Now, you will really be sorry you read this thread. The nerd scientist is about to post. Turn away if you must!

Studies by the DOE indicate that the return on your energy inputs for various forms of energy differs greatly (big revelation there). Gasoline is estimated to provide a return of .85 (it takes more energy input for drilling, refining, transportation then you get back out). Energy return from ethanol from corn is about 1.3, also not very good since we are talking about a lot on inputs to grow a bushel of corn. As Jake indicates, the capturing of solar energy is the way to go. But, solar cells are rather inefficient. What’s better? Plants and the biomass that they produce. Plants capture about 40 percent of the solar energy that hits their leaves. It is estimated that tropical grass crops can produce 20 tons of useable biomass per acre. By having microorganisms and digestive enzymes act on this biomass to produce alcohols, you supposedly get a return on your energy input as high as 10 fold. These grasses capture the sun, grab some water, and grow 10 feet tall (with far less input by the farmer compared to corn). There are other grasses besides the tropical ones that are being investigated in the Midwest and the eastern part of the US. Germany and other countries are ahead of the US in this area (in my uninformed opinion).

The future is not fuel from grain. If you want to see food costs go up, just keep taking grain and turn it into alcohol for fuel (ethanol from grain for beer is vitally important to mankind, but not grain for car fuel). It will be alcohols (note I didn’t say ethanol) from total biomass. It will not replace fossil fuels, just augment them.

Also, scientists are working on making microorganisms to turn plant material into some other alcohol besides ethanol. Why? Because ethanol attracts moisture and will rust pipelines and other things that are not suppose to be exposed to water. Ethanol also has a low BTU rating compared to other longer chain alcohols. So, expect to see the industry go away from ethanol once the darn government stops subsidizing ethanol production. Heck, poor people in Mexico can’t even get corn tortillas because they now cost too much because of corn going to ethanol production? That sucks since I love tortillas.

I apologize for extending this thread. But, I had just walked out of a seminar on bioenergy and I couldn’t resist. I am not saying that everything I wrote is accurate. I just regurgitated what I heard in the seminar.

I bet I am going to regret making this post...

Cheers
Bob