Reflex wrote:
I would rather not see major use of BioDiesel. As it stands today, water consumption for production of BD is around 3-1(ie: 1 gallon of BD requires 3 gallons of water to produce), and even if all of the US farmland was converted to pure biofuel production we would produce less than 5% of what the country needs(plus we'd replace importing oil with importing food).
As it stands today, biofuels are a very bad idea. There is however hope, algae based BD appears to be able to be produced with a positive energy level(biofuels right now consume more energy in thier production than you get by burning them). It is still at the research stage, but it has been accomplished on a small scale. As algae is one of the best photosythisizers on the planet, if we can't make it work there the hopes are fairly slim because making it from plant material is never going to come close to what we need.
BTW, I work on energy issues with the WA state Democratic Party. I am not pro-big oil or anything else. But it is VERY important that we do not jump from the frying pan and into the fire. Whatever we switch to as a nation needs to be sustainable and not create an even worse problem than the fossil fuels we are using today.
I will throw a bone in here however: If we can switch to a biofuel at some point, BD is the logical choice. Ethanol is a very toxic substance and its emissions make gasoline seem tame by comparison(a form of nerve gas is among them). Furthermore, its far less energy dense than BD or natural gasoline, we'd have to produce a ton more of it to replace gasoline usage in this country as a result. Just remember though: Biofuels sound like a good idea until you realize that one of the largest polluters in the world is modern agriculture. We may be able to get off our foreign fuel addiction, and even slow global warming by switching, but we also would be polluting on a much larger scale than before, and using far more genetic engineering with crops and chemical fertilizers and pesticides which contaminate our ground water.
Wow! and OMG! are you sure you are working for the democratic party and not the republicans?
So, your answer is to NOT do ANYTHING until the perfect answer is had?
Actually, if you do in fact work with the democratic party, it's no wonder the country can't move forward. It looks like we are once again past due for a third party.
I have heard that, "even if... 5%.... consumes more energy than supplied..." rhetoric before. I also think the "research" some of those assumptions were based upon was severely skewed by the researchers personal bias.
You don't however mention svo use as a fuel. Bio-d however is much more soccer mom friendly considering the current diesel technology.
You mention that water use is 3:1 for Bio-D production. So, once again, the answer is to STOP and not perfect the process? Isn't it true that Bio-D producers recognize that and are perfecting ways to reduce water consumption if for no other reason to reduce their production costs? Modern agriculture is the world's biggest polluter? In what ways? When you apply outmoded models based on petroleum products use, I guess it is.
Perhaps we should scrap the internal combustion all together, switch to electric cars, convert all the power plants to Nuclear -run by the government and not pollute at all? Oh, wait, there's that pesky problem of the waste....
To throw you a bone, algae production does look promising. But in your words, not quite ready so lets not do it until it's perfect.
Yes, you have struck a nerve. And I hope I have too. The answer isn't as easy or simple as either of us has pointed out. I however, am FOR whatever it takes to get us off of dino. To do that, to kick the addiction, it is going to take work on several fronts. In the short term, it isn't going to be a "switch-to" it is going to be a "conversion" process that takes time. As the saying goes, "once an addict, always an addict." Just ask "dub-ya".
Dad.
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