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July 10, 2009 | Jim Lane | Comments 0

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Displacing gasoline with ethanol would require a huge diversion of increasingly scarce water resources.”

From the Christian Science Monitor: “Projects planting sunflowers in vacant lots are already under way in New Orleans and Pittsburgh. And expansion to Cleveland may be next. Scientists aren’t necessarily agreed on whether sunflowers can remove lead or other contaminants from soil, so turning sunflower seeds into biofuel seems the most promising green possibility.”

From the Star-Telegram.com: “Like most alternative fuel sources, the potential contribution of ethanol has been oversold. It has been estimated that converting the entire U.S. corn crop to ethanol would yield energy equal to a mere 12 percent of our gasoline consumption.
What’s more, displacing gasoline with ethanol would require a huge diversion of increasingly scarce water resources. As a rule of thumb, it takes 1,000 tons of water to grow 1 ton of grain.”

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