At 11:40 AM 6/26/2007, Karl Mullendore wrote... >That story paints a rather limited view of what's possible regarding >biodiesel. There are many more productive 'crops' like algae for >biodiesel. >Yields of 1000 gallons per acre are possible. The article I cited was critical of production efficiencies, how much energy goes into producing the final product, and points out that current biodiesel and ethanol production is actually wasteful of energy (more energy is used than is produced). Your mention of "productive" is in regard to yield per area, which is a completely different issue. If existing biomass sources (soy, corn, etc.) were to be used to displace mineral oil, we wouldn't have enough farmland to drive and eat. That is the problem which algal oil solves - you can build algae tanks in places where you can't grow traditional crops, like a desert. I haven't seen any articles which analyze the energy efficiency of biodiesel from algae. Perhaps you can point to an article which shows actual production efficiencies for algae based biodiesel? |
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