permaculture

["dheritage@juno.com" <dheritage@juno.com>]

Someone wrote -

> I want to burst this bubble.
>
> > In the best case scenario, petroleum to ethanol ratio was 0.8 : 1.0 
when
> everything was taken into account.


>From what I've read the latest research indicates that ethanol production 
>from corn has a positive conversion ratio. According to -

http://www.ethanol-gec.org/corn_eth.htm

“We show that corn ethanol is energy efficient as indicated by an energy 
ratio of 1.24.”

And according to -
http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/grass95.html

One acre of corn grain contains 50 million BTU and requires 7.6 million BTU 
to produce, for an energy output/input ratio of 6.6. When the corn stover is 
included, the energy efficiency ratio improves to 8.8.

In comparison, switchgrass will produce 20.6 times the energy required to 
produce it if it is transported directly to the ethanol plant. The higher 
ratio for switchgrass occurs largely because it is a perennial (remaining in 
production for ten years or more before replanting) and because of its lower 
chemical and fertilizer requirements. 




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