Ethanol for cars? Not so quick
We've written a lot about local Silicon Valley projects that look to use ethanol for things like powering vehicles. Here's news of the latest study, by UC Berkeley scientist Tad Patzek, that farts on the idea. It says more energy is used up in producing the stuff, than it produces itself. But make sure you keep reading all the way down, because it takes a bit to get to the criticism of the study -- there are lots of credible people who disagree. The real answer: It's going to take a while before ethanol works well.
Like we said in this piece back in January, it'll take three to five years:
Palo Alto's Genencor has worked feverishly on the problem of lowering the cost of ethanol production. Ethanol, which can be produced from plants and blended efficiently into gasoline, burns clean. But it's expensive. Experts, inside and out, say Genencor's breakthroughs in ethanol production could hit competitive price points -- of 5 to 10 cents a gallon -- within three to five years.
Biofuels are where Silicon Valley may contribute the most, says Epstein, who founded Environmental Entrepreneurs, a local group focused on clean technology.
''If Silicon Valley, through bioengineering, solves the problem of how to efficiently convert energy from plant material -- if they crack the code on that -- that's the biggest transformation I could imagine,'' he said.
It's interesting to point out that major car manufacturers (Ford, VW, GM, Fiat) all make ethanol-powered cars for the Brazilian market. The most recent versions of those cars use what the companies call "flex" engines and can run on any mixture of ethanol and gasoline. This are their standard models, not "special" cars; that is, you can get a "flex" VW Golf or Ford Focus, for example.
Ethanol can be found in any fueling station in Brazil, and the price at the pump is usually 20 to 30% lower than for gasoline; you get a slightly lower mileage from ethanol, though. I honestly have no idea about production costs and possible government subsidies, though. This ethanol is mostly (if not entirely) produced from sugar cane.
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Wilson,
Here's a good Washington Post piece on the Brazilian industry, though it is frustratingly thin on the costs: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/17/AR2005061701440.html
However, the take away for me was that the Brazilians have the climate and land to make this stuff cheaper than anyone else, but still relies on massive subsidies:
"Brazil launched a 'pro-alcohol' program in the 1970s with incentives for distilleries and auto companies that made ethanol-only cars. But motorists turned away from those cars in 1989 when they were squeezed by high prices and shortages."
"In the 1990s, some distillers went bankrupt and many refiners and sugar-cane farmers fell on hard times. But the government stuck by its commitment to alternative fuels, purchasing unsold stocks of ethanol and showering tax breaks on cabdrivers who used ethanol."
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