[Fwd: [biofuel] VW presents new synthetic fuel strategy]

[Harmon Seaver]

Bill Stewart wrote:

> Making biodiesel from virgin oil scales well, since you can use

> non-food-grade oils, but there's still a substantial ecological effect
> of converting land from non-farming or food-farming to energy-farming.

    That's a common arguement used against biofuels which doesn't hold water. In
the first place, whether it's biodiesel or ethanol, you still have the vast
majority of the food left after you extract the oil or ethanol -- meal cake or
"brewer's grains" (a very high quality protein).
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html
Right at the moment we have  farmers (US) being paid *not* to grow, and/or
growing at a loss. Corn is now by far the cheapest fuel for home heating.
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/93-023.htm

>
> Waste vegetable oil has a much different scaling ability -
> until you get most fast-food french-fry leftovers used for fuel oil,
> it scales up really well, but after that it hits the wall.

    Right, but there's a tremendous amount available right now, and an awful lot
getting dumped in landfills and  illegally down drains.

   And if you start looking at gasification of waste biomass, there are amazing
amounts available at least in western countries.

--
Harmon Seaver, MLIS
CyberShamanix
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