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biodiesel better than alcohol of any kind...
It's mostly about E.R.O.E.I. That stands for:
Energy
Returned
On
Energy
Invested
If you make your own alcohol, the EROEI is very close to 1.0 or less. That means that it takes as much energy input to MAKE the alcohol as you get out from BURNING the alcohol. This means you're just converting energy source one into energy source 2, but not gaining anything. Bad plan. Even if you do it with optimal efficiencies in a huge factory and don't waste any of the process heat, and count the energy value of the leftover grain products, about the best you can do (from corn) is 1.3 That means 30% more energy out than you put in to make the alcohol.
Biodiesel on the other hand, has an EROEI of 3 for virgin soybean oil, and 6 or 7 if you start from WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil), AKA used fryer oil. Plus, the process of making biodiesel is about as complicated as baking a cake. Making your own alcohol is far far more complex.
On top of that, all other things being equal, a diesel can be 20% more efficient than a gasser due to better overall Carnot thermodynamic efficiency.
Yes, I make and burn biodiesel in my 2004 VW jetta. Approaching 90,000 trouble free miles on (mostly) biodiesel.
HTH,
troy
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