Chris

That is an amusing set of numbers. They suggest that we will consume more than 1400 gallons of water for each galon of ethanol produced from corn. Much of this will be discharged as steam/water vapor which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The farming end of the cycle produces an abundance of NO which is 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

At current corn prices the cost for the corn feedstock is about $2.50 a gallon before we even start the industrial conversion and transportation to the site of consumption.

Let us not forget the efficiency of the energy conversion for this process. We generate all this waste and consume all of this excess energy to net out between 40% and 80% of the energy consumed to produce the ethanol.