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My point was not that the biofuels would or would not be a net energy benefit. But in order to achieve that benefit, even GREATER amounts of fossil fuels, in some form, would have to be extracted and utilized, just to keep us running in the same place.

TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch).

My personal choice for extracting energy from agricultural by-products is either using Thermal Depolymerization on all kinds of organic waste (sewage sludge, slaughterhouse waste, old tires, used newspapers, or waste from food processing) to produce kerogen, a substance very similar to crude oil, but with none of the grit and saline of crude petroleum, or go to Plasma Waste Reduction, which uses an electric arc with an operting temperature of about 33,000 degrees Fahrenseit (about three times the temperature of the surface of the Sun), which reduces EVERYTHING organic to a mixture of very hot carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. The second method is used as a heat exchange to superheat steam to drive a power generation unit (same as power generation stations everywhere), then BURNING the syngas produced as fuel to drive additional steam generation units.

Electricity output of the second system is about three times the amount of power necessary to keep the plasma arc firing, and it takes ALL kinds of organic and inorganic waste. EVERY kind of hazardous chemical is reduced to its constituent elements in this process, with the exception of radioactive materials, and the non-gaseous products are reduced to a glassy slag, which is tapped off, and used as aggregate for concrete or road-building, as it is mostly silica and various kinds of mineral salts. Substances like potash, soda ash, phosphates, lime, chlorides, and practically every other metallic or inorganic element are dissolved in this molten silica slag.

Now THAT is taking two negatives (inadequate energy supply, excessive waste stream) and turning it into a positive (plentiful electricity). And electricity can substitute for vast amounts of steady-use energy.

This world will NEVER have to run out of liquid petroleum, or access to energy. Human beings are smart enough to convert this otherwise wasted stream of resources to our benefit.

Even carbon dioxide may be converted back into a “biofuel”, by using tank and piping systems to hold highly specialized algae, and allow them to form kerogen, which may be used exactly like crude oil.

Carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant in earth’s atmosphere. It is a highly essential compound, without which life could not exist. In fact, it would prove impossible to remove ALL CO2 from our atmosphere. It just keeps on coming back, and is absorbed by photosynthesis.