Some interesting data on the cost of different fuels.
The price of gasoline seems a bit odd to me. Since oil just comes out of the ground, is the price of gas based on refining? Even if the cost of oil seems a bit arbitrary, I noticed that the study is based on $65/bl oil. Wonder when we will see prices that low again.
The sooner we forget about corn and move research onto cellulosic waste and biodiesel the better. But given the power of special interests over common interests (and common sense), Im not holding my breath. The goes for focusing on "better" rather than "cheaper".
Brazil's Sugar-Cane Ethanol Gets a Boost From IMF Report
By BOB DAVIS and LAUREN ETTER
October 18, 2007
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Brazil's sugar-cane-based ethanol is the only form of ethanol that is generally cheaper to produce than gasoline, according to an International Monetary Fund analysis, boosting Brazil's plans to make itself a fuel powerhouse and undermining U.S. corn growers' efforts to present themselves as price competitive.
The analysis, part of IMF's semiannual World Economic Outlook, also said none of the current crop of biodiesels can compete on price with conventional diesel, except perhaps for a biodiesel being developed from India's drought-resistant jatropha tree.
As part of the report, the IMF compared costs and environmental benefits of different ways of making ethanol and biodiesel. Sugar-cane-based Brazilian ethanol was at least 15% cheaper to produce than gasoline, the report said, while corn-based U.S. ethanol was 18% more expensive than gasoline. Sugar-beet-based European ethanol was twice as expensive to make as gasoline, as was ethanol made from cellulosic waste. The latter is in early stages of development. Sugar-cane ethanol and cellulosic ethanol also had far fewer greenhouse emissions, per kilometer traveled, than corn ethanol.
For its study, the IMF assumed oil was trading at $65 a barrel -- about the average for 2007 but 34% lower than today's closing price -- and that crops were trading at the average price for the first half of the year.
