Biodiesel: An Economically Viable Alternative Energy?

SeekingAlpha.com ^ | 07/31/2007 | Carlin Lee

[Red Badger]

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.......

If you want on or off the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me........

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......

[Red Badger]

KnOcK!.......

[Brilliant]

They talk about how there is no way that bio-fuels could satisfy our energy needs. But the reality is that they could do so very easily if we did not have 300,000,000 people to transport. And our fossil fuels would go a lot further as well, if we had a smaller population.

[P-40]

everyone is deputizing alternative energy, and more specifically biofuels, as the be all and end all to our energy dilemma

It would be at that point that I would turn the 'news' source off because it is just an advertisement. The only serious proponents I know of biofuels don't claim it will replace traditional fuels any time soon.

[Logophile]

They talk about how there is no way that bio-fuels could satisfy our energy needs. But the reality is that they could do so very easily if we did not have 300,000,000 people to transport. And our fossil fuels would go a lot further as well, if we had a smaller population.

But we don't have a smaller population.

[Red Badger]

When the Baby Boomers’ decadent lifestyles finally kill us all off, and GenX and GenY are dead from heart disease from their sedentary video lifestyles, and the nation is full of Low Rider Multiculturals, that 300M won’t be a problem.........

[kinoxi]

Volatile stock. Still relatively cheap at $2.60 (at first glance). The article reads like an ad.

[JimRed]

And our fossil fuels would go a lot further as well, if we had a smaller population.

Don't worry, after the next 9/11 attack the population will decrease by a million or so, and one of our major population centers will have zero commuter traffic.

I'm just hoping that it's Frisco and not NYC! < /sarc >

[Red Badger]

Disclosure: The author owns shares of NBF.

Last line......

[kinoxi]

Yeah, do you? ;)

[theBuckwheat]

I would remind people that there is still doubts that ethanol has a net positive energy balance. Biodiesel has an edge because it is a far more direct use of plant-derived oils. Even so, we cannot eat coal, oil shales, natural gas or crude oil and we can eat soybeans, or meat grown via soybean feed.

The concern over “sustainable” is, depending on the mindset, either a bucolic dream or a subtle diversion meant more to reduce the power and prosperity of the US. Some states, like Illinois, almost literally float atop a sea of coal that could be converted to liquid hydrocarbon fuels at a cost not much higher than we are already paying. Yet we insist (in the fashion and passion of today) on deciding between food and fuel, fully knowing that if the entire crop of billions of bushels of corn we are growing were converted into ethanol, it would only supply some 12% of our gasoline needs, not to mention jet fuel and diesel.

We are not well served when government subsidizes the cost of ethanol by 51 cents per gallon, and the rush to require ethanol in vehicle fuels pushes demand for corn so high it doubles the price, which ripples into the cost of food. We are paying for this market distortion at least twice, for the money for the subsidy comes out of the same pocket that must now pay more for hamburger and corn flakes.

Let us not repeat this multi-billion dollar mistake with biodiesel. If it is a great addition to our fuel supplies, let it be for real reasons and not because we take money out of one of our own pockets only to construct a mirage that distorts costs and markets elsewhere, a mirage that cannot be "sustainable" in the long run.

[Red Badger]

Not that I know of...............

[P-40]

Yet we insist (in the fashion and passion of today) on deciding between food and fuel

We do? You can get plenty of both here.

[Mr. Lucky]

Which is exactly what it is.

[Red Badger]

Well said.

Remember, corn oil (and other seed oils) can be removed from the feedstock and the leftover mash can still be used for animal feed..............

[kinoxi]

Was joking. :)

[Mr. Lucky]

The value of soybeans in animal feed rations is the protein, not the oil. Whole soybeans aren’t fed to livestock; the oil and protein meal have to be separated anyway.

[Yo-Yo]

So, if we take this prospectus at face value, just how much used cooking oil is available in the US each year, compared to the US consumption of diesel? (Ignoring the increased demand for diesel fuel if you have your way! ;^) )

[CedarDave]

Excellent points. The ripple effects for ethanol, from higher food prices not only for corn but for other crops not grown due to crop conversion to corn, are just now being felt. The alternative is NOT ethanol but a mix of technologies with coal being the most available in the long run. But that is being challenged on all fronts by the greenies who are opposed due to carbon dioxide “pollution” from conversion of coal to fuel liquids.

[umgud]

I wonder if marijuana plants would yield bio-fuels? If so, we would have a plant that wouldn’t be food and maybe we get a twoofer by competing with the smokers?