[this_ol_patriot]

You guys are the experts, what about biomass, pros and cons?

From what I read it has a closed carbon cycle and may actually sequester additional carbon in roots for certain perennial crops. Also what about methane from different sources like landfills and wastewater treatment?

Is this all BS or just not doable because of cost? It a good thought that we could grow and poop some of our own energy sources.

Anybody?

[Boiler Plate]

My wife asked me about the Hydrogen Initiative after President Bush's SOTU speech and I told about an article Jay Leno (Yes that Jay Leno, he is a true automotive nut and expert) wrote a couple of months ago on the subject of Alternative Fuels. The bottom line is we already have the alternative fuel and the distribution system for it. Check out the Audi A2 TDI. This car, which seats 5, goes close to 80 miles a gallon. It is also on the road and being sold today, just not in the US. Would I buy one? Yes. Would everyone buy one? No. However the point is, the high efficiency cars already exist and the fuel can be sourced from something other than a oil field as this car can run on bio-diesel.

Now onto to hydrogen. It is a pain the butt to handle, distribute and store. Furthermore unless you are planing to burn pure oxygen with it in lieu of air your are still going to get a lot of the same pollutants we presently get. Gasoline is a hydrocarbon and the theoretical byproduct of it's combution is theoretically Water and Carbon DiOxide. However since air (which is mostly Nitrogen and lots of gases other than oxygen)is used as the oxidizing agent we have all kinds of byproducts mostly Nitrous Oxides (NOx).

So it is a swell idea but I seriously doubt anything will happen in the next couple of decades.