Quote:
Originally Posted by MiaTurbo
Anyways, I don't think we have anything to worry about about running out of corn. The corn they use for ethanol fuel is a special hybrid, so it's not like they're taking it off the kitchen table, or feed stock.
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The problem is not how much corn there is, it is how much land it takes. That land could be used for food crops, but is now used for fuel. As a result, the price of many products has gone up (corn, meat, etc).
Since corn is a very high input energy crop, and since the amount of ethanol retrieved from corn is so small, it doesn't make sense as a national direction.
It currently appears like algae will be the eventual producer of raw stock ethanol / bio-fuel. Other fuels look to come from waste products via cellulosic means. Of course that is the eventual result, not the currently practical method.
One other problem is that the corn produced ethanol is further cementing crop subsidies. Since we, as a nation, cannot seem to get rid of these subsidies, it seems like we are locking ourselves into corn.
FWIW.
BTW, I appreciate the research that has been done here!