Quote:
Originally Posted by cody
Anyway, FWIW, he was telling me that it takes more than a gallon of diesel to make a gallon of biodiesel.  Any idea if that's true? |
No, absolutely not. It is debatable how good biodiesel is as far as "energy balance" goes, but it is definitely not less than 1 (meaning that it takes more energy to make it than you get out of it). Some "experts" put biodiesel at 2 to 3, but it is very hard to quantify. I know a little about biodiesel because I work for a company that designs and makes biodiesel processing equipment.
Ethanol sucks for lots of reasons - mainly what MikeK pointed out before, and it's energy balance is around 1, which is still better than gasoline and diesel - both around 0.6 to 0.7.