King Oil: Re: <you are actually trying to compare energy output from lighting a pile of soybeans on fire vs converting them to a fuel and burning the fuel using a controlled process?>
Yes, that's exactly what I'm comparing. There is only so much energy released by combining oxygen to carbon or hydrogen. If you convert soybeans to a different fuel, you will have the same atoms and the same combustion process turning carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to carbon dioxide and water. Why do you feel there can be more energy released if you rearrange the chemical formulae?
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