how much does it cost to produce ethanol and biodiesel?
479028
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.
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ADM, Archer Daniels Midland is the largest domestic producer of ethanol:\n\nhttp://www.admworld.com/naen/fuels/petroleum.asp\n\nHere's a list of the domestic capacity of most major ethanol producers:\n\nhttp://www.ethanolmt.org/plants.html\n\nAnd an industry association:\nhttp://www.ncga.com/ethanol/main/production.htm
1005081
The average price in the U.S is $3.50 per gallon.  About the same as what you are paying in India.
543739
i wouldn't expect anyone in the oil business to do anything to change the industry (although bush HAS passed a law stating that government vehicles must be equipped to use ethanol as an alternate fuel). it is really up to americans to change what they use, because the oil industry is entrenched and will not check themselves -- business just doesn't work that way. republicans hate to have government make the people do anything, so the likelihood of us passing laws such as those in Brazil are slim to none. I am personally just going to buy a flex car and run it on ethanol. No more petroleum fuel for me. E85 is produced without the use of petro-products, is home-grown, and is cleaner and better for the car anyway and the same price and soon to be less.
496070
I would like to say yes but at this point I would have to say no. I worked at an ethanol pilot plant and anyone in the industry can tell you to break down starch in the corn you need what they call a jet cooker. This uses high pressure steam at appx 400-600F. There is no way in hell solar panels could heat water to this temperature effeciently and consistently. Plus a lot of ethanol plants run 24 hours a day and that right there pretty much shoots that plan in the ass. A good thought though. Ethanol will become more effecient once the enzyme industry catches up and can CHEAPLY use switchgrass as a fuel source.
123213
The answer is 2.5 gallons of ethanol.  Check out the link.
119793
Short answer: Not important; it will not even benefit farmers in the long run. \n\nUntil the US begins making ethanol from something other than corn, it is wasting more oil than it is saving, and only benefiting us by reducing URBAN air pollution. Since farmers use diesel and fertilizer made from natural gas, and ethanol plants use large quantities of natural gas in refining ethanol, there is a net loss of energy in US produced ethanol.  This is what a geoengineering professor at UC Berkeley found:\n"The fossil energy expended during production alone, he concluded, easily outweighs the consumable energy in the end product....."People tend to think of ethanol and see an endless cycle: corn is used to produce ethanol, ethanol is burned and gives off carbon dioxide, and corn uses the carbon dioxide as it grows," he said. "But that isn't the case. Fossil fuel actually drives the whole cycle.... "We are grasping at the solution that is by far the least efficient."\n\nAs long as we keep making it the way we do, it will not be a suitable alternative to gasoline, nor will it result in lower imports of oil for the US. \n\nThe other part of that problem is that if we turned the  ENTIRE annual US corn crop into ethanol to burn for automotive fuel, it would not last more than a few months of the year  based on our current fuel consumption.  We cannot grow enough corn to use ethanol as a complete substitute for gasoline. \n\nThe Brazilians have been much more efficient and use ethanol for a large percentage of their automotive fuel. They grow sugar cane and refine it using eucalyptus wood-fired refineries. Brazil's primary reason for this effort has been to improve their balance of trade by exporting oil rather than consuming it internally. In an interesting twist, Brazil may be able to export ethanol for less money than American farmers can produce it, and so the American farmers may soon find themselves with even more extra corn (and thus lower corn prices) due to adoption of ethanol. \nhttp://www.crystalsugar.com/media/news.archives/cargill.asp\nhttp://www.greencarcongress.com/2004/07/when_is_ethanol.html\n\nIt appears that making ethanol from corn not only will not solve our oil problems, it probably won't even be competitive without huge taxpayer subsidies to make it cheaper than imported sources of ethanol. It will continue to be added to gasoline in order to comply with EPA emissions rules, but that is the only real benefit. Everything else is just a waste of your tax dollars in my opinion.
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Right.  Fuel additives are helpful for reduction of emissions, although they are not always economical.  For the most part, the US congress has subsidized the creation of ethanol, which tends to be a net cost unless created from waste agricultural products.\nAnother substance that has the same anti-emissions properties as ethanol is MTBE.  There has been a lot of press about MTBE recently due to its tendency to pollute groundwater.
