SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: el_gaviero who wrote (64083)5/23/2005 5:35:36 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (1) of 74559
 
ElG, twenty years ago I was involved with alternative fuels and even things like tallow from sheep, made into tallow ester by conversion with methanol was economic.

A Rotorua research group were making ethanol from wood waste, of which there's a lot. Ethanol was also made from milk byproducts but was too valuable to use as fuel.

In my garden, plants grow crazily and I give them NO fertilizer or encouragement. If I grew them in giant paddocks and mowed them and fed them into an ethanol digester system, I think the net energy out would be a lot higher than the energy in.

Corn and sugar cane might not be economic in the USA as ethanol sources, but that doesn't mean other plants in other countries wouldn't be economic. I'm sure Brazil isn't running itself into the poorhouse by producing ethanol with crude oil around $50 a barrel.

There are vast quantities of BTUs arriving from the sun every day. Chlorophyll just loves turning CO2 into cellulose and stuff using that sunlight. It's free energy.

There is no shortage of CO2, no shortage of sun and no shortage of land. There is a shortage of water in some places and nitrogen and other nutrients need some management. But the big inputs are free. Sun, chlorophyll DNA and CO2. Water is free in many places.

At $50 a barrel of oil, chlorophyll is competitive. At $10 a barrel, it isn't.

Mqurice
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News