Regards the buring of cane to produce the heat...why not use the corn
stalks? Probably wouldn't be enough but would cut into the coal or gas
requirements. Hell, I have enough tumble weeds to run the still for a
while, LOL...
We have lots of natural gas and coal so that shouldn't be a problem. But
we now use 20 millions barrels a day here in the US, how much ethanol
can be produced to make a dent in that?
mayf, the red necked ignorant desert rat in pahrump
Benn wrote:
>OK, gang, here's a good place to start with re Brazil's use of ethanol:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil
>
>In summary, it appears that the process used there is a net energy
>producer. (My earlier claim was that it takes as much $ to make the
>ethanol as you get out of it, was based on typical US practice in
>distilling corn-derived ethanol using fossil fuels). Brazil uses the
>waste fiber from the sugar cane to create the heat for distillation and
>still have some left over for electricity generation above and beyond
>the needs of the distillery.
>
>So, can switch grass or sugarcane be grown readily in the (presumably
>southern) USA? How much land would we need for this? Would the
>combustion products of ethanol be more benign or worse than that from
>gasoline? I dunno.
>
>See you at El Mirage on Sunday...
>Benn
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