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Energy used to produce ethanol is excessive. Corrodes fuel system parts. Horrid gas mileage!
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It is still a lesser evil than petroleum and all of the political messes (and $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) it has cost the US in the last 30 years.
Energy 'losses' in production are a function of our *currnet* dependency on foreign oil. See my above post. The efficiencies will change. Net energy is one measurement, but when the energy used is also renewable there are LONG TERM gains beyond short-term economics.
Sure ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline, which is more corrosive than diesel, which is more corrosive than most biodiesels. So what? It only matters to existing engines that were meant for gasoline. It's as simple as switching materials used in tanks, lines, seals, and injectors. Already done. Many millions of vehicles are already E85 compatible.
Ethanol does not form deposits in your engine or injectors like gasoline can, which is one reason it is added to regular gasoline. It is also added to boost the octane number (i.e. 89 octane).
The current loss of fuel economy is based on vehicles that can run EITHER gasoline OR E85. They are optimized for gasoline. If they were optimized for ethanol, we could recapture quite a bit of that efficiency.
Examples: catalytic converters could be less restrictive due to ethanol burning cleaner. Spark advance and compression ratios could be higher due to higher octane ratings. Direct-injection technologies work very well with ethanols and reduce some of the corrosion concerns.
Again, the largest single reason for ethanol development is to reduce our dependence on petroleum and foster utilizing renewable resources.