Saturday, February 04, 2006

Wikipedia: Ethanol

Wikipedia Entry of the Day: Ethanol as a Fuel

Is Ethanol a practical fuel? Does it take more energy to produce than it provides? The answer is yes, no, and maybe. The Wikipedia article linked here discusses the issues in as neutral a tone as I've seen, even though the neutrality of the article is challenged. The article points out that even when, as a pure calculation, ethanol takes more energy input that it provides, by the same measurements, gasoline is even less input-efficient. Secondly, as an industrial commodity, ethanol is immature. One can expect that improvements to process technology will result in more-efficient production.

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