travelingin2006 asked:


Pound for pound pumpkins are one of the highest yielding crops per acre and they can grow in somewhat dry conditions. I would really like to see a chart showing how productive different plants can be at making ethanol. Does anybody know where to find that?

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2 Comments so far

1. dude August 17, 2009 10:37 pm

   i do not know where to find such a chart, but i can tell you one thing. ethanol can be made from anything organic, which means we can make all of the energy we need, with some left for export.
   back when gas only cost about 30 cents a gallon, ethanol would have only cost 5 cents a gallon. we could have had this all of these years instead of high gas prices, air pollution and terrorism.

2. ToxicJ August 19, 2009 5:51 pm

   Actually, I would think pumpkins to be somewhat poor candidates for ethanol production. The ethanol that we use for fuel is produced by yeast through the process of fermentation, much in the same way that we use yeast to produce alcoholic beverages. The key to producing alot of ethanol with as little raw material as possible is to recognize the fact that yeast prefer sugars and starches as a source of energy. So any vegetables high in sugar and/or starch are potential candidates. Corn and sugar beets are both good examples of potential candidates for ethanol production. If I’m not mistaken, pumpkins have a fairly low amount of sugar and starch for their size/weight.

   Edit: I should point out that pumpkins may be a poor source of ethanol due to their relatively low amount of sugar/starch, but they are an excellent ‘low-carb’ food for the same reason.

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