Reflex wrote:
First off, yes I know I struck a nerve. Secondly, no, your post did not bother me, I've heard all of this before. Two years ago I was a HUGE proponent of BioDiesel. Then my fiance, who is a Zoology major with a focus in Wildlife Ecology as well as a second major in Agriculture and Natural Resource Communications had me chat with one of her Ag professors. He pointed out to me that it is not energy positive, that you spend more fuel for a gallon of BD than the land produces when all factors are considered. I continued researching it after that point and found that much of the government sponsored 'research' on the topic is based on best case scenerios that are not real world. They mostly exist to justify massive subsidies being given to Monosato, Archer-Daniels Midland and General Mills, along with other farm co-ops who see this as thier oppurtunity to become the next big energy power.
Independant research by instutitions not funded by big oil or the government rarely comes out energy positive, at best its about break even(and with Ethanol its always a loser). What that means is that by switching to Biofuels at this point you actually increase our dependence on foreign oil as something has to run the infrastructure that is producing the BD. It becomes less visible to the average consumer of course, but it is just as integral. Furthermore, the water cost is extreme. Perfecting the process has nothing to do with the fact that agriculture and refining take a LOT of water.
The US is facing a water crisis in the next 50 years, switching to
mass agriculture to feed our appetite for energy will accellerate that dramatically(look up the
Great Plains Aquifer, the world's largest, and you'll find out about how dependant we are on it and how fast its dissapearing). When we run out, it will be a return to the dust bowl, and without a saviour. ANd believe me, thats a far worse crisis than running out of oil.
Now, I am not calling on people here to 'do nothing'. You can do something right off simply by driving diesel as its about 30% more efficient than gasoline. Thats a start. Beyond that, what needs to happen is research money needs to be poured into alternative energy projects to find a solution(the algae solution is very promising). There is legislation up now, sponsored by Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee in the House, and Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell in the Senate called the New Apollo Energy Project (details here:
http://www.house.gov/inslee/issues/ener ... o_new.html ) that seeks to put the same kind of effort into energy independence that was put into placing a man on the moon. It has the benefit of being 'agnostic' about its approach, its not a vehicle for specific alternative interests like Archer-Daniels Midland, thus keeping our options open for the future. Its also not short sighted on sources like nuclear which will be a necessary component of the future one way or another. Expressing your support for this initiative locally and with your state represenatives would go a LONG way on this issue.
If any of you are serious about these issues, I highly advise you to read *all* the literature on it, not just the astroturfing thats happening where large conglomerates are sponsoring 'independant' websites promoting specific biofuel agendas designed to line thier pockets. Nor those who have never taken a chemistry or physics class and thus do not understand thermodynamics going on about a supposed 'cure' to all our problems. The answers are just not that simple, and they ALL come with a cost.
BTW, the 'outmoded' methods of farming mentioned are the reason we get such high yields. Remove them and you remove the potential energy density of those fields. You can't have your cake and eat it too, it just dosen't work that way.
I have to quote this post because it is now over four years later. A lot of water has passed under the bridge. The U.S. is no closer to finding a solution to or weaning it's voracious energy appetite.
While I hate to say it, I agree with most of reflex's post.
I still feel that biodiesel is a very good idea, however, there really isn't enough farmland to make it a viable solution. Even if we switch to SVO, meaning redesigning our diesels to run on that fuel, there isn't enough volume of feedstock available. We have also killed the land and made it dependent on petro-chemical fertilizers to get the yield. I think I did say it before, oil, no matter it's origin, is the country's heroin. Petroleum is the heroin and plant based oils are the methadone or crack. Most users use methadone or crack to supplement their heroin addiction. Plant based fuels is that methadone. As for the water shortage being 50 years away, ummm... it's here, now, only four years later than Reflex's post.
Pound for pound, diesel is the "better" ICE choice. Why else would large trucks use diesel, trains, (that btw are all electric, diesel is used to generate the juice) and other commercial vehicles use the diesel platform versus gasoline.
IMO, the best way to use plant based fuels is to use waste veggie oil vs new. But even that takes the stream of waste oil away from another use.
Personally, I prefer to not change the oil to bio-d because of there being the water use and glycerine disposal issues, not to mention methanol use which mainly comes from natural gas. Perhaps I am just a little lazy too. To me, it takes less effort to clean the oil than process it.
What to do?
Let's keep our little tractors running as long as we can. Run dino juice, or V8, she likes them both equally.
dad
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2006 4X4 CRD Limited Dark Khaki Build Date 03/06 - Her daily driver
Yes I'm old enough to know better