Quote:
Originally Posted by spreadhead
If you consider the energy required to turn corn into ethanol, the greenhouse effect in about the same.
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It takes as much, or more, petroleum to turn corn into ethanol to fuel your car as it takes petroleum to fuel your car.
Don't forget, petroleum is used to plow the corn fields, plant the corn seeds, harvest the corn, and truck the final ethanol product to it's final destination. That all incurs losses. It's probably more efficient to burn the petroleum yourself than to have someone else burn it four times to make the product you end up burning
The same is true with hydrogen. Hydrogen is usually produced by running an electric current though water. That electricity is often produced through burning fossil fuels. It would simply be more efficient to burn the fossil fuel yourself. But what about solar or wind power used to generate the hydrogen? In that case, it would STILL be more efficient to simply use that energy to solar or wind power the CAR. Anytime you convert one form of enery to another, there will be some loss due to inefficiencies in the process.
Again, the same is true with hybrid vehicles. You might be burning less petroleum youself, but what petroleum is being used in the manufacturing process to create the batteries to run a hybrid, and what happens to those batteries at the end of their lives?
Not that I'm pro-oil, or anti-green, but you need to consider the whole process, not just what you're putting into your car.