Jones Beene wrote:
Yesterday, an alternative fuel developed by U of Wisconsin prof.
James Dumesic was announced which looks a lot like the gasoline and
diesel fuel used in vehicles today. That's because the new fuel is
identical at the molecular level to petroleum-based fuel. The only
difference is where it comes from.
As I have pointed out before, several times, it does not matter where
it comes from. If you converted the entire plant growth of North
America -- every stick, every leaf, acorn and grain of corn grown in
the continent -- into fuel you would not have half enough fuel. The
whole notion of large-scale biofuel grown in natural conditions is absurd.
Things like algae grown in tanks, and so on, are different.
Beene refers to "ag waste." As I have pointed out numerous times,
most of the energy in agricultural plants is in the seeds, and we eat
them. All plants concentrate energy in the seeds, and plants bred for
food concentrate even more (making them vulnerable to natural enemies
and competing plants -- weeds). We do not leave much energy behind in
ag waste. So, the most you could possibly get out of agricultural
leftovers and waste would be less than the total amount we eat, which
is 2000 kcal per day. That's 2.3 kWH, or 8.4 MJ, or 0.06 gallons of
gasoline, ignoring losses during production of the fuel.
- Jed
