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Their studies contend that ethanol, and biofuels in general, are "energy negative", meaning they take more energy to produce than is contained in the final product. A 2006 article [ 6 ] in Science offers the consensus opinion that current corn ethanol technologies had similar greenhouse gas emissions to gasoline, but was much less petroleum ...
Ethanol fuel has a "gasoline gallon equivalency" (GGE) value of 1.5, i.e. to replace the energy of 1 volume of gasoline, 1.5 times the volume of ethanol is needed. [4] [5] Ethanol-blended fuel is widely used in Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Europe (see also Ethanol fuel by country). [2]
One major drawback with corn ethanol, is the energy returned on energy invested , meaning the energy outputted in comparison to the energy required to output that energy. Compared to oil, with an 11:1 EROI, corn ethanol has a much lower EROI of 1.5:1, which, in turn, also provides less mileage per gallon compared to gasoline. [7]
In 2012, Americans consumed 134 billion gallons of gasoline that contained approximately 13 billion gallons of ethanol (a blend rate of 9.7%), according to the Energy Information Administration.
[citation needed] In his State of the Union Address on January 31, 2006, President George W. Bush stated, "We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks or switchgrass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years."
The energy content of ethanol is 76,100 BTU/US gal (5.89 kilowatt-hours per litre), compared to 114,100 BTU/US gal (8.83 kWh/L) for gasoline. (see chart above) A flex-fuel vehicle will experience about 76% of the fuel mileage MPG when using E85 (85% ethanol) products as compared to 100% gasoline. Simple calculations of the BTU values of the ...
These yeasts will produce ethanol even under aerobic conditions, if they are provided with the right kind of nutrition. During batch fermentation, the rate of ethanol production per milligram of cell protein is maximal for a brief period early in this process and declines progressively as ethanol accumulates in the surrounding broth.
The ethanol industry says capturing carbon emissions from ethanol plants and sequestering it underground is needed to help the industry keep up with the trend toward greener energy.