I hate to draw inspiration from objects of nefarious origins, but please just humor me this instance. Marijuana growers of Mexico have started planting a new hybrid of cannabis sativa that is resilient and quick maturing. The new strain is resistant to herbicide, reaches maturity within just 2 months and can be harvested year around. Compare that with the existing variety that can be harvested only twice a year and planted within a specific season only.
If the drug dealers can do it, why can’t we? The biofuels industry should give emphasis on genetically engineering it’s feedstock. I don’t think there is any moral dilemma in bio engineering biofuel feedstock since it won’t be consumed by humans in the first place. Asahi has already taken the first step by developing sugarcane that produces more sugar per hectare and