actually it takes around 1.75 btus to make 1 btu of corn ethanol but the question is where does that btu come from ... sunlight in a corn field if you pull that out of the mix

https://www.extension.

that is from Argonne national laboratory.

so the fossil fuel cost of corn ethanol is .76 fossil fuel btu to make 1 btu of corn ethanol

cellulosic ethanol .10 fossil fuel btu to make 1 btu of cellulosic ethanol

and regular unleaded gasoline takes 1.23 btus of fossil fuel to make 1 btu of regular gasoline.

these numbers are 10 years old so I would assume improvement in the ethanol conversions .... not sure on the regular gasoline I assume fracking is more energy intense but don't have anything handy at the moment to prove or disprove
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