Hammerskjold,Feb 3 2006, 06:10 AM Wrote:I think he meant the possible dilemma of foodstuffs being used for automotive fuel, when there's a huge amount of starving people in the world. It's obvious that the answer is starving people should be used for fuel instead. It's definitely an abundant resource.
I can't wait to drive a car that gets a 100 km on a single hobo. At least for city driving.
[right][snapback]100913[/snapback][/right]
That dillema already exists in the "production" of meat, which is very inefficient. (but apparantly nobody cares)
About the ethanol though. French wine producers use a lot of their worst quality grapes to make bad wine...which still contains 12 % of alcohol. This does not cost a lot of energy, about the isolation and purification of the ethanol I'm not sure but I guess it can be done with a lot less energy than what burning of ethanol yields.