Hi Sam, 80 years ago my Pa grew a paddock of oats to feed his "organic tractors" and now I'd like to do the same. To crop 1000 acres I need approximately 20,000 litres of dino diesel, and to crop 1500 acres I need 30,000 litres.
To date, I have been achieving an extraction of about 30% oil, depending on seasonal conditions. Yield is obviously linked to that as well. But, assuming a 30% extraction of oil and 0.8 tonne/acre I need to grow approximately 60 tonnes of Canola or 75 acres. That is about 7.5% of my cropping area, but that is assuming a conservative yield. If I assume yield of 1 tonne/acre (which is now almost the district average) that area comes back to 60 acres or 6% By using biodiesel I can effectively double the life of my diesel engines and reduce my emissions as well! That should be worth a few carbon credits! To answer your question, Yes...it is not beyond the capacity of individuals farmers to be able to commit an acreage of their cropping area for a fuel crop. With the development of high yielding varieties that % could be reduced even further. But, then again...I guess that's not the correct answer...is it! (just a hint of healthy skeptasism!) As far as producing enough biodiesel from oilseed to fulfill Australia' energy requirements, I haven't got the data to be able to calculate that one. All I see is that the Agriculture sector has the capacity to be able to produce a lot of its energy requirements. Regards Steven -----Original Message----- From: Sam Critchley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 12:43 AM To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [biofuels-biz] Website Hi Steven, other readers, Great site, very interesting stuff you're doing (perhaps worth commercialising too!). One question. How many acres/hectares of land do you think it would take to go to 100% BD for your 20-30,000 litre annual requirement? Is there already enough farmland in Australia to supply its fossil fuel needs (barring power stations). Cheers, Sam On Thu, 15 May 2003 12:16:25 +1000, Steven & Helen Hobbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have just got my website up and running, > Feel free to take a look and sign the guest book! > http://www.bebioenergy.com/ > Cheers > Steven > > PS Feel free to forward to anyone else who may be interested > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > 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/ > > > -- 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/ --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.476 / Virus Database: 273 - Release Date: 24/04/2003 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/aM1XQD/od7FAA/uetFAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
