[AT] Re[2]: [Farmall] running a Farmall H on ethanol

Spencer Yost yostsw at atis.net
Sun Sep 4 10:52:42 PDT 2005


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
On 9/4/2005 at 9:19 AM Tommy Wilson wrote:
>That is if you throw away all the studies that show that it burns just as 
>much dinosaur fuel to produce the ethanol so you aren't saving anything in

>the end. It does help the farmers, but doesn't save any fuel....
>

Not to pick on you Tommy, but I have seen this on the AT tractor list too
and I hear it often enough elsewhere -  I can't keep quiet.  

In short:  This is an untrue rumor that just won't die.  All crops based
fuels have better efficiency than anything else.  Below is just one study
in dozens that have shown it.  It is a USDA/DOE research on whether biofuel
should displace solar and petrochemical fuels but specifically discusses
this point.  Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

To quote for those who don't want to read the whole article right now:

" A 1998 joint study by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) traced many of the various costs involved
in the production of Biodiesel and found that overall, it yields 3.2 units
of fuel product energy for every unit of fossil fuel energy consumed. [3]
That measure is referred to as the energy yield. A comparison to petroleum
diesel, petroleum gasoline and bioethanol using the USDA numbers can be
found at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture website. In the comparison
petroleum diesel fuel is found to have a 0.843 energy yield, along with
0.805 for petroleum gasoline, and 1.34 for bioethanol. The 1998 study used
soybean oil primarily as the base oil to calculate the energy yields. It is
conceivable that higher oil yielding crops could increase the energy yield
of Biodiesel."

I wanted to post this to straighten out the facts so folks can make
informed choices.  Also I needed to steer discussion back to subjects
antique tractors are relevant in (-;   Rising this nation's fuel would be
relevant.

PS  The USDA says ethanol is has 1.62 efficiency ratio, not the 1.34
Minnesota found

Spencer Yost
Owner, ATIS
Plow the Net!
http://www.atis.net





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