Buried at the very end of this positive article on efforts in Japan to start using ethanol as an automotive fuel is a very, very illuminating figure, but we'll get to that after the requisite environmental fawning.
SHINANOMACHI, Japan (Reuters) – Japanese motorists may one day pump their cars full of sake, the fermented rice wine that is Japan's national drink, if a pilot project to create sake fuel is a hit with locals in this mountain resort.
The government-funded project at Shinanomachi, 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Tokyo, will produce cheap rice-origin ethanol brew with the help of local farmers who will donate farm waste such as rice hulls to be turned into ethanol.
"We want to present the next generation a preferable blue print — a self-sustainable use of local fuels," said Yasuo Igarashi, a professor of applied microbiology at the University of Tokyo who heads the three year project.
If the project catches on with locals then it could pave the way for similar endeavours across Japan that will see Japanese cars running on Japanese-made biofuels in the future, he added.
Lots and lots of positive press for ethanol, isn't there. The interesting number at the very, very bottom of the article (literally the last sentence):
With one 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice needed to produce 0.5 litre of ethanol, the main challenge will be creating a low cost biofuel that can compete with ordinary gasoline, which is now sold at around 135 yen ($1.13) a litre, including gasoline related taxes of some 56 yen.
That means 4.4 pounds of rice per liter or roughly 17.6 pounds of rice per gallon of fuel. Japan is already importing rice to feed its population. According to these figures (you have to do the math yourself), Japanese per capita rice consumption runs somewhere around 136 pounds annually. Taking all of the year's rice supply from one hypothetical Japanese person would yield less than 8 gallons of fuel. So the question becomes, who dies of starvation first? And who decides who dies?
(Note: figures are slightly skewed because while Japan is importing rice, it is also exporting sake. So there is some slop in there. But the back-of-the-envelope estimate is essentially correct. Houston, we have a serious problem.)
Ethanol is produced by fermentation. Fermentation releases CO2. Although the usage of waste products to produce energy is laudable, it does not help with this supposed issue of CO2 emissions. Plants store the Sun’s energy, when they decompose or are burned CO2 is released.
We might do better to spend our money on nuclear powered cars. Better driving skills would of course be required to prevent nuclear accidents.