The biofuel basis I mention doesn't use land biomass as input but only solar (or other green energy) and the atmosphere.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:20 AM jim bell <[email protected]> wrote: > I think the main hurdle to using biofuels is reducing the cost of enzymes > used to break down cellulose. ("cellulases"). > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulase Plenty of biomass is > available, but it is necessary to break down cellulose. That's hard, > because nature has evolved cellulose to be very resistant to breakdown: > (Why else can 1000+ year old trees exist; their central cellulose lasted > that long without breaking down.) > > This is first done by mechanical crushing, and then by breaking down some > of the cellulose bonds employing inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric and > sulfuric acid. At that point, enzymes (organic catalysts) can be used to > further break down the cellulose into simple sugars, which are then > converted (by yeasts) to ethanol and other simple fuels. > × > > In other words, a lot of biochemistry. > > Jim Bell > > > > On Friday, July 13, 2018, 8:24:53 AM PDT, Steven Schear < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > >A possible alternative is to transition to biofuels, which harvest all > their carbon from the atmosphere, and can be net carbon neutral. > > On Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 8:10 AM John Newman <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, Jul 06, 2018 at 05:20:30PM +0000, jim bell wrote: > > This article sure sounds foolish. As I see it, the main driver in the > increase in "growth" (other than population) is productivity. > Productivity tends to be driven by gradual adoptions of automation, which > has been a major factor for 50+ years, and actually far larger. Automation > isn't going away, and will only increase in effectiveness for decades > > Energy is a factor, but society is well on its way to the widespread > adoption of solar and wind energy. Solar is useful in most locations, and > wind will eventually be useable just about everywhere, 24 hours per day, > with the use of low-resistance materials to conduct that energy, for > example metallic carbon nanotubes. (MCNTs). > > Jim Bell > > > > Personally I wish the "progressive left" could get over its deep fear of > nuclear energy, and we could build some modern reactors. Maybe when (if) > they ever get a fusion reactor that can substain a reaction... > > > https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/iter-nuclear-fusion-reactor-halfway-complete/ > > Of course, solar and wind power is great :) Anything to stop burning > more fucking carbon.. > > - > John > > > > > > > > > > On Friday, July 6, 2018, 9:15:13 AM PDT, Steven Schear < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > "If we extrapolate this trend forward, labour productivity growth would > reach zero by 2028." > > > https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/govt-economic-advisor-warns-british-defence-planners-that-growth-is-ending-abf806f17845 > > > > -- > GPG fingerprint: 17FD 615A D20D AFE8 B3E4 C9D2 E324 20BE D47A 78C7 > >
