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Deepthi Subbu
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A new technique for extracting ethanol, an alternative heat and fuel source, from corn, uses stover, which is a byproduct of wheat farming. This technique is profitable as long as petroleum prices stay above $2.00 per gallon and corn prices remain under $3.00 per bushel. Since petroleum prices have not dropped below $2.00 per gallon in several years, and corn prices are now at $3.50 per bushel and projected to fall in the future, anyone wishing to invest in companies with the potential for rapid growth in profits would be well-advised to invest in wheat farms, whose currently nearly worthless product will soon become a valuable commodity.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) A small quantity of stover is currently sold to nuclear energy plants, but the vast majority of it is discarded as bio-waste.
(B) The $3.00 per bushel maximum corn price as a threshold of profitability accounts for the extra costs of separating stover from other corn byproducts and converting it to ethanol.
(C) Only sixty percent of the potential ethanol in any given stalk of corn can be extracted using conventional techniques of ethyl hydration or yeast fermentation.
(D) Techniques to extract ethanol from corn that do not rely on stover require significantly more petroleum-derived energy and, as such, become less profitable when petroleum prices rise above two dollars per gallon.
(E) The quantity of stover produced annually as a byproduct of wheat farming is several times the amount that is likely to be useful in the production of ethanol.
OA to follow
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) A small quantity of stover is currently sold to nuclear energy plants, but the vast majority of it is discarded as bio-waste.
(B) The $3.00 per bushel maximum corn price as a threshold of profitability accounts for the extra costs of separating stover from other corn byproducts and converting it to ethanol.
(C) Only sixty percent of the potential ethanol in any given stalk of corn can be extracted using conventional techniques of ethyl hydration or yeast fermentation.
(D) Techniques to extract ethanol from corn that do not rely on stover require significantly more petroleum-derived energy and, as such, become less profitable when petroleum prices rise above two dollars per gallon.
(E) The quantity of stover produced annually as a byproduct of wheat farming is several times the amount that is likely to be useful in the production of ethanol.
OA to follow
