how much does it cost to produce ethanol and biodiesel and any other alternative fuels that you can think of compared to gasoline?
217648
ALL ESTIMATES ARE ROUGHLY\nOil\nSpent in USA\n$100-150 billion every year on crude oil\nUsed in USA\n60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel\n120 billion gallons of gasoline\n\nBiodiesel\n\nTo grow the "feedstocks"\n$80,000 per hectare for algal ponds\n3.85 million hectares of algae ponds would be need to replace all petroleum transportation fuels with biodiesel\n$308 Billion just to build the farms\n\nOperating cost\n$12,000 per hectare\n$46.2 billion per year to yield all the oil feedstock necessary for the entire country\n\nI will add more fuel later must go watch TV now\n***EDIT***\nOk I am back, it turn out that makeing ethanol and biodiesel are around the exact same cost.  But I doubt that they will ever be a realistic source of fuel.\n\n I found this and thought you might find it interesting\n""...but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is going down the wrong road, because you use more energy to produce these fuels than you get out from the combustion of these products.""\n\nStudies done everywhere show that cost and disposal of the bi-products are going to be a problem, plus energy wise its just not worth it.  They are working on these problems trying to figure something out to make it more feasible.\n\nIn terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that: \n\ncorn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; \nswitch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and \nwood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced. \n\nIn terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that: \n\nsoybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and \nsunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
177006
Biodiesel from Jatropha.\n\nUps: It's really cheap, No replacement or modification of your existing diesel engine.\nDowns: Yet to be Commercially Available.\n\nThere are other ethanol and oil based biodiesel variants available in some parts of the UK and the USA. But to use them, you've got to modify your existing diesel engine.
125415
Infinite Energy would be Solar, Wind, and Geothermal. Nothing to Invent there, only the Marketing and and Distribution is the Problem. As Long as there is a Great Amount of Profit in Petroleum, nothing will Change Anytime Soon. As far as Global Warming goes, if Gasoline could be Utilized more Efficeintly, Engine Pollution would be Substantially Reduced. I've found a way to Convert Regular Pump Gasoline into Propane, with a very Compact, Safe Low Pressure Unit that Mixes Air with Gasoline to Produce a Thick, Rich Propane Mixture, much better than Regular Propane, Resulting in 100 Parts of Air to 1 Part of Fuel. Here's the Problem, all Vehicles from 1996 to the Present are Required by Law to Run at 14.7 Parts of Air to 1 Part of Fuel. That's the EPA-OBD II Law. Any Change Whatsoever, even if Vehicle Emissions are Lowered, and Fuel Economy is Increased will Result in a Failed Vehicle Inspection. With My Vapor Chamber, even the Largest SUV could get 50 + MPG, and Emit a Fraction of Emissions. But, Again, it's against the Law. If I'm Wrong, then how is it that Engines DO Run with Propane Cylinders? They're Expensive, Cumbersome, and a Real Hassle to Refill. So, it's not Worth It. Hybirds? Great, in Town, but at Highway Speed the Gasoline Engine has to Run, plus, the Heavy, Expensive Batteries have to be Hauled! As to Taking My Device to the US Patent Office, forget it! Every Time this has been done before, it's been Stopped Cold! 14.7 to 1. That's the Law. So, to Sum Up, the Problem is not One of Invention, or Creation. No, the Problem is Legislation. My Device would just about fit in a Shoebox, and can be Built and Installed for less than $1,OOO but it will never get on the Open Market. Inexpensive Hydrogen is the Answer, but as long as there is such a Tremendous Profit in Oil, Nothing will Change. Go to this Website, and You'll See what I mean http://energy21.freeservers.com/bookrep.html
293592
if you are using a gas engine... look into 0.21 litter 2 stroke nitro glow engines. they can reach around 2.5 hp. unfortunately, the 35% nitro fuel costs like $60 per gallon. however, you do get a ton of hours per gallon. they are nice because they produce 2.5 hp while fitting in the palm of your hand. a friend of mine has a car powered by a 0.15 litter engine that will reach about 50 mph on a level area.
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You could make ethanol from grass clippings, though as others have pointed out you are more likely to end up with methanol. Not that this is a major problem, methanol is a perfectly effective fuel in its own right.\n\n\nThe real problem is one of efficiency. Grass clippings are very dispersed, in the sense that you can't harvest hundreds of tonnes of them every hour as you can with maize or cane. Because of that any ethanol production will be small scale, which is inherently inefficient. You would almost certainly end up using more fuel in the process than you would actually produce.\n\nRemember even cane or maize ethanol production doesn't actually produce fuel. We currently use more fossil fuels producing ethanol then the ethanol actually replaces. Ethanol is an economic and political exercise, it has no environmental benefits.
