doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Kansas Drought

If it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the gallon of ethanol can produce itself, how does that help energy self sufficiency?

Here is an interesting summary of some biofuel:

http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/biofuels/fact_ethanol.htm#4

Apparently it takes a gallon of oil to produce 12-20 gallons of ETOH. Since ethanol (ETOH) has 2/3 the energy of gasoline that becomes about 8-13 gallon-equivalents.

After distillation the leftovers are dried and used for cattle feed and apparently that drying uses a lot of the energy. The actual alcohol production uses much less.

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Adam,

Milo (grain sorghum) typically has sold for 80% of the current spot price for corn. However, that is an old rule of thumb that was really put in place for milo being sold to mills. That said, when it is sold in small truckloads, or wagon loads, to quail plantations the price is closer to the actual price of corn.

This is the first year in the past several that I have not planted any. Prices of other commodities just didn't favor milo for me. I have sold nearly all I have grown to quail plantations for supplemental feeding, and they are calling me regularly wanting to get it lined up for this winter, but I just won't have any.

Back to your question. If you had to buy it in this area I would expect it to cost you at least $7.00/bu. More if you need it delivered to your bin.

SRH

My take on it is that it lessens the dependency on foreign oil. Corn, switchgrass, whatever is used, is grown here, processed into fuel here, and used here. IOW, suffiency does not necessarily mean efficiency. I'm not defending ethanol nor bombarding it, just stating how I understand it to be.

IMO, T. Boone Pickens was right about gradually switching over most forms of transportation to burn natural gas, or propane. It is ridiculously cheap (compared to diesel and gasoline) because of the over-abundance of it here, and more efficient ways of extracting it. I ran an 454 c.i. GMC irrigation pump on propane for 31 years with hardly any maintenance. You had to make yourself change the oil, it burned so clean.

SRH

Stan, how much is propane in your area? I heat my house and shop with it and my summer sale fill was $1.05 a gallon.

It's more than that, J.R.B. I think it's over $2.00 (farm price). Haven't bought any since I retired that irrigation pump. Man, I wish I could buy it that cheap! I heat my house with it, too. If I can remember to do it I will give them a call tomorrow and ask.

SRH

One thing in your favor Stan is that you don't use as much for your house in one season as I do in North Dakota. Our state is Siberia in the winter.

The reason we will have a good number of birds THIS year, is that we are feeding them ethanol residue, imported from India and China, paid for by government subidies...Subsidies are exported to these countries through government grants.Carryover birds (good numbers) were protected from Amarillo Mikes deadly shooting last season by Kevlar flight suits provided by George Soros, distributed by Homeland security. EPA regulation will require the use of whole grain shot this year. There! that covers it

Stan, you'd likely be surprised to find out what propane's going for down your way. I just filled my tank for $1.09/gal. That's the lowest price I've seen in years.

You can find some very different figures on what it costs to produce a gallon of ethanol. But what you have to remember is that a gallon of the ethanol blend you put into your gas tank is only 10% ethanol. (Going up to 15% soon, I understand.) And you also have to remember that refining petroleum to make gasoline isn't free either. The oil industry, which (no surprise!) does not like ethanol, likes to make the production of ethanol look as expensive as possible, while being somewhat less than forthcoming about the costs of refining a gallon of gasoline.