tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post116038658644459152..comments2024-03-29T06:38:18.116+00:00Comments on Energy Balance: Ethanol from Wheat Straw Can only Work by Curbing Car Use.Professor Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1160640773324064032006-10-12T09:12:00.000+01:002006-10-12T09:12:00.000+01:00Hi biofuelsimon,that's a nice blog you have there ...Hi biofuelsimon,<BR/>that's a nice blog you have there - I will continue to drop by, now I know about it! You may well be right, that there could be considerable environmental benefits over the catastophe that extracting tar-sands may prove to be. However, by living in localised communities we could cut dramatically our fuel use (more so in the U.S. given the more dispersed pattern of living than is the case say in Europe - i.e. greater distances to get to work etc.) and noting mcrab's comment (below) with specificaly designed ethanol-burning engines, we could then get the majority of our (remaining) fuel using bioethanol produced from scrap biomass! Chris.Professor Chris Rhodeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1160640423645460792006-10-12T09:07:00.000+01:002006-10-12T09:07:00.000+01:00Hi mcrab,and thank for that important piece of inf...Hi mcrab,<BR/>and thank for that important piece of information. If that is so, that ethanol and gasoline can be considered as equal energy sources in terms of miles-per-gallon, using suitably optimised engines, then we might provide in fact nearer 9% of our current fuel requirements using ethanol from "waste" biomass. This is still a relatively small amount, but if it becomes 9% of 10% (by cutting fuel use overall by 90%), we are almost there! I feel somewhat reassured! Chris.Professor Chris Rhodeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1160583312072939382006-10-11T17:15:00.000+01:002006-10-11T17:15:00.000+01:00Hi,good to see someone who’s maths is a bit sharpe...Hi,<BR/>good to see someone who’s maths is a bit sharper than my rough and ready calculations of a couple of days ago.( http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/2006/10/can-crops-replace-oil.html#more)<BR/><BR/>The amount of energy that can be produced using conventional crops is very small and as you say takes energy to produce. But I guess that it would help replace more marginal oil from tar-sands and the like. So if these marginal sources take more energy to extract usable gasoline from the feed than tractable materials like crude, the environmental benefits would be greater than the 6.5% of transportation fuel. Of course that assumes that it will always be cheaper to use bioethanol than gasoline from tar-sands.<BR/><BR/>I’m pretty sceptical about using crops, even from the seed to the root. If you took tye world’s annual supply of edible oils and converted all the wheat the US will grow this year, you’d be lucky to get 25-30% of the volume, let alone calories you’d need for a total replacement of crude.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com