BioFuel. The fuel of the future?
By Christopher MooreHere is an interesting article about biofuels posted at Functionalism In Action by Ian Conrad:
There is so much hype, today, about biofuels. They are seen as the savior of our nation — especially corn-ethanol; especially if one were to compare the subsidization that goes on here. But is this the right approach?
The article continues, making the following point with regards to a new process af turning corn sugar into good old fashioned gasoline:
To compare, the most effective gallon-per-acre biofuel crop right now is palm oil, which hovers around 680 gallons-per-acre. So this is more than triple the amount — and it’s good ol’ fashioned gasoline to boot! Here comes the number crunching. In 2004, the US used approximately 318 billion gallons of oil. At 2,000 gallons per acre, that comes out to roughly 159 million acres of arable land — and this is assuming that the cellulosic starch problem can be overcome — for which there are no hypothetical solutions yet available. According to the CIA’s “World Factbook”, the US has 9,161,923 square kilometers of land, 18.01% of which are arable. That’s 1,650,62 square kilometers. 1 acre = 0.00404685642 square kilometers, so the US has 407,739,281 acres of arable land. To maintain the energy usage levels of 2004 purely from biofuels derived from this process would require ~40% of all arable land in the nation.
The question Ian asks is an important one, considering a slew of would be presidents are busy interupting the breakfasts of Iowans: “What the devil is the justification of the subsidization of corn-ethanol production?”
Read the entire article here.
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I’m pretty sure its never safe, or wise, to mix politics and science. However, many scientist feature themselves as “political watchdogs.” Perhaps if those same scientists spent a their time working out solutions to the problems, the rest of us, including the politicians, cold simply enjoy the fruits of those efforts instead of relying on a political solution that is doomed to fail.
Comment by brandon — Thursday -- August 30th, 2007 @ 2:34 am