Here's an excellent article that cuts through the hype on bio-fuels, and explores why their use is being pushed so hard with fraudulent environmental and economic claims. It appears the Bush admin is acting in the interests of the oil companies (insert shock here).

Bush's BioFuel Hidden Agenda
This year the Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued a report concluding that using corn-based ethanol instead of gasoline will have no impact on greenhouse gas emissions, and would even expand fossil fuel use due to increased demand for fertilizer and irrigation to expand acreage of ethanol crops. And according to MIT "natural gas consumption is 66% of total corn ethanol production energy," meaning huge new strains on natural gas supply, pushing prices there higher.

The idea that the world can "grow" out of oil dependency with bio-fuels is the PR hype being used to sell what is shaping up to be the most dangerous threat to the planet's food supply since creation of patented genetically manipulated corn and crops.

Are these bio-fuels for Otto-Engines? If yes it would be stupid in the first place.


A Diesel-engine can be ran with almost any oil, fat or even with cheese (there was an experiment a few years ago) and produces less greenhouse gases these days.

Well Teslas electromagnetic engine can't be used due to the fact he sold his patent to jp morgan.

I don't think that biofuels are a viable long-term solution to the energy problem. I did a project on biodiesel a couple of years ago in my biosystems course, and while I can't remember the sources, there were a few interesting tidbits that stuck out.

First of all, there are studies showing that NOx emissions are actually higher in biodiesel than in regular diesel. However, sulphur emissions are almost eliminated. I think overall the emissions from biodiesel are slightly lower, but if you compare to low-sulphur diesels then I'm not sure if it's a significant advantage.

I think the worst part about biodiesel is that there simply isn't enough oil-producing cropland to even begin to generate enough to actually replace diesel. A quick google search comes up with this: "It has been estimated that converting the entire U.S. corn crop to ethanol would only yield energy equal to 12 percent of our gasoline consumption" (http://www.ngvc.org/pdfs/35BilGalWhtPaper.pdf).

All that said, I think that biodiesel does have its place. Not as a long-term replacement for our energy needs, but perhaps as a "tweener" - something to help stretch out the available oil while we work on a real solution.

why use corn if you could use rapeseed? you gain more fuel for less effort and money.

I think that corn is used for ethanol production, whereas canola is used for biodiesel (rapeseed = canola in North America).

thx, for the explanation, didn't know that

If you've never watched the movie Who Killed The Electric Car?, find it. It paints a pretty good picture of who controls energy policies in the US, and how it is conducted.

Another example is the push for hydrogen vehicles instead of electric. Electric is far easier and cleaner, whereas hydrogren is more expensive and difficult, and may not exist as a usable technology for decades.

Basically, only technologies that exploit natural resources, with huge profits, are allowed to develop. Truly clean and low-resource technologies are merely viewed as threats to profit. These energy companies have demonstrated time and again that they are willing to destroy the planet's health for their profits. They are now transitioning from oil (as they must), but are seeking to do so in a manner fully consistent with their past behavior. They want the energy needs to be fed exclusively through them.

The world is being held hostage by these bullies. Technologically, we could have had solar, wind and other technologies in our hands long ago.

Might not affect food supplies directly. FWIW, some scientist are working on designing bacteria that produce the fuel:

Technology Review: Engineering Bacteria to Harvest Light

Ideally, I think we need to figure out a way to convert our garbage into fuel.

The last Government in Germany was a coalition of the Greens and Social Democrats, they had a large wind power lobby.

Right now there is no country which get's more energy out of wind power than Germany. And they are still increasing it.

In the North Sea and in the Adria there are built the 2 largest tidal power plants on the planet right know. I'm more in favour of these as they need lower maintenance compared to wind power plants.




keep in mind germany has only the size of the US state of Montana.


found in digg today: Power transmission | Where the wind blows | Economist.com