quote:
Originally posted by Conan71
Unless I've gotten bunk info, I believe you can extract ethanol from any carbohydrate source.
The dependence on corn in U.S.-based ethanol has more to do with a farm subsidy mentality by the gov't and the ag lobby, not unlike programs in the 1980's where they were paying corn farmers not to plant corn, because there was an over-abundance.
That’s very true and many other sources are much better at producing ethanol than corn. The sugar cane used in Brazil for instance produces ten times more energy per acre of land than corn. It makes much more sense in the move to ethanol to let countries with the right climate produce the ethanol, then we sell them the food that they would have grown on the land.