The words home ethanol production are creating a buzz all of the USA, because of fears of fuel shortages and price increases, plus global warming and pollution, people are getting more interested in home ethanol production. One thing to take into consideration with the production of ethanol, is safety, so it would be a good idea to get as much information as you can before starting. If your intention is to run your car on it you will probably need to check ethanol conversion kits.
Home ethanol production is considered essentialy a major deal in the renewable energy debate, and in regards to the issue of homespun ethanol production, there are some facts that should really be known relative to an acre of US corn yielding approximately 7,100 pounds of grain for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol; the energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented, as many as three distillation steps are needed in order to separate the 8% ethanol from the 92% water. When adding up the energy costs of grain production and its following conversion to ethanol, it has been found that 131,000 BTUs are needed in order to be able to make just 1 gallon of ethanol; one gallon of ethanol only has an energy value of 77,000 BTU, which is considered as being clearly not good. Possible negatives with ethanol production: Figures show that US grain production today erodes the top soil about 12 times faster than it can be reformed or replaced, with irrigated grain using groundwater 25% quicker than it can be naturally be replaced by rain etc. If you add to these figures that corn ethanol costs approximately $1.74 a gallon to produced, in comparison to the 94 cents per gallon that gasoline costs, its clear that more investigation is required before committing more and more resources to ethanol production.
There are so many questions with concerning home ethanol production and the production of ethanol in the private sector with regards to the environment and also to the quality of life in general, as to whether or not ethanol is the proper choice as a renewable energy source; there are actually so many positive factors that stem from it, and yet many negative ones as well, and so this is a matter which is almost certainly going to take some serious time and consideration to accurately figure out. However, there are some top-notch brilliant people in the world who are looking closely into the ethanol situation at this moment, this will also include home ethanol production, and so we can rest assured in knowing that the problem will be taken care of properly.
