Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Truman said: 

The problem with biological fuels, be they bio deisel or E-85 is a) they

don't have the energy content per gram of their petroleum counterparts, 
b) they are not enough bean farmers in the US to make a dent in the 
diesel demand nor enough corn farmers to make much a dent in the gas 
demand - not to mention there is little infrastructure to produce them 
and c) they produce as much CO2 as their petroleum counterparts.


To which I respond... :-)

Most of these "problems" do not apply to algae-derived biodiesel. Algae
are very good converters of solar energy, and some species produce an
enormous amount of biolipids (which convert to biodiesel) for their body
mass. It takes very little energy to farm algae and convert their lipids
to biofuel, especially if you're smart about it. Actually, one of the
most efficient set-ups for growing algae for fuel involves using waste
CO2 flue gas from coal-driven power plants -- thus reducing CO2
emissions. If you look at 

http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/emissions.pdf

you can compare biodiesel emissions directly with diesel emissions. 



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-