construction, electrical appliance design etc. must all play a part. Myself, I have been emphasising ethanol because it really is the most cost effective and quickest way we can start to have an impact (right away) on GHGs and imports of oil. Also, there is so much disinformation about this fuel I wanted to make people aware of the legitimate research and data out there.

While we are working on some of the more long term solutions (e.g. fuel cell cars) we can be making some progress right away. Developing ethanol is not an endorsement of wasteful use of resources. That's why it really would be better if we didn't have the massive subsidies for oil and gas. Without them, gas would cost about $5.00 a gallon and people would be making much better choices for transportation (much fewer SUVs) and we would be developing renewables much faster than we currently are.

Another important reason for developing domestic renewables to reduce oil impports is that our dependence on oil is costing us, not only money but LIVES. This is a big part of my sense of urgency on this topic. And why I urge people to go to www.congress.org and email you congressmen and senators and tell them we must aggressively push for more development and investment in renewable sources of fuel.

By the way , the very best return on investment for saving energy is in designing greater efficiency into appliances and building construction. We could save a huge amount of energy by pushing for greater efficiencies in electric motors, lights and building construction. But it has to be done through passage of laws setting up standards which manufacturers and builders will have to meet.

BTW, I use my A/C sparingly. But I LIKE driving with the windows down (unless I'm at a light and the car in the next lane is playing rap very loudly).

Promise: Ethanol will reduce our dependence on fossil fuel.

Not in our lifetimes. In 2004, the U.S. consumed 100 “quads” (quadrillion BTUs) of energy. Of that, 86 quads were from fossil fuels. And of that, 40 quads were petroleum. About 18 of those petroleum quads were refined into gasoline. If we continue to use gasoline at no more than the 2004 rate — a fair assumption if prices stay high — the ethanol mandate by 2012 will stretch those 18 quads of gasoline with five percent by volume of ethanol, or 0.6 quad, give or take due to rounding. Remembering that we use 86 quads of fossil fuels, ethanol would displace a mere 0.7 percent of that.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises-page2.html

http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20050421-01



OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 21, 2005 — Relief from soaring prices at the gas pump could come in the form of corncobs, cornstalks, switchgrass and other types of biomass, according to a joint feasibility study for the departments of Agriculture and Energy.

The recently completed Oak Ridge National Laboratory report outlines a national strategy in which 1 billion dry tons of biomass - any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis - would displace 30 percent of the nation's petroleum consumption for transportation. Supplying more than 3 percent of the nation's energy, biomass already has surpassed hydropower as the largest domestic source of renewable energy, and researchers believe much potential remains.

"Our report answers several key questions," said Bob Perlack, a member of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division and a co-author of the report. "We wanted to know how large a role biomass could play, whether the United States has the land resources and whether such a plan would be economically viable."
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The 5% mandate CAr and Driver is talking about? We will hit that about mid year 2008. At any rate, talking about where we are right now like it inevitably limits what CAN be done is moronic - really.

NOte that the Car and Driver article is guilty of a very contemptible con-man technique you might call bait and switch. They took the 5% of thE 18 wquads of gasoline demand for transportation and compared it to TOTAL FOSSIL FUEL USAGE - 86 QUADS - BUT ACTUALLY, THEY STATED 40 QUADS ARE FROM PETROLEUM. SO THEY COMPARED THE 5% (of gasoline usage) mandate to TOTAL FOSSIL FUELS USAGE -WHICH INCLUDES COAL, NATURAL GAS AND URANIUM!!! IS THIS IS SUPPPOSED TO BE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM??! SEEMS LIKE A FRAUDULENT MODE OF ARGUMENTATION TO ME. ALTHOUGH IT SEEMED TO WORK ON ONE READER (LOL).

IF THEY WANT TO TALK ABOUT ALL USES OF FUEL - NOT JUST TRANSPORTATION - THEN WE ARE NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT ETHANOL BUT WE CAN INCLUDE WIND POWER AS ANOTHER RENEWABLE WITH INTERESTING POTENTIAL -(3 TIMES THE TOTAL ENERGY USAGE OF THE U.S.)


Scientists at ORNL predict we can meet 30% of the transportation fuel requirements with bio-mass fuels. THIS IS PREDICATED ON ETHANOL BEING USED IN ICEs. FUEL CELLS ARE BEING DEVELOPED BY MANY COMPANIES (Ballard and Acta are two) AND WILL BE USED FOR TRANSPORTATION APPLICATIONS IN 10 - 20 YEARS. ACTA (and others) ARE DEVELOPING FUEL CELLS THAT USE ETHANOL (AND ETHYLENE GLYCOL) TO SUPPLY THE HYDROGEN - MUCH MORE PRACTICAL THAN USING FREE HYDROGEN GAS. FUEL CELLS ARE 2 TO 3 TIMES AS EFFICIENT AS ICEs. THAT MEANS THE 30%-33% of the fuel demand if used in ICEs becomes 60% - 90% of the fuel demand when used in Fuel Cells.

There will also be plug-in hybrids, hopefully powered-up on energy produced by Wind turbines. Those plus Bio-diesel in heavy applications and you're looking at a very high percentage of the gasoline being replaced (sorry EXXON-Mobil - and friends) 85- 95%(?).

Ethanol may not do it all, but it's part of the solution. And it's the quickest way we can start reducing imports of oil and green house gasses. IT will take may more years for hybrid vehicles (and hundreds of millions of dollars invested) to get their contribution to a 5% reduction of gasoline demand. Ethanol will be replacing 5% of the gasoline in less than two years.


Have a nice day.

A small car like the Smart should get excellent millage.