IndyCar mentioned on BBC News

[mikiec]

Watching the BBC's 10 O'Clock News last night, they had a report on the impact that biofuels (particularly in the US) were having on world food prices. It featured footage of IndyCars on a road course (think it was Infineon) and talked about their move to ethanol.

It was the first time IndyCar's had a mention on the BBC News over here since probably the mid 90's, although the report was quite negative about the use of biofuels, especially from corn, which it claims is very inefficient when compared to ethanol from sugar cane, like the Brazilians produce.

I'll post a link to it if I find it.

[BobGarage]

its available on bbc iplayer (for another 12 hours) if you live in the UK. (Iplayer doesn't work if you're outside the uk).

[mikiec]

OK. I was actually trying to find just the report rather than the whole bulletin, which I think isn't limited to the UK. They haven't posted it (yet).

[BobGarage]

just watched the piece on iplayer. looks like it was mid-ohio?
don't think it was infineon as pit lane was on the wrong side of the track.

[Nikki Katz]

I remember Franchitti's crash making Channel 4 news last year. But possibly only because he's British.

[ZzZzZz]

It was the first time IndyCar's had a mention on the BBC News over here since probably the mid 90's, although the report was quite negative about the use of biofuels, especially from corn, which it claims is very inefficient when compared to ethanol from sugar cane, like the Brazilians produce.

Corn as a source for ethanol is hugely inefficient. In some cases, it actually takes more than a gallon of gasoline to produce a gallon of corn based ethanol. Corn production is heavily subsibized - it was a food security move by the Nixon Administration. It is ironic and inappropriate that this subsidy is creating a threat to food security. Then the production of corn ethanol itself is highly subsidized, which seems more like corporate welfare in exchange for lobbying dollars than anything else.

Corn ethanol is also highly limited by the required acreage (for example, if the entire landmass of Britain were planted to corn, and were ideal growing conditions, it would not produce enough fuel for the population of Britain.) It is also limited by transportation. Being produced in the mid-west and used on the coasts and transported by rail, it is already close to maxxing out the raillines.

Despite the subsidies plus protectionist trade tariffs, it still costs less to buy imported sugar-based ethanol. U.S. Government mandates have made it a growth industry that many nations are getting into heavily, including China. (Note that it costs less in money and environmental impact to ship it from Brazil or China than from the mid-west.)

The industry line is that they are trying to create the market and the technology will follow. I think that is becoming true, despite the slimeballs who are saying it.

The most progressive (by far) corn-based ethanol producer is the one that supplies the IRL. They are the only ones using just food production byproduct, and not the whole grain. They've developed a very efficient process and are self-contained using ethanol to produce ethanol. This is the future of what will inevitably be just a small percentage of ethanol production.

The real future looks to be in algae. It can be done away from farmland, for one. But consider one acre of corn produces only 20-30 gallons/year. An acre with algae will produce 100,000 gallons/year!