An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol.
Or 21.7 pounds of corn to make one gallon of ethanol
131,000 Btu are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 Btu.
You do the math.
The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix), would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans.
Hey just how much water does it take to grow 1 acre of cone?
About 900 gals
Do you think this is a good thing to do?
Best case Under the best-existing practices, the amount of energy used to grow the corn and convert it into ethanol is 57,504 BTUs per gallon. Ethanol itself contains 84,100 BTUs per gallon.