Re: Fuel from Sugars?

From: Angelo Campanella (a.campanella_at_att.net)
Date: 07/05/04 

Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 13:49:37 GMT

Don Lancaster wrote:
> Under US farm conditions, the total energy that went into the sugar is
> GREATER than the energy value of the ethanol produced. Thus creating a
> net energy sink.

        Much more significant is that a lot of carbon dioxide is released in
the fermentation process. It is of course what assures anaerobic
fermentation, leading to ethanol and not acetone (vinegar).
(another fine process is the making of champagne (spumante in Italian),
where a bit more sugar is added to freshly finished wine in a bottle,
sealed, then enjoyed (bubbly) when cooled and opened.

> While ethanol created from sugar is certainly useful for a number of
> purposes, using it for energy clearly is not one of them.

        That and the release of CO2 places it somewhat in question. But recall
that growing the sugar plant (or corn -starch, really) pulled ALL that
CO2 out of the atmosphere in a measure that helps our alleged 'crisis'
of GW. In the very long run, we are destined for a closed cycle of
energy management, where photonic energy radiated from the fusion
process on the sun is combined with CO2 in our atmosphere, now of
generous concentration, to produce sugars and starches which can be
fermented into ethanol (or methanol) for fuel for our mobile
transportation vehicle, much to everyone's delight.

        I am the eternal optimist!

                Angelo Campanella

NB: The cycle is closed by yet another very large cycle; the hydrogen
cycle (Oh happy days! GWB is redeemed!), wherein the sun occasionally,
on its route through our galaxy, captures roving clouds of hydrogen.
This is the input-fuel to our sun's nuclear fusion process that provides
our sunlight. These clouds do exist. My radio astronomy friends have
mapped at least one above our orbital plane, near the north celestial
pole. They have been mapped also by IROS (infra red orbiting satellite),
sometimes called "infrared cirrus". When we finally run out of roving
galactic hydrogen clouds, the fusion process on our sun will wane. It
will be quite a while (a few billion years) before it turns into a
cooling dwarf star. I remain optimistic for my life and that of a few
generations of my descendants, praise God.

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