Keith must still be sleeping :-) If the CO2 released in fermentation of (say) forestry residues or other ligno cellulosics for ethanol production, you'd surely have to compare that to methane released if those materials biodegraded. Methane's a bit more effective as a greenhouse gas (or so I read somewhere).
Interesting thought though. David Teal wrote: > I have had a car running on home-made ethanol, but abandoned the project in > favour of biodiesel, mainly on cost grounds. There is, however, another > aspect of ethanol which disquiets. Most proponents cite the carbon dioxide > released during fermentation as some sort of advantage, saying it promotes > plant growth or can be used to make fizzy drinks. No mention of either: > * Its role as a greenhouse gas or > * The loss of energy in all that carbon > In one sense, fermentation is a cold combustion process so we are > squandering a decent part of the energy in the original feedstock sugars. > > Or have I got it all wrong? > > David T. > > Biofuels at Journey to Forever > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > Biofuel at WebConX > http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm > List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- David Preskett, BSc (Hons.), AIWSc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reduce - reuse - recycle University of Wales BioComposites Centre Deiniol Road Bangor Gwynedd LL57 2UW http://www.bc.bangor.ac.uk Tel +44 (0)1248-370588 Fax: +44 (0)1248-370594 Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
