Some facts about Ethanol and Oil Shale.An interesting note from Senator Orrin Hatch's website on ethanol and oil shale:
"A September 2007 article in Southwest Hydrology states that irrigated corn requires well over 700 barrels of water for each barrel of ethanol. A barrel of ethanol has about 30 percent less energy than a barrel of oil. In other words, to make just one oil equivalent barrel of ethanol, it would take over 1,000 barrels of water. The Department of Energy reports that oil shale, for the entire process, including land restoration, would require just three barrels of water for every barrel of shale oil, about the same as gasoline."
"did you know oil shale uses much less land than either ethanol or gasoline? One acre of corn produces 7 to 10 barrels of ethanol. One acre in the oil patch produces about 10,000 barrels of oil. One acre of oil shale produces between 100,000 and 1 million-plus barrels of shale oil! That’s right, on average, an acre of oil shale will produce around 500,000 barrels of oil."
Full article: https://hatch.senate.gov/public/index...
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