Ray,
I have no idea why you waste your time on over production of corn, but I
will once more tell the story about Germans and the WWII peace. After the
peace, the Germans needed food aid to avoid starving, US asked them what
they needed and they answered "Korn" (Rye in German). US started to send
maize to the Germans and raised the domestic production. The Germans was
very disappointed, because maize were not and is not a traditional food
supply for them and Europeans in general. This without counting the
occasional "corn on the cob" with melted butter, that we sometimes enjoy.
The Europeans normally grow maize for animal feed and I just learned from
the list, that it is a different variant of maize. Anyway maize is not a
common food source in Europe. When Europe managed to catch up with its
agriculture after WWII and production of Rye, there were no market for the
American corn. US had to start subsidizing its farmers, who had switch to
bigger volumes of corn production, believing that Europe would be a large
and thriving market. Ever since then, the preferred food aid from US to
countries in need, has been corn.
I think that this stubbornness of using corn is not really rational and it
is some politicians that see the Ethanol production as a solution to the
over production problem. So they keep chopping the foot to fit the shoe,
instead of getting an other pair of shoes with the right size.
Hakan
At 04:46 AM 8/5/2005, you wrote:
What about this sweet sorghum (molasses) plant ... someone is saying
yields around 800 gallons of ethanol an acre and 1/3 the energy input of
corn...
sounds way to good to be true.. if it is... why are we wasting our time
with corn?
Ray J
In any event, btu per gallon vs. btu per gallon, methanol has only 75%
the energy value of ethanol.
http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/bgbb/7/ecep/auto/m/m.htm
That said, using 146 bushels of corn per acre,
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/articles.03/CornYldTrend2003.html
and an ethanol yield 2.5 gallons per bushel,
http://www.fsa.usda.gov/daco/bioenergy/2001/2001FactorsNFormulas.pdf
you gross approximately 365 gallons of ethanol per acre.
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