I was hoping to get people thinking about it and see my Illusions.
Since you ask.
UK the price of corn is higher? So your math will be different. I notice when I was there everything is more expensive, wages are less. Taxes are high.
Second, the price of corn is <$2. (looked it up) Futures are predicting $3.
Third, Corn produces more than 2 gal per bushel.
Millage is much better than my original (years ago) calculations. (half the corn needed)
Forth, I did not include any taxes, which account for half the cost.
So two errors canceled out, ended up being correct final price.
People will demand tax relief and get it, when the price gets this high.
Other effects; increase the demand for corn, then the price will rise.
Economics will balance the cost of oil against corn.
Sugar can be very cheap, lower cost than corn. Sugar is what makes Alcohol, supplementing the corn with sugar will increase the Alcohol production. Or eliminating the corn all together. Many other sources of sugar. Best price will be used.
If alternate fuels are used, the demand for oil will drop, reducing it's price.
Corn for Alcohol will save the farmers the drying cost (nice point). You want the corn nice and juicy. In the right locations solar can be used to distill and dry the mash. (not likely)
Reading up on this after my post, over 60 millions gal of alcohol are used today, mixed with gas.
Problems with Alcohol in production cars today:
Pure alcohol is almost impossible. Alcohol loves water. About the best you can do is 95% any drink you get claiming >190 proof is BS.
Alcohol and water are very corrosive to your engine, that is why the percentage is limited. Remember when Gasohol come out? Was the same thing gas is today. The gas mix was changed never told people until years later. (I did not hear it...)
Alcohol absorbs water, when <92% it won't burn in the engine.
Energy density of alcohol is only 70% of gas. So, your fuel economy will decrease. The rest of the story is the compression can be upped to 12:1 vs 8.4:1 today. This makes up for the lower energy density, ending with 90%. So, you will see 10% fuel economy reduction. The octane of alcohol is like 150, anybody know? The compression ratio could be made higher, but the engine cost more. The same problem Diesel has.
Corn only captures <3% of the sun when using the Alcohol. Even cheap solar panels do 3 times that well. Storage is the problem. Hydrogen is not the answer.
There are many solutions, we need the prices of energy to go up, so we can start using the alternates. Breaking our need of oil.
All Alchemist please step forward and solve this problem.
(Please tear this apart, Using FACTS. But be nice:-) and
Have fun.