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-----Original Message-----
From: jack zaner [mailto:jz@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 3:55 PM
To: Gary Fritz; omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: RES: stock to buy- GPRE
I read today in the San Diego Union Tribune that it takes up to 2000 gal. of
water to produce 1 gal. of ethanol. The point of the editorial was that the
ethanol experiment is a failed one and that the quicker we admit it the
faster we can shift assets toward more productive endeavors. All in all,
the ROI is not good so far.
Jack.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Fritz" <fritz@xxxxxxxx>
To: <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: RES: stock to buy- GPRE
>> >The Brazilian ethanol production is 8x more energy efficient than corn
>> >ethanol.
>>
>> Interesting, I didn't know that. I wonder what's different about
>> growing and harvesting corn that makes sugar cane more economical?
>
> I believe there are several factors:
>
> * Growing sugar cane is a less energy-intensive process than growing corn.
>
> * Sugar cane contains more sugar than corn. :-) The ethanol process
> converts sugar into ethanol, so a high-sugar source is more efficient.
> Corn
> contains starches that must first be converted into sugars, and this cuts
> the
> efficiency by about 30%.
>
>> I observe, also, that the whole political push behind ethanol is
>> based on the idea of U.S. energy independence. We rely on the
>> middle east now for oil; switching to relying on Brazil for ethanol
>> doesn't really solve the dependency problem.
>
> I don't think we could. Brazil consumes most of its ethanol production
> and
> still consumes 2,000,000bbl/day of oil. Even so, it exports about 1
> billion
> gallons (not barrels) of ethanol a year -- still a drop in the bucket
> compared
> to the US energy demand.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil has more info,
> including a
> claim that Brazillian ethanol production has an energy balance of 8-10.
> Not
> sure how accurate the "up to 35x" claim is.
>
>> I suppose the U.S. could ramp up its sugar cane production, though it
>> would be at the expense of other crops.
>
> I believe efficient cane production requires tropical or subtropical
> conditions,
> which are not well met in the US other than Hawaii and maybe Florida. We
> can grow sugar beets but I suspect that suffers from the same expensive
> growing process that corn does.
>
> Gary
>
>
>
>
>
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