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Biofuels * USA
* USA - Are not the answer
I've been gradually becoming less and less excited about the potential for biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel, etc.) to replace fossil fuels
USA -The Frozen North -February 10, 2008: -- ... and I've now come all the way around to the opposite opinion of what I used to believe... I'm now convinced that biofuels are not the answer, either to global warming or our limited reserves of liquid fossil fuels... Biofuels are a way of storing the energy from sunlight in (usually) liquid form, suitable for powering vehicles, heating homes, and similar purposes. The problem is that when you measure the net energy content of the resulting fuel (after subtracting the energy required to process it, such as planting, harvesting, fermentation, distillation, etc.), you find that the ethanol, biodiesel, etc. contains almost a laughably small percentage of the original energy of the sunlight which fell on the field. We're talking about hundredths of a percent or less--with some scientists arguing that some fuels (like corn ethanol) actually contain less energy than what it took to process the plants into fuel... I don't think biofuels are a sustainable way to replace all our liquid fuel needs: the majority of the burden has to come from solar power and electricity... There are some niches where it makes sense, though. Long-distance transportation is one of those. Waste biomass conversion (i.e. taking biomass which would otherwise just be landfilled, such as downed trees, agricultural waste, etc., and either burning it for heat or converting it to liquid fuel) is also sensible, though there isn't enough waste biomass around to make a big dent in our fossil fuel use... But fueling your Hummer with biodiesel is not the way to save the planet...
* USA - Sweden: Serves as ethanol model - Michigan, U.S. officials look to small country that has welcomed alternative fuel for tips to help it catch on here
Washington,DC,USA -The Detroit News (Detroit,Mich,USA), by David Shepardson -February 11, 2008: -- Sweden has embraced ethanol unlike any other country outside Brazil, and the Nordic nation's example may help the United States in its quest to reduce its dependence on foreign oil... How committed is Sweden, a small country with just 4.2 million cars?... Last year, it began converting beer, wine and hard alcohol smuggled into the country into biofuel used to power trucks and buses. Many Swedes attempt to bring alcohol home because taxes are lower in continental Europe. In 2007, Sweden turned 180,000 gallons of alcohol into biofuel... Some vodka distilleries are switching to ethanol production, said Bo Andersson, a Swedish native and General Motors Corp.'s vice president for global purchasing, and some paper mills in northern Sweden are working to develop cellulosic ethanol... But Bruce Dale, a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University and an expert on ethanol, said Congress was right to set tough goals and the United States can learn from Sweden... "Otherwise, we're going to muddle along for a long time," Dale said. "How much longer do we want to be dependent on $100-a-barrel oil that's crippling us?"...
Labels: biofuel debate
posted by Unknown @ 9:39 AM
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