Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r
Uhhh fuel economy measured in miles per gallon drops because ethanol has lower specific energy, but as you said, some studies show it yields small positive net energy in production, some say slightly less. That means the actual fuel economy measured in amount of energy put into making ethanol is about the same. Ethanol has a few other benefits, such as allowing high compression ratios and cleaner emissions. But yes the net benefit, if any, is very small. The main point is that it ends up using less total petroleum, and for whatever reason reducing petroleum usage is more important than reducing usage of other resources.
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I think we can all agree that no matter which path we take we are all at least a decade a way (I'd guess closer to 20 years) from seeing a significant shift away from gasoline. With that kind of time frame I think even Cellulosic Ethanol is an unacceptable next step. Any emission that has a negative affect on the environment is unacceptable, hydrogen is the only viable alternative that produces water as a byproduct. However, the biggest issue with hydrogen isn't with its usage, but with its production, transportation, and storage as well as making it easily accessible to consumers.
Time for Manhattan Project 2: Fixing What We Broke. IMO