permaculture

[<permed@nor.com.au>]

>By the time you subtract the fuel it takes to grow the plant matter and to
>produce the fuel, is there any left over for other uses? 

The folk I know who use biofuel to run their deisel vehicles all filter 
used vegetable oil retrieved from cafes etc. In this context I think its 
a great way to recycle these waste products - there must be massive 
amounts of waste frying oil from all the fast food store, restaurants 
etc. But growing annual crops specifically for running motor vehicles is 
not a solution to fossil fuel alternatives.

Alternatives....?
Biogas - there's a fleet of taxis in Adelaide running on biogas retreived 
from land fill sites.
Hydrogen fuel - Browns Gas - Yule Brown developed a safe way to separate 
Hydrogen from water and implode the hydrogen molecules to release energy 
- he drove a car from Sydney to Cairns in the 1980's on 1 liter of water! 
I edited an article about this for PIJ in the early '90's and a friend 
wanted to follow it through but Yule Brown couldn't be found (gone 
underground? otherwise eliminated? who knows...) I think this might be 
one of the fuels of the future but the oil industry wouldn't want to see 
it too poplular too soon....
Robyn