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Wasteful fuel from the green

25.09.2005

An American scientist has calculated that by making liquid fuel from plants, you will spend more energy than you will get from the subsequent combustion of this fuel.

"There is no energy gain from turning soybeans, corn or sunflowers into liquid biofuels. Plants cannot be a renewable source of energy," said Cornell University professor David Pimentel.

In the production of biofuels, that is, ethyl alcohol, from corn, wood or millet, as well as diesel fuel from soybeans or sunflowers, energy is spent primarily on sowing and harvesting, the production of fertilizers, pesticides, the processing of fields and melioration. Then follows the fermentation of biomass, the distillation of pure alcohol from water and the processing of foul-smelling waste.

The result of a full calculation of energy costs is downright deadly to the idea of replacing fuel from oil with fuel harvested from the fields. It turns out that when burned, ethanol from corn will give 29% less energy than it needs to be spent on its manufacture, from millet - by 45%, from wood - by 57%; diesel fuel from soybeans - by 27%, and from sunflower - by 118%.

“Our government is spending $3 billion on subsidies to companies that turn alcohol into fuel. This is completely unwise: we see that these technologies increase the country’s dependence on oil and gas supplies, and not at all reduce it. In fact, you need to invest in technologies for generating electricity through the combustion of biomass, through the sun and wind, as well as into hydrogen energy," the scientist believes.

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