Posted on 04/09/2009 2:29:46 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
One might imagine that the old adage about something too good to be true would have sunk in by now. But in the realm of biofuels, hope springs eternal. With more than $240 million in Department of Energy funding, six pilot projects using "cellulosic materials" to produce biofuels are under way. Despite the prospect of technical breakthroughs, none have produced biofuels on commercial terms. This is especially unsettling given the federal order to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, of which 21 billion are mandated to be cellulose-based. Advocates of making these fuels from anything and everything abound: wood chips, municipal waste, algae, corn stalks, switchgrass, exotic weeds or whatever. These advocates are partly right. One can convert just about anything (including cardboard) into biofuel. The problem is less about science than logistics, economics and politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Even more basic: none of these biofuels have the energy density of coal or petroleum. Less bang for the buck. And since we aren’t running out of coal I can’t see any reason to plow money into these ventures.
I think we’re mixing apples and oranges here by confusing two different processes, and calling them “bio-fuels”. One type uses fermentation of food grain to produce one kind of alcohol that is suitable for motor fuel, and the other process uses any available source of cellulose in conjunction with a catalyst to produce a different type of alcohol that is widely used in the chemical industry, not as a motor fuel.
I’m not sure this article is entirely accurate, because there are existing proprietary catalytic processes out there now that convert cellulose-based material into methanol, (as opposed to ethanol...). One is in operation down around Eugene, Oregon. We have a company here locally that is considering such a plant (a private venture, not some Government research project...) down in our industrial area, that would produce large quantities of methanol in a couple of years.
I predict the mini-nuc plant industry will beat ‘em all, become the standard, lead in 30-40-50 years to energy being available where it’s needed, in exactly the volume needed and “the grid” will be the “back up system”, not a system that will inevitably produce great “systemic failure” as any grid system operating as primary energy supply will be, sooner or later.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4273386.html
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/36807
http://www.physorg.com/news145561984.html
He’s totally missing the point. This is about making us feel good about ourselves, not about solving anything.
Therein is the problem, they are all “just a couple of years away” from production on a commercial scale.
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