Interesting. I figure that the one million hectares of set-aside land in Japan, if planted with rice as an energy crop, could produce 557,000 tons / 662 million litres of biodiesel (plus seedcake plus 139,000 tons of glycerine) OR 398 million gallons of ethanol (plus high-value distillers grains as livestock feed plus saleable CO2).
In either case the seedcake/distillers grains would substitute for imported corn livestock feed. (Better than the 28,000 tons of Starlink found here recently!) On the other hand, if the by-products were composted and re-applied to the land (along with the rice straw) there'd be no need for subsequent-crop fertilisers (as well as reduced pesticide use). If you got into ducks for weed-control, plus duckweed and azolla to provide nutrients for both, it gets very interesting. Ill-considered assessments of biofuels potential here (and elsewhere) only see a tiny part of the picture. Keith Addison Journey to Forever Handmade Projects Tokyo http://journeytoforever.org/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
