Ethanol Fuel More Advantageous Than Thought

By Bjorn Carey

Producing a gallon of ethanol gas from corn requires 95 percent less petroleum than producing a gallon from fossil fuels, a new study finds.This method might also slightly reduce the production of greenhouse gases that speed up global warming, but the results on that point are not certain.It is better to use various inputs to grow corn and make ethanol and use that in your cars than it is to use the gasoline and fossil fuels directly," said Daniel Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley.Ethanol could be even more energy efficient and 95 percent free of greenhouse gas emissions, Kammen said, if produced from woody plants instead of corn.

The study is detailed in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Science.

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