174492
1.15 Euro per liter for diesel.  This comes out, if you convert it, to over $6.00/ gallon.  Don't complain!  I am in Germany.\n\nthe gas prices were artificially kept too low for too long in the US so now they are just normalizing.  If they had just been allowed to rise with all other prices, we'd be above $3 now and it would be normal.  I think at one point in the 80s it was over $2.  So really- it was just too low for too long in the US and is correcting itself now.
308392
Oil prices are high because the demand is high.  \n\nImagine you had a pill that cured every health problem--obsesity, AIDS, cancer, and everything in between.  What would you sell it for?  You could sell it for $1 a pill--because everyone would want one.  Or, you could sell it for $1 million a pill--because everyone would want one.  Some people would sell it for $1.  Some people would sell it for $1 million.  People would fall everywhere in between.  \n\nWell, the oil companies don't have a magic pill, but they do have something that most of their customers cannot imagine living without.  They've realized that they can make a profit at $1.50 a gallon, but they can make a much better profit at $3.50 a gallon.  Why wouldn't they raise their price?\n\nAlthough I think the high prices suck, in the long term it is a good thing, because it will increase efforts to develop new kinds of energy and cars that are more efficient.\n\nBrazil has a fuel that is similar to ethanol that is made out of sugar instead of corn.  (Sugar is their main export.)  Since they developed this fuel, Brazil required cars to run on the stuff, and they are completely independent of foreign oil.  The U.S. should do the same thing with ethanol.  We could be done with foreign oil in ten years.
93942
Hydrogen is less efficient that oil right now but if we developed a more clean way of making it (like photobiosynthesis) it would be much better for the environment, and the switch has to start somewhere.\n\nIt is my opinion that it would be better for the environment if we just ran out of fuel, because people tend to destroy the planet when they have lots of energy, regardless of how clean the energy is. It's the greed that is bad for the environment, not the fuel. Hydrocarbons could actually be made to be very environmentally friendly if car and energy companies actually cared about environmental health more than stuffing their pockets with cash.
136610
well they say in 2050 about 3% of species will die from the global warming, and about the same with plant species. probably gas will cost 20.00 a gallon lol. and more and more cars and trucks will not be running off of gas. which i hope actually will be true! and ill be 40 around that time wow!
69240
The energy contained in corn is in the form of stored chemical energy (in the form of hydrocarbons), that was created by solar energy and photosynthesis of the corn plant. \n\nThe seeds of corn can be made into sugar, food, ethanol, or even burnt alone as fuel. Each of these products contains hydrocarbons that contain chemical energy that can be converted to heat energy. Some new work is being done to convert the rest of the corn plant to ethanol or other sources of energy. It was common to burn corn cobs during the depression as fuel to heat homes. Today, they may be converted to alchohol fuel for automobiles using genetically engineered yeast. Shell Global Solutions and Iogen in Canada have built a demonstration plant to create ethanol from cellulose, which could include the entire corn plant, or other plant materials like wheat straw that shows great promise for producing environmentally-friendly economic fuel.
160793
of course gas but if cant get that any flex fuel additive sold at auto stores. (or can order by gallon for you) with common ratio of 1 pint additive to 5-10 gals coco or other subsitute. theyll know which is best. also if use gas youd want 1 gal per10 gals of your substitute fuel.
83781
cost to produce the fuels, amount of energy needed to make the fuel, newtons law is still in effect, nothing free comes out of nothing, it still cost energy  to make energy, the problem is the the cost is still higher than the final product ( combustion ) , and is also reflected on the relatively high price, even if it did come down we replace one type of pollution for another, of course the farmers are rooting for it as it will be a cash crop if it takes off, the same can be said for the hybrids, they cost more to produce in both materials and non renewable parts ( changing out those batteries will be mega expensive ), ect.. they are not the ultimate recycling dream the green groups like to champion them as they are, they simply do not want any rain on their parade
669218
The engines are designed to run on gasoline which burns a little differently and much dirtier than ethanol. ETOH burns to only CO2 and H2O, very clean. Ethanol can be made easily from any organic material. Corn stalks, wood, petroleum, potatoes, sugar, whatever you have mostly. Crack the large molecles to 2 carbons with an OH attachesd and you have ethanol. Fermentations with yeast are usually the easiest way.
566451
The average price in the U.S is $3.50 per gallon.  About the same as what you are paying in India.
646306
Biodiesel is a vegetable (soy, rape seed, palm) or animal oil (lard or tallow) that has been chemically treated with alcohol (ethyl or methyl) to form an ester. \nA ton of biodiesel would need about 960 kg of oil. The rest of the mass would come from the alcohol.
319050
http://www.freedomfuelamerica.com/\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel\n\nGive that a shot.  The first one actually sells the refining unit itself and the second one is the straight Wikipedia definition of it, though you may have seen it already.
66560
Ethanol is not the answer for raising gas prices. They produce it as a cleaner burning fuel. It all deals with the theory of global warming. I don't buy it, but that is the reasoning they use for it.