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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crabbe who wrote (4354)	2/17/2006 10:17:51 AM
From: gg cox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218632

""However, temperate regions are still very productive, note that the American Midwest is one of the bread baskets of the world. You over look the fact that biomass, such as corn stover (Stalks, Cobs, Shucks), Newspapers, wood waste, straw (wheat, grass, rice, etc.) can be converted to sugars through a relatively cheap process using sulphuric acid or specially manufactured enzymes."" Are you overlooking the fact that biomass as above must be gathered and transported and processed mostly using gasoline which consumes almost twice the BTU's per gallon you get back from methanol?All inputs into production of methanol must be considered including production costs and transportation costs of chemicals to breakdown biomass.As to ""About 6% of contiguous United States land area.."means to me "marginal lands" close by and connected to existing farmland but further away from infrastructure ...so more costly for transportation costs. Is this fact or opinion?.. ""Utilization of timber, farm and municipal waste products can more than supply the US with enough ethanol to replace all petroleum used in the US."" According to the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, a gallon of typical gasoline contains 114,132 btu’s. However, even this amount of energy content changes from summer to winter as gasoline’s volatility is seasonally adjusted. For the purposes of this summary, we assume the following: 1 U.S. Gallon of gasoline contains 114,132 btu 1 U.S. Gallon of no. 2 diesel fuel contains 138,000 btu 1 U.S. Gallon of ethanol contains 76,000 btu 1 U.S. Gallon of methanol contains 56,800 btu 1 U.S. Gallon of propane contains 84,500 btu 1 U.S. Gallon of compressed natural gas contains 19,800 btu e85fuel.com 1 gallon of water equals 8.33 lbs. 1 gallon of gasoline equals 5.8 to 6.5 lbs. 1 gallon of ethanol equals 6.59 lbs. santacruzpl.org

To: Crabbe who wrote (4354)	2/17/2006 10:41:48 AM
From: gg cox	Respond to of 218632

What are your thoughts on this article? Message 22176899

To: Crabbe who wrote (4354)	2/17/2006 4:06:39 PM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218632

Hello Crabbe, I'm happy to be corrected, any time. I really am seeking the truth. Now it appears that Jerusalem artichoke is the best crop per acre but maybe it can't grow everywhere or what? Anyway, sugar cane beats all the others, according to your sources. But the sugar cane of the US only seems to grow in Louisiana and Hawaii, evidently we need lots of heat (and light) to achieve those fine results. Surely they are not saying that US per acre production of sugar is as high as that of Brazil? Or are they? I would like to be convinced that alcohol will solve the energy crisis. But, for example, the sucrose of sugar cane practically falls apart into glucose and its interconvertable isomer, fructose. On the other hand cellulose definitely needs a (bacterial) enzyme, such as live in a cow or horse's GI tract. Treatment with H2SO4 will make a lot of C-C bonds as well as break C-O bonds, so that in my eyes rules it out. On the other hand directed evolution of enzymes is beginning to appear in the lab so maybe your miscellaneous cellulose sources will eventually be quite practical. I don't know whether they really are now or not since as somebody has pointed out there is a cost in generating the cellulose. The cost must be paid by the sun, or else by consuming energy(e.g. some alcohol). The vast experiment with ethanol(not methanol; hard to get that from plants.) has begun and we will find out 15-20 years in the future, whether it saves energy or not. Meanwhile I will invest in Brazil, in the perhaps monstrously erroneous thinking that Brazilian sun is one of the best sources of energy around. Not only the American Midwest but also the Canadian plains are the bread baskets of the world. And so far increased demand has been matched by increased yield and the genes of wheat and corn have been steadily improved. Meanwhile the six billion global population is growing on and on. Seeker of Truth