Re: OT: Ethanol


"Moe" <jdmoe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:NvuTh.10285$FC5.3903@xxxxxxxxxxx


*** YOU MIKE!!! Can't you just leave one single thread alone without
starting ***. All I hoped for was a little input of ideas from other
people and you are the first person to respond to this thread as an
***!!!

The drive to ethanol is an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand, it is
certainly an infinitely renewable resource (you don't buy beer, you rent it,
and then it goes......well, somewhere) and can be produced in prodigious
quantities domestically. No more dependency on foreign supplies. And the
exhausted mash IS a good feed product for livestock. On the other hand, it
isn't nearly as "Green" as many people suppose. Aside from the still raging
controversy about the cost of production versus useable output, there's also
the ever present matter of the well-known greenhouse gases from ANY
combustion (whether explosive or metabolic.....yeasty beasties produce a LOT
of carbon dioxide) and the production of large quantities of other
combustion products (think aldehydes, for example) which are as yet an
unknown wuantity in terms of environmental impact. Additionally, there is
still also that most ignored (and definitely not insignificant) of all
global climate change inputs......the direct heat of all that combustion.

And then there's water. Water.......hm...... Yeah, it takes a lot of fresh
water to make large volumes of ethanol. Well, it takes a lot of startup
water, anyway. It's been a while since I studied zymurgy but I believe one
of our chemical geniuses here will be along shortly to fill in the gaps.
The short answer......

To produce ethanol in a useable form you ferment some sugary ***
aerobically using one or another strain of saccharomyces and then certifuge
the result to remove all the solids and then heat it carefully at controlled
temperatures to distill out the pure ethanol. What's left at the end of the
process is mostly (practically speaking, ALL)......wait for it......water.
It's perfectly reasonable for the lay reader to suppose that every gallon of
ethanol produced represents a gallon of water lost. Perfectly reasonable,
but also perfectly wrong. In fact, I don't have a clue about exactly what
the ratio is, and I'm content to leave that to the chemical engineers who,
if they are a whole lot smarter than their kindred in other areas, will find
a way to "crack" fermentation products much like their MUCH smarter great
grandparents did with petroleum, anyway. In the meantime, there is nothing
like a water shortage in the United States of America. There IS a serious
allocation problem, though! Here's what we need to do.......

Summarily shoot anyone in North America south of 37° N and west of 95° W who
owns, occupies or otherwise has anything to do with a lawn, a fountain, a
golf course, a housing development, a garden, livestock, a well, a hotel, a
casino, a dam, an artificial lake, a fishing guide service or any other
business, service, home, or anything else that depends to any degree or
extent of the avialability of fresh water, and/or anyone outside that area
who qualifies by any of the above criteria within that area.

Summarily shoot everyone in, en route to, or en route from, Las Vegas,
Phoenix, Los Angeles (and whatever the hell they call the their shithole
suburbs), San Diego, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, San Antonio,
and.......um......well what the hell, might as well throw in Denver and
Mississippi while we're cleaning house.

Ooh! Lookie! We've got PLENTY of water! Surprise! :)

That said, ethanol will never....CAN never.....be anything more than a
temporary stopgap. Too expensive by any metric for the long run. Free* is
better.

*** OFF!!

Yeah, that part is exactly right.

Wolfgang
* a shiny new nickel to the first to successfully complete the well known
phrase, "Free as the____."


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