re: #631 BryanS

Wouldn’t there still be waste products from the plant material that could be sold back as fertilizer? Trace minerals and non-cellulosic matter would be by-products, no?

No; you’re converting all those organic compounds into alcohol.

It’s true that the process isn’t 100% efficient; nothing is. But it comes at a price. You need some amount of organic matter to turn into alcohol, and the only way to get yields high enough is to fertilize and suppress competition from weeds with pesticides - both of which are made directly from oil. You deplete the soil, making it completely impossible to grow anything in it without extensive synthetic aid, and you wind up with a net energy loss anyway.

Thermodynamics is a heartless bitch.