Comments on: The Biofuel Disaster http://jcarrot.org/the-biofuel-disaster Jews, Food, and Contemporary Issues Mon, 21 May 2012 04:07:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gersh http://jcarrot.org/the-biofuel-disaster/comment-page-1#comment-4077 Gersh Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:39:38 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/the-biofuel-disaster/#comment-4077 Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, my 2004 Jetta Wagon TDI (Mary Anne) is usually burning some amount of biodiesel, depending upon the season. Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, my 2004 Jetta Wagon TDI (Mary Anne) is usually burning some amount of biodiesel, depending upon the season.

]]> By: Gersh http://jcarrot.org/the-biofuel-disaster/comment-page-1#comment-4076 Gersh Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:38:57 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/the-biofuel-disaster/#comment-4076 Ethanol is a big loss. The only country with widespread ethanol use, Brazil, uses 4.5% of their land to monocrop sugar cane to get their ethanol. A car running E85 ethanol gets much worse fuel economy (like 27% worse). Most cars cannot run E85. Plus, the energy balance (energy to produce vs. energy produced) is very poor for ethanol. Biodiesel, OTOH, is a way big win. While it still suffers from the monocropping, the energy balance is something like 2.7 units out for every unit of energy input. The mpg hit is smaller, any diesel can run on biodiesel, and there is promising research into producing biodiesel from algae rather than from crops. I'm sympathetic to the objections against biodiesel, but I think that it's necessary to establish a market to provide some incentive for algae biodiesel production. Ethanol is a big loss. The only country with widespread ethanol use, Brazil, uses 4.5% of their land to monocrop sugar cane to get their ethanol. A car running E85 ethanol gets much worse fuel economy (like 27% worse). Most cars cannot run E85. Plus, the energy balance (energy to produce vs. energy produced) is very poor for ethanol.

Biodiesel, OTOH, is a way big win. While it still suffers from the monocropping, the energy balance is something like 2.7 units out for every unit of energy input. The mpg hit is smaller, any diesel can run on biodiesel, and there is promising research into producing biodiesel from algae rather than from crops.

I’m sympathetic to the objections against biodiesel, but I think that it’s necessary to establish a market to provide some incentive for algae biodiesel production.

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