A Manufactured Crisis

The crisis of the food supply dwindling, due to the use of grain to make ethanol. The politicos saying that Mexico will starve, their will be less grain to supply the hungry of the world. Grain will be priced out of the market for poor countries.

The crisis would become so, because of the money manipulators, placing all their bets on grain, specifically corn.

The one thing politcos can't change is sugar and cellulose can can be made into ethanol.

Fermentation of sugar

C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2 CH₃CH₂OH + 2 CO₂

sugar --> ethanol + Carbon Dioxide

Wikipedia:Ethanol

Cellulolysis (biological approach)

There are four or five stages to produce ethanol using a biological approach:

1. A "pretreatment" phase, to make the lignocellulosic material such as wood or straw amenable to hydrolysis,
2. Cellulose hydrolysis (cellulolysis), to break down the molecules into sugars;
3. Separation of the sugar solution from the residual materials, notably lignin;
4. Microbial fermentation of the sugar solution;
5. Distillation to produce 99.5% pure alcohol.

Wikipedia: Cellulosic ethanol


There are more than a few sources of sugar and cellulose, for example, sugar beets, switch grass, sugar cane, and garbage. This a scientific fact, corn is not the only source of ethanol. The politicos cannot manipulate that chemistry reaction to suit their purposes, like they do with the science of Global Warming. Today I learned that the lowly plant, Algae can produced ethanol.

It was refreshing to hear Senator Obama say we should look to Cellulosic sources other than food stocks to produce ethanol. He mentions switch grass and wood chips as a source during his interview at KY3 Political Notebook while he was visiting Missouri. View his answer during the interview answering the question, What's his position on mandating ethanol?


H/TNot Right About Anything