Ethanol Mandate for Iowa?

"Jay Masino" wrote in message
...

Despite the fact that mandating ethanol blends would be bad for you, it's
really better for the country in general. Using ethanol, along with
biodiesel, can go along way towards making our country less dependant on
foreign oil.

If and when an ethanol producer can run his entire operation on ethanol and
still have enough left over to sell to someone else, then we'll be
*approaching* proof that ethanol is a net win. (See Mike's post about all
the other infrastructure not supported by ethanol for where the remaining
ambiguity will lie).

Likewise for biodiesel.

I'm all for alternative energy sources, especially when they are easily
renewed. But they need to NET energy. If they can't be fully
self-supporting, using only their own energy for production (*), then they
obviously are net energy consumers, and simply shifting the distribution
network (and adding a middleman...maybe good for the economy, but not so
good for energy conservation).

IMHO, biodiesel shows a lot of promise, but I've yet to hear of a biodiesel
production facility that generates 100% of their own energy with biodiesel.

Pete

(*) it would certainly be great if the initial investment could be
self-supporting too, but as long as the production itself is a net positive
(after all factors are considered, including on-going maintenance of
production equipment), in the long run we still come out ahead.

On 2005-09-27, Peter Duniho wrote:
IMHO, biodiesel shows a lot of promise, but I've yet to hear of a biodiesel
production facility that generates 100% of their own energy with biodiesel.

I've heard somewhere that the thermal depolymerization plant in
Carthage, MO. runs off its own output and generates 500bbl of light oil
per day off 200 tons of turkey offal from the nearby Butterball turkey
packaging factory.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
I've heard somewhere that the thermal depolymerization plant in
Carthage, MO. runs off its own output and generates 500bbl of light oil
per day off 200 tons of turkey offal from the nearby Butterball turkey
packaging factory.

Recycling is a good thing, no doubt.

But that's not anywhere close to answer the question of being
self-sufficient. Even ignoring the question of the energy required to
produce the turkeys, that project's own web site
(http://www.res-energy.com/faq/index.asp) does not suggest that they are
self-sufficient. They say nothing about using their own output as their
energy source (nor are the figures you quote actual numbers...they are
*anticipated*, which is another word for "hoped for").

Pete