The Oil Drum

116 comments on A gentle cough for the Washington Post

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Robert Rapier on May 21, 2006 - 8:09pm

Trainer has a way to write about this stuff that can be the most anoying possible and there is not much tables.

LOL! I was thinking the same thing when I read it. The information was very, very good. I will bookmark it and refer to it. But most people's eyes are going to glaze over when they are reading it.

What I am going to write about is E85. I am going to calculate how much we can realistically produce. There is a lot of hype out there that E85 will make us energy independent, so the calculation will be timely.

RR

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Dave Kimble on May 22, 2006 - 7:33am

Here in Australia we grow sugarcane on the narrow coastal strip in Queensland (the north-eastern state). Unlike Brazil, which only uses the first crush for crystal sugar, we try and get as much sugar out as possible, leaving the residual molasses that goes to stockfeed. This cheap stuff is what the ethanol industry is based on.

CSIRO (government research) calculates an ERoEI of about 2, so E10 (90% gasoline, 10% ethanol) only saves 5% of fossil CO2 emissions.

Total area of cane = 441,000 ha
Total molasses = 1,273,000 tonnes/year
Distillery conversion rate = 237.5 litres (ethanol) / tonne
Total ethanol from molasses = 302 MegaLitres / year
Australian gasoline consumption = 19,867 ML/year
Therefore maximum blend possible = E1.5

So talk of mandating E10 is impossible using only sugarcane molasses, even for a country that produces 6 times more sugar than it consumes.

ERoEI for ethanol from spoilt wheat is only about 1.2, but will that stop them ? No, its clean green energy from the sun and don't you dare say different.

Dave
www.peakoil.org.au