347626
Renewable fuels association (ethanolrfa.org)
207408
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
551181
If farmers started planting crops for ethanol production and people actually used it, the farmers would make more money than the oil tycoons.  The oil tycoons are so rich and powerful that they will do their best to prevent any of this from happening.
153405
I like the idea of Bio fuel, you can make a low octane fuel from all kinds of agricultural bi-products. We happen to be really good at agriculture
115580
The basic answer is yes.\n\nThere are several forms of biomass energy. In the realm of liquid fuels (for transportation, for example) you have biodiesel (made from soy or another plant, basically vegetable oil) and ethanol (currently mostly made from corn but in the future also to be made from grasses, crop "waste", etc. These fuels are becoming cheaper and are now getting competitive. For example a 20% blend of biodiesel is probably no more than 5% over regular diesel, and ethanol is competitive with regular octane fuels (at least in the cost of manufacture). \n\nSolid biomass is a good option for mixing in with coal-fired power plants to cut costs and CO2 emissions.
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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.
129126
ithink your talking about E85, the 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. there are about 600 pumps nationwide right now, but you can look up more information here http://www.e85fuel.com/index.php
238440
CORN & COCONUTS\n\nCorn oil: ETHANOL \nEthanol, a pure alcohol made primarily by the corn refining industry, is today's alternative fuel. Henry Ford first suggested running cars on ethanol from corn, but it took the oil shortages of the seventies and the environmental problems of the eighties to turn ethanol into an important component in the American fuel supply. Ethanol-blended fuels account for 12% of all automotive fuels sold in the U.S.\n\nEthanol is made by fermenting sugars produced from corn starch. Many corn refining factories produce both ethanol and other corn products like starches and sweeteners so that capital and manufacturing costs can be kept as low as possible. While they are making ethanol, corn refiners also produce valuable coproducts such as corn oil and corn gluten feed. \n\nEthanol plays three major roles in today's economy and environment. First, it replaces about $2 billion dollars of imported oil with a secure, domestic fuel. Second, it is an important component of gasoline reformulated to reduce pollution in cities which are not achieving air quality standards mandated by the Clean Air Act. And finally, it provides a major income boost to farmers and rural communities where most ethanol is manufactured. Ethanol, blended with gasoline at a 10% level or in the form of ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) made from ethanol, is effective in reducing carbon monixide levels, ozone pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from automobile exhaust.\n\nCOCONUTS: Coconut Crude | Ethan Zuckerman\nA Newly Electric Green – Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design see all posts in this category\nPrice of gasoline got you down? If you're driving a diesel vehicle in the South Pacific, you may be in luck. Vanuatan entrepreneur Tony Deamer has adapted his fleet of rental cars to run on coconut oil, a plentiful local commodity. Unlike with many biofuels, coconut oil doens't need to be transesterized - mixed with sodium hydroxide and alcohol to change its chemical composition - to run in a diesel engine. Filtered and warmed to temperatures about 25C, coconut oil is a better than satisfactory substitute for "mineral diesel" - it burns more slowly, which produces more even pressure on engine pistons, reducing engine wear, and lubricates the engine more effectively. Deamer runs most of his vehicles on a mixture of 85% coconut oil and 15% kerosene, but has demonstrated that modified diesel engines run filtered coconut oil quite happily.\n\nEven before recent price increases, diesel fuel was extremely expensive in the South Pacific due to the cost of shipping fuel from refineries. Coconut oil, on the other hand, is comparatively cheap - produced locally by boiling copra (dried coconut flesh) in water, it retails on the world market for $0.55 a liter, as compared to significantly higher prices for mineral diesel. Used as a basic ingredient in margarine and in cosmetics, copra prices tend to fluctuate widely, destabilizing economies like Vanuatu's which are heavily dependent on copra exports. An increased use of copra to produce fuel oils would likely raise copra prices and benefit local economies, as well as reducing the costs of imported fuels.\n\nSOPAC - the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, based in Fiji, is funding projects to study the use of coconut oil for power generation and transportation - their introductory paper is a useful overview of efforts thus far to utilize this promising biofuel. UNDP's Equator Initiative also has an excellent case on "Coconut Crude", focusing in part on Tony Deamer's work.
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Best the argument is with fossil fuels, like oil or natural gas.  These fuels are not renewable and they will eventually run out if we do not find alternative, renewable forms of fuel like ethanol or hydrogen.  Hope this helps you get started