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99 Comments
- diggit08, on 04/08/2008, -1/+22the comments so far have been a clusterfu*k of stupidity equal to believing in Atlantis.
- Pfkninenines, on 04/08/2008, -0/+11Been doing this research at school for the past year in my Chem lab. It takes more of this fuel to provide the same energy, but at least it's renewable. It's not a viable source of energy for transportation, but it may help reduce fossil fuel consumption through heating oil.
Every little bit helps, right? - inactive, on 04/08/2008, -3/+12Anyone complaining that this is just another non-renewable resource is right.
Bad news though, so is our sun. Everything is subject to entropy. Read "The Last Question" by Issac Asimov. (It's a short story, but really deep) - CarStan, on 04/08/2008, -1/+10You mean 2 George Washingtons getting it on with each other?
'm not sure if i want to see this, buddy. - inactive, on 04/08/2008, -1/+8Trees are a RENEWABLE resource.
- raidfibre, on 04/08/2008, -0/+7Well that's it guys.. theright says it won't work. Give up.
- chumleyuk, on 04/08/2008, -0/+7And when developing countries realize they can make more money from this than wood or other produce they will clear their rainforests and woodlands in no time.
- chanop, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6I'm not your buddy, pal
- t3h1y0n, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5and plant more to provide an increase in supply that will be needed to fuel the demand.
- Logicexe, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4It has no carbon footprint because the carbon dioxide it released when burned was taken out of the atmosphere. Carbon in = Carbon out.
- Logicexe, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4Well of course it isn't sustainable to infinity. Obviously we're going to hit some sort of ceiling somewhere in the future if the economy and population keep growing. Eventually we're going to run out of arable space to grow our food and fuel. However, it will be able to sustain us for a long time, long enough to get off our liquid fuel addiction and switch to better forms of portable energy in a manner that won't require a rapid, reckless complete overhaul of our infrastructure overnight.
- beaker37, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3When plants grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When you convert the plant to gasoline and burn it, that carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. The net gain is zero.
- br0ck, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3I did some of the math for the US a month ago: http://digg.com/environment/The_Great_Green_Fuel_G ... Basically, 1/3 of the worst arable land planted with switchgrass and given minimal water and fertilizer would produce all of the gasoline required in the US. However, since any cellulosic waste could also be used, the amount of required land will certainly be less than that.
- inactive, on 04/08/2008, -6/+9oh *****, now we have another reason to cut down trees
- chewbie, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3YES! hemp seed oil is the answer!
It can be used to make biodegradable plastic and diesel fuel too. It grows quick, no fertiliser needed. The best solution for the moment - captnkurt, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3I'm not your pal, friend
- inactive, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3nothing is infinite in the natural world. entropy will be the end of us all unless there is a supernatural world beyond. (I hope there is. non-existence could ruin my day.)
- drgreenberg, on 04/08/2008, -1/+4It all comes down to whether enough sustainable biomass can be created to feed this process. The plants in question need to reproduce quickly and not cause the soil they're grown on to become depleted and useless in no time. I'd like to see some numbers: how much gasoline we consume globally and what the required biomass and number of conversions reactors would need to be to supply this. That aside, this does seem to be low carbon footprint, as the reactor itself seems not to consume much energy and crops such as switchgrass don't take a lot of energy to grow and harvest. The CO2 given off by the use of the fuel is, of course, offset by the fact that the plants used to make it removed that same amount of CO2 from the air in the first place.
- ceemeister, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3Read the story online here:
http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html - gkiltz, on 04/08/2008, -0/+3Gasoline CAN be made from anything organic!
Problem is: it is no different than any other basic commodity, you need to produce it in huge quantities to produce it with any efficiency at all! In order to produce it with that level of efficiency, and in a useful quantity, you can either strip the earth of vegetation, or go to substances like oil or coal which, in effect concentrate the hydrocarbons from a huge quantity of biotic material that existed millions of years ago, and has been compressed by being in the ground for many millions of years!
You need to understand the difference between producing a barely detectable quantity in the lab, and producing an economically useful quantity in the real world! - Myztry, on 04/08/2008, -1/+4I think the GPS is broken. The screen is covered with physadelic colours...
