Forwarded from 4dworldx. Harry
> Forwarded from Vortex-L > Harry > > >>> The amount of corn required to produce 25 gallons of ethanol can feed a >>> human >>> in the third world for a whole year. >> >> Thomas: >> True however, the story I heard, is that the ethanol production only >> consumes some of the starch in the corn. What remains has a higher feed >> value than the raw corn. Yes it has but it is not usable as raw food anymore. Recent technologies, slowly adapted in the US ( Xethanol, Pacific ethanol, and some more ) allow for a higher efficiency of producing ethanol from starch, but this won't solve the problem as this method consumes about as much of primary energy as is contained in the ethanol - factor is 1.5 i.e. for 1.5 kwh ethanol energy one has to invest 1 kwh primary energy. Possibly the way to go is a quite old process of coal liquification ( Fischer-Tropsch or Nazi gasoline ) because the world sits , in terms of thermal units, on far more coal than on oil. South African company Sasol produces about 40% of the country's demand of gas from coal for about 1.3 US$/gallon ( premium grade ). Stocks of coal miners ( Peabody, Arch coal, Massey, James River ) are expected to rise. Hans Dieter
