> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of xponentrob > Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:09 AM > To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion > Subject: Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years? > > > > > If there's biofuel technology that doesn't significantly impact the > > food stream as a source of motor vehicle fuel, then I'm all for it. > > I'm not anywhere near PC myself, and if there's a GMO solution that > > actually does provide a decent rate of return without investing more > > energy in getting energy out of the fuel produced or cut too deeply > > into the food supply, great. Hadn't heard of this. > > > > These days I'm looking cynically at biofuels. they do nothing to > reduce CO2 levels in most cases (most applications are for ICE),
I'm not sure I follow you here. Present biofuels are bad, they divert food into products that have low net energy out per energy unit in. I have no problem with that argument. But, under lab conditions they've gotten over 1000x the yield of corn. Now, there are problems with the algae; it's especially susceptible to fungi attacks. But, with bioengineering costs dropping a factor of two per year, this appears to be an area that can be tweaked, one way or another. It would be akin to knowing you needed a megaflop machine to get your work done back in '76....Moore's law would make you optimistic. Battery performance has progressed at a much slower rate. > but there is some hope for a good fuel for Fuel Cells That is another possibility for energy storage for cars >and there *will* be a long term need for diesels. More critically for biofuel: aviation. It will be a long time before a battery can power a 777 for 8000 miles. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
