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It seems so promising to be able to produce a cheap, renewable fuel that has fewer carbon emissions than fossil fuels. Why not, it is already being blended with the fuel I use today? In Brazil, where they produce ethanol from sugar cane, they have greatly reduced their dependence on foreign oil and gasoline prices are significantly lower. Ford Motors began producing cars and trucks that can run 85 percent ethanol blends and other manufacturers are sure to follow. The distribution infrastructure doesn't need to change much at all, certainly ethanol is a lot more promising as a short term alternative than hydrogen which requires a complete overhaul. So what are we waiting for? Let's get this train rolling on corn.

Well, of course, it's just never that simple. It turns out that ethanol from corn is really not that cheap. It seems that corn is a relatively expensive crop that consumes many nutrients in the soil meaning fertilizer needs to be produced and spread to restore the land used to produce corn. Sugar is the main ingredient needed from the crop to produce ethanol and corn is not nearly as efficient as sugar cane. It has the potential to be far more efficient but the technology is not quite there yet.

Even without cost benefit it would seem that the environmental impacts alone would make ethanol more attractive but unfortunately these promises are also broken. Ethanol like other alcohol products are produced by distilling. Today the heat needed to distill the fermented corn into Ethanol would mostly come from burning coal. In fact more carbon emissions are produced making a gallon of ethanol than is produced by a car using a gallon of gasoline.

There is hope for ethanol. It is all about the efficiencies within the production process which are sure to improve as technology advances. Until then hybrid and electric cars seem like the best short term solution.

Learn more about this author, Rick Stone.
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