Ethanol

[fairsheet]

And then there's this:

Using corn crop residue to make ethanol and other biofuels reduces soil carbon and can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The findings by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln team of researchers cast doubt on whether corn residue can be used to meet federal mandates to ramp up ethanol production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Corn stover -- the stalks, leaves and cobs in cornfields after harvest -- has been considered a ready resource for cellulosic ethanol production. The U.S. Department of Energy has provided more than $1 billion in federal funds to support research to develop cellulosic biofuels, including ethanol made from corn stover. While the cellulosic biofuel production process has yet to be extensively commercialized, several private companies are developing specialized biorefineries capable of converting tough corn fibers into fuel.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140420131814.htm



"Big Corn" isn't going to like that.

Now that we consider greenhouse gas emissions to be the biggest problem with burning fuels, I'm starting to think that ethanol from whatever source, is a dead end. Ethanol is simply less efficient than petro. That means that we have to burn more of it, in order to accomplish the same amount of work.

More fuel (of any kind) burned per unit of work, means more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of work.