[Homestead] Biodiesel and Ethenol

Lynda lurine at softcom.net
Sat Jun 10 23:21:09 EDT 2006


From: <Clansgian at wmconnect.com>

> Let's suppose that we took all the vegetable based oil produced in the 
> world
> in a year and converted it into biodiesel for motor fuel.  Last year all 
> the
> biological based oils produced from all sources in the world, land and 
> sea,
> was 135 million metric tons.  Less than a quarter of this is suitable for
> biodiesel.
>
***Can you back up this statement with some facts.  What plant oils aren't 
suitable for making biodiesel?  Plus, you don't have to use plant oils, 
animal oils can also be used.  Enough of those oils are going into landfill 
right now to power a few vehicles also.  30 million gallons of waste oil go 
into landfill now each year.  Seems to me that using it would be better than 
putting it in landfills.

>snip<
> Doing the math on ethanol and any of the other alternate motor fuels leads 
> to
> the same dismal conclusion.  If we used ALL the corn grown in the US to 
> make
> ethanol and used it exclusively as a motor fuel (and deducted the energy 
> it
> takes to grow and distill and refine it), our tanks go empty in the early
> evening of the first day.
>
***I'm not a big ethenol fan since it takes 98,000 BTUs to produce 78,000 
BTUs.  HOWEVER, I'd suggest you do some research because it doesn't take corn, or any other primary use plant to make ethenol.  You can use 
"throw-away" plant parts to make ethenol which is what Brazil does.  And, 
again, your math (tanks going empty in the early evening of the first day) 
is not based on fact but on your anti-ethenol rantings.

"President Bush has made a surprising call to eliminate a two decade long tariff on ethanol produced from sugarcane in Brazil.  Sugarcane produces eight times more energy per pound than corn, making U.S.  corn-based ethanol appear to be irrational and inefficient. But according to Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, a biofuel trade organization, competition in the global marketplace will only create demands for U.S. farmers to generate biofuels more efficiently.  A potential competitor to sugarcane ethanol is cellulosic ethanol, derived from switch grass and farm waste. "No threat. It's an opportunity," Shaw said. "We are in Iowa. All you see is cellulose."  Meanwhile, Archer Daniels Midland, one of the most powerful corporate agribusiness lobbyists in Washington, continues to successfully push Congress to approve subsidizing the less efficient corn-based ethanol with billions of dollars of taxpayer money. Some studies have estimated that in order to replace all U.S. oil imports with domestically produced corn ethanol, as much as five times the entire area currently farmed for all crops in the U.S. would be needed."

Lynda


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