Date:         Tue, 27 May 2008 16:19:52 -0700
Reply-To:     "Jeff @ Autostadt West" <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Jeff @ Autostadt West" <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Ethanol..Corn only?
In-Reply-To:  <71d9cdf90805271550w1e114ff2g5c08b8902cb32fff@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Close, but not quite.  See below.

Sugar cane is one of the most effective sources of ethanol.  One acre of
sugar cane can produce about 800 gallons of ethanol per year (compared to
300/year for corn).

Additionally, the energy return rate on sugar cane is 8 to 1 (i.e., 8 units
of energy returned for every 1 put in).  Corn based ethanol has an energy
return rate of ~1.4 to 1.

Sugar cane does not require an outside heat source for the distillation
process.  The leaves and cuttings from the harvesting process supply more
than enough energy for distillation.

Corn ethanol is purely political...

Cheers,

Jeff



-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Jake de Villiers
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 3:51 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Ethanol..Corn only?


The third problem and the biggest,  is that it consumes more oil in
petroleum
for production and petrochemicals than it yields, but that subject is for a
different List.   :)

On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 2:26 PM, Scott Foss - Shazam <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

> Well Don !
> I think you NAILED IT - obviously our fuel should be 10 % Rum !!!
>
> But i think you have the general gist of 'the problem' regarding
> congress mandaated corn to make fuel.......
> And as i saw in a political cartoon about ethanol -
> I think it's making a lot of farmers rich right now too, or the new Farm
> Bill will.
>
> it's expensive to make,
> and it makes food prices go up.
> ( and there was a 3rd slam on it, but i forget what it was just now ) ..
> scott
> turbovans
>
>
> Don Hanson wrote:
>
>> This talk about Ethanol mixed into pump gas.  Can one only make Ethanol
>> from
>> Corn, or does any fermenting plant produce it?  Did I imagine  reading
>> somewhere that our Gov. decreed corn to be *the* designated bio-source
for
>> ethanol over other plants that might be more productive when turned into
>> 'go-juice'?  Like sugar cane, sugar beets, etc?  Seems like using only
>> corn
>> is a waste, since corn is also a pretty widely eaten food source for
>> humans,
>> while cane and beets just make sugar, mainly...and rum...
>>  Hmmm..maybe Rum is important to those Oil Boys who are in charge right
>> now...
>>  VW van content:  Back in my Split window Hippy Van days, we used to make
>> a
>> home brew we called "Pineapple Swipe".  Took only a few days to get
pretty
>> strong, so we'd mix up a batch when we left on a long surfing trip, stash
>> it
>> in the back of the van and later on throw a big party..."Pineapple Swipe"
>> because we often swiped the base ingredient:  pineapples...Little
>> criminals
>> and hooligans that we were (are?)
>>  Don Hanson
>>
>>
>>
>>


--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27