Mar, 11, 2011  |  Today's News

There are many myths and urban legends that continue to make the rounds about ethanol. As world consumption continues to grow, commodities prices remain high, and political unrest still plagues the world, you can count on the criticisms of ethanol continuing to surface.

We’ll be sharing with you from time to time some of the most common myths, and a suggestion for how your conversation might go to correct the misunderstanding.

MYTH: It takes other kinds of energy to make ethanol, so it’s not a green fuel.


Let’s have a quick review of a junior high science lesson: Energy is neither made nor destroyed, it just changes form. Regardless of the source of energy on the output end of things, there is some sort of energy on the input side.

For the sake of being technical, it’s proven that it takes about 28,000btu’s to make a gallon of ethanol, regardless of whether those btu’s come from electricity, natural gas, burning corn stalks, or the hot air from a talking head on your least favorite TV news program.

Just imagine a field full of corn plants, with all their leaves acting like solar panels, soaking up the sun’s energy, changing its form, and depositing it in the corn kernel. That corn kernel is then distilled into corn ethanol.       

Ethanol in your fuel tank is like being powered by sunshine!