- t3h1y0n, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Sad but not true. Simply put oil is a limited resource and oil companies want to stay in business which is why they're spending so much on research.
Bloody hippies! Go have a shower and learn yourself some economics or even better, leave the future to people who know what they're talking about. - Logicexe, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Unless you're using fossil fuels to power the plant that produces the stuff it can't possibly be anything but carbon neutral or less.
- bosssmiley, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Doubleplusungood grammar. Undugg.
- chewbie, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2it's all diesel. smog - producing crap.
wind and solar is where it's at. - geekchic, on 04/08/2008, -1/+3Technically, so is oil - if you are willing to wait a few million years.
- t3h1y0n, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Hydroponics/Genetic engineering?
- thanakar, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Lemme wait a few years as my next tank of gas grows to the size where I can harvest it.
- Myztry, on 04/08/2008, -1/+3@JoinVenture - Not all forests are equal. Cutting down an old growth hardword forest with a diverse eco-system, only to replace it with some weed like soft wood isn't replacing the forest.
Sure no company wants to wait 500+ years to yeild timber, but the end result isn't a renewable resource. At the very best, it's a degraded replacable resource. - SuperCujo, on 04/08/2008, -1/+3ahahaha
You are funny.
Go read about how plants grow... - computrius, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2Im not your friend, guy
- muckemuck, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2exactly.. if it reduces the amount of fossil fuels used by 5% then it's a good thing. Even better would be designing our environments (cities..) so we can reduce the need for cars. Getting people to move closer to their work, buying local goods when possible, etc would be a big help.
- triskele, on 04/08/2008, -1/+3Dugg for not using a food crop.
- inactive, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2 poplar trees grow very fast! And they also pull toxins out of the soil.
- arma, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Another joke came true? (referring to an older digg article that talked about that)
- satanatnmtedu, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Until it is converted to an industrial process, this is interesting though suspect news. Many, many processes have been lost in the scale up from the lab.
- Myztry, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1We can't make energy. We can only transfer it, or release it. The only way we can even come close to calling something renewable energy if we source it from outside our planet for immediate use.
This is not as impractical as it sounds. We do it already. Tidal/Currents energy is derived from the gravitational energy of the moon (plus some thermal energy from the Sun). Wind power is thermal energy from the Sun. Organic plant energy is derived from the Sun (photosynthesis).
Actually most energy is derived from the Sun (even oil - 2nd stage Organic energy). The only obvious exception may be Thermal Core energy which is presumed to have come from a Cosmic event (Big Bang?) not derived from the Sun.
For the renewable factor, we need to speed up energy accumulation to where it is beyond the usage rate. Perhaps harvesting organic energy (as per the article) will suffice, as it eliminates the huge amount of time required for organic material to form oil. Eliminating the steps to fuel is certainly a step in the right direction. Oil does renew, but on a very long time scale.
My point is, that the Sun's (and to a lesser Degree - The Moons) energy are the (only) useful energy coming into our planet. It's the ultimate place we need to look, and with the realisation that energy manifests in many ways.
[/rant] - markgl, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1you act like trees aren't replaced after being removed.
- inactive, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1no!
- whatup1, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1I actually saw a short bit of a similar process on the Science Channel recently. It looks like a viable solution for the moment
- geekchic, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1You don't eat trees?
- inactive, on 04/08/2008, -1/+2No, it comes down to whether the oil companies see this as a threat.
If they do? Buy out the technology and let it rot in some filing cabinet while they keep sucking oil from the ground and raping us at the gas pumps.
Sad but true. - chewbie, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1hot air
- Logicexe, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1If we can use land unfit for farming to grow this stuff than no we are not close to running out of room right now. That's why cellulose ethanol is the holy grail of biofuels. All plants have lots of cellulose and lots of plants grow very effectively in poor quality soil we could never use for food crops.
- Swivelstick, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1"Eventually we're going to run out of arable space to grow our food and fuel." We have already but like most things we can't admit it.
- Olfster, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Hybrid poplar trees grow exceptionally fast. SO just buy an acoustic/electric.
- inactive, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1dont tase me bro!
- inactive, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1true!
- agm2004, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1It is, but with all the clear cutting in the rain forests, its really hard to renew it as a balance.
- RaiderWolf, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1I have a bad feeling about this.
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