Energy Production from Maize
David Piementel
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 (United States)
Abstract
All biofuels produced in the world utilize food resources. This contributes to the world starvation problem that is reported to be more than 66% of the world population being malnourished. Starvation is the number one cause of death in the world. Approximately 40% of U.S. corn is being converted into ethanol and 1.6 liters of fossil oil equivalents are required to produce 1 liter of ethanol. Thus, the U.S. is importing oil to produce ethanol at an enormous economic and fuel cost to the people of the nation, and reduces food resource availability to the people.
Keywords:
biofuels, maize, carbon printReferences
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Authors
David PiementelCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 United States
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