Hmm, since its a conversion of the cellulose tissue, thats not neccesarily true. tree waste certainly has a lot more energy than the seeds it makes does.
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 12:40 PM, Jed Rothwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 > >
