There is a lot that surrounds the issue of home ethanol production, and truly each and every one of these matters should be fully recognized and understood, in order for us to get a better grasp on the issue of ethanol altogether. For instance, with the matter of home ethanol production, there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration, and this is what will be discussed here.
About Home Ethanol Production
Home ethanol production is considered as being a major deal, and in regards to the matter of home ethanol production, there are some facts in particular that should really be known about, including: an acre of US corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol; the energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented, and as well, as many as three distillation steps are needed in order to separate the 8% ethanol from the 92% water.
As well, adding up the energy costs of corn production and its following conversion to ethanol, it has been found that 131,000 BTUs are needed in order to be able to make only 1 gallon of ethanol; one gallon of ethanol only has an energy value of 77,000 BTU, which is considered as being certainly not good.
Furthermore, ethanol corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about the 95 cents that it takes in order to be able to produce a gallon of gasoline; most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production truly overlook that of the costs of environmental damages, and corn production in the US alone erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water.
Therefore, there are so many questions in regards to the environment and in regards to life in general, as to whether or not ethanol is the proper choice; there are truly so many positive factors that stem from it, and yet many negative ones as well, and so this is a matter which is most certainly going to take some serious time and consideration to properly figure out.
However, there are some of the most brilliant people in the world who are looking closely into this situation right now, and so we can rest assured in knowing that the issue will be taken care of properly.