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To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (64094)	5/22/2005 9:51:27 PM
From: el_gaviero	Respond to of 74559

Seeker, That's interesting about Brazil and ethanol. That they are able to produce it at a net energy gain, while we (in the USA) cannot, would suggest to me that they are pretty close to breakeven, since conditions are not so vastly different between USA and Brazil. I wonder, too, if the process in Brazil does not receive an indirect energy subsidy from fossil fuels in the form of cheaper fertilizers, cheaper transport, and so forth. But anyway, good point.

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (64094)	5/22/2005 10:17:43 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Canada gets much more daylight during the summer than Brazil, and has large areas of marginal agricultural land suitable for growing biofuels. This report estimates that plant-based ethanol could entirely replace Canada's current gasoline consumption... Switchgrass: a living solar battery for the prairies eap.mcgill.ca Potentially 35 million acres of land currently in summerfallow and surplus grain production could be made available for the development of an ethanol industry based on tallgrass species such as switchgrass. This would be made up of the 20 million acres currently in summerfallow in Western Canada, and 15 million acres currently in spring cereals. This would represent a 30% reduction in cereal acreage in Canada, with the most marginal cereal growing areas being targeted first. Current Canadian gasoline consumption is approximately 30 billion litres per year, which would require approximately 37.5 billion litres of ethanol for substitution (Techtrol Ltd. of Montreal calculates that one litre of gas can be replaced by 1.25 litres of ethanol). A switchgrass-based ethanol industry of this size could entirely replace Canada's gasoline requirements, as well as help Canada take a considerable step towards reaching CO2 reduction goals. Switchgrass not only requires lower energy inputs for growing, but also requires few energy inputs for ethanol conversion. The steam and electricity used to convert the switchgrass to ethanol can be derived from the combustion of the lignin (approximately 7% by composition) leftover after the ethanol extraction process. This represents a major difference compared to the grain ethanol industry, which requires large energy inputs from fossil or nuclear energy sources for its conversion. -Snow P.S. A little Canadian company named Iogen is leading the charge to efficiently convert cellulose into ethanol... iogen.ca