-
-
-
- Why Alternative Liquid fuels are Important
-
zogger Wed, 07 May 2008 10:10:52 PDT Jobs
-
There's been much criticism over alternative liquid fuels, ethanol and biodiesel, but..the world is running right now with mostly vehicles that require liquid fuels. Until such a time as cheap hydrogen for fuel cells exists or huge numbers of electric vehicles are out there, we are stuck with massively bid up prices on petroleum fuels. The only viable alternative now is bio derived sources in order to beat the cartels and speculative cost increases. Just OPEC, leaving out all the other traditional oil producers, is predicted to take in over one trillion dollars this year, and then *that* price is bid even higher and higher by big gamblers. If a lot of that went towards even more interest and R&D for the biofuels, perhaps we could have some more cost competition in the market place. It all depends on where you want your money to go to.
-
..."EIA estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned $674 billion in net oil export revenues in 2007, a 10 percent increase from 2006. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $194 billion, representing 29 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $1,143, a 8 percent increase from 2006. Based on projections from the EIA May 2008 Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), OPEC net oil export revenues could be $1,060 billion in 2008 and $990 billion in 2009 (please note that estimates for individual OPEC members are not available for the forecast period)."
ed.z.: And if it gets to $200 a barrel, or even higher, which it could do? And exporting that much cash out of your economy isn't near as good as keeping that money at home, which can be done with biofuels. Yep, it will hurt food production temporarily, but we still have a lot of land and I am not seeing many problems with having more actual useful jobs out there to work that land. And more demand for biofuels will "fuel" more intense interest into developing true green fuel from non food sources. We need this transition stage to move forward. And speaking of cartels, why is this even legal again? Why aren't we seeing the "organization of petroleum consuming nations" as a counter to that? use the walmart solution. Walmart is SO huge as a consumer, they are able to dictate demands to their suppliers or no access to the walmart stores. And it works. Well..where are our governments again, they can't organize something like that and take a little more control over this rigged market? We need both right now, emergency price stabilization, and then a Manhattan project or apollo moon mission project scale effort to develop alternative fuels at a no joke level. We can't afford to wait until it costs too much to even think about it. Neither our wallets nor the environment can take much more of the last century energy business model, we'll bankrupt and pollute the entire planet.
-
-
-
-
-
- Why Alternative Liquid fuels are Important
-
Wayne Gramlich Wed, 07 May 2008 13:55:26 PDT
-
According to en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel , in the section called, "Quantity of feedstocks required", it says:
- If the entire arable land area of the USA (470 million acres, or 1.9 million square kilometers) were devoted to biodiesel production from soy, this would just about provide the 160 million tonnes required (assuming an optimistic 98 gpa of biodiesel).
It goes on further to say,
- This land area could in principle be reduced significantly using algae, if the obstacles can be overcome. The US DOE estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (38,849 square kilometers), which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland, or 1.3 Belgiums, [36] [37]assuming a yield of 15000 gpa. The advantages of algae are that it can be grown on non-arable land such as deserts or in marine environments, and the potential oil yields are much higher than from plants
In short, the only biofuel that has a chance is algae. I have serious doubts that we have enough fresh water to grow that much algae. There are better and cheaper ways to solve the problem.
For example, use breeder cycle nuclear reacters to produce electricty. Use the "waste heat" from the reacter to take carbon feedstock and convert it to liquid fuel using a process such as Fischer-Tropshe. The carbon feedstock can be coal (not carbon neutral) or carbonized argracultural waste (carbon neutal.)
-
-
-
-
-
- Why Alternative Liquid fuels are Important
-
Uncle Entity Wed, 07 May 2008 14:50:10 PDT
-
The biofuel algae from the other day's article could grow in brackish water which would solve the freshwater problem.
If we were to do some sort of distributed algae farms, like for example use treated waste water as one of the inputs, scattered around the US then we could not only solve the problem of nutrient rich water being released back into the ecosystem but also not have to dedicate huge tracks of land centralized around suitable water sources.
But this is only one piece of a grand scheme that involves wind, solar, nukes and anything else we can come up with to replace soon to be not so cheap fossil fuels.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Why Alternative Liquid fuels are Important
-
Clean_Burning Mon, 12 May 2008 11:46:24 PDT
-
"Keeping our money at home" is highly possible with Natural Gas. Natural gas is the practical bridge to sustainable energy because 98% of it is in North America RIGHT NOW. What's more, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association, reserves point to at least a 60-year supply.
Not only is Natural Gas plentiful, it will not offset global food prices and it is consistently cheaper and significantly cleaner than any alternative fuel currently on the market. The Alternative Fuels Index lists the diesel/gasoline equivalent price for a gallon of Natural Gas as costing $1.36. Ethanol is nearly $4.00 and biodeisel is nearly $5.00.
As the cleanest burning fuel available, Natural Gas emits little to no particulate matter. However, large scale production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel requires a considerable amount of cropland, which leads to soil erosion on a massive scale. If we are to rely on bio-derived sources, as you suggest, it’s important to note that they cost more (in terms of energy) to produce and also requires the burning down of more forests. Therefore, they are far from being friendly to the environment.
In fact, in a 2005 study addressing ethanol’s potential as a fuel alternative, David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University stated that, "Ethanol production in the United States does not benefit the nation's energy security, its agriculture, the economy or the environment."
Meanwhile, there is Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Natural Gas available right here, right now to meet our growing demand for energy, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to reverse the effects of harmful greenhouse gases.
-
-
-
-
-
