| Author |
Message |
Jason Whitaker (Jeepme)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 12:20 pm: | |
Read this and thought of the recent thread about biodiesel.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=948328
Wonder if Willies done any studies on it....
Jason Whitaker |
James Maxwell (Jmaxwell)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 1:18 pm: | |
I don't know abt. Cornell, but UC Berkeley is heavily involved in solar, wind, and tidal alternative energy research, and would therefore maybe have an ulterior motive for nixing bio technology. Their figures would certainly indicate that maybe a pause and reconsider action is in order. Another study with similar results could well spell doom for biodiesel. Those are some pretty hefty energy loss numbers. Makes me sort of glad that I didn't run out and invest in the equipment to make the stuff.
As for Willie, it wouldn't be his 1st bad investment. |
Doug Dickinson (Dougd470)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 4:20 pm: | |
Solar/wind/tidal and others (don't forget the nukes) all have their place. A renewable source like veggie oil, biodiesel, or whatever also has it's place. I wouldn't write anything off yet. All technology is easy to write off till it gets to the point of economies of scale.
Long distance movement of goods and people (trucks, buses, trains) probably won't be killing their internal combustion engines for a long while. |
Mike (Busone)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 6:13 pm: | |
I remember reading several things a while back about using alage to produce lots of oil for biodiesel. I did a Google search and found one really short doc explaining it. The NREL did some studies that show that we could product enough cheap oil for biodiesel production to me economical.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/biodiesel_from_algae.pdf
http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html |
gusc
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 10:14 pm: | |
I remember reading years ago that Ethanol and Methanol both took more energy to produce than they produced. The farmers were burning more diesel and the distillers were using more energy than the whole exercise was worth. This was mostly a political thing to provide a market for grain and pushed very hard by one of our congressmen until he was forced to retire for some other misstep.
This may no longer apply but I haven't seen anything to dispute it. |
gusc
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 10:18 pm: | |
On second thought, why do I get the feeling that the Cornell study was financed by the oil industry?? |
Username
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 10:50 am: | |
Saw a similar post on MAK's board regarding this same study. This may well just be propaganda from Dick Cheney, the guy who is actually running the country. It's a typical tactic, smear your competitors, just dressed up a little bit.
Also, you will be hearing a lot more about nuclear power in the near future, as a means of generating energy for the extraction of oil from subprime fields (tar sands and the like), and also as a means of generating hydrogen for fuel cells. Horrific conversion efficiencies, tens of millenia of toxicity....
The latter is just the latest New Thing from the "we know what's good for you" *cough, cough* folks at Big Energy / Brother. Alternative energy strips them of control. So, just follow the money... |
Kyle Brandt (Kyle4501)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 1:04 pm: | |
Gasohol has been around for a long time. IF IT WAS as good as they promised when it first came out, then why has it not caught on in a larger scale? Seems to me it is just more political BS to generate a smoke screen around the real & important issues.
A wise man once said 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch'.
As far as gasohol goes, the alcohol brings a bunch of side effects with it that it's supporters did not want published.
Makes me wonder what the biodiesel side effects are.
kyle4501 |
Username
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - 7:49 pm: | |
The following link, beyond being interesting in and of itself, also, at the bottom, contains links to other pages that address recent curiosities about biodiesel.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/3/15219/08244 |
johnwood
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 06, 2005 - 2:22 pm: | |
Most fertilizer (nitrogen) is made with natural gas and the farmers tractors are diesel........... to grow a crop to make alcohol.......... So we consume a ton of hydrocarbons and energy to mfg (steel, rubber etc.) the tractor, combine, and the still to make a "natural" fuel. Dontcha just love it!
I think that there are better options somewhere out there. Jes not sure what they be. |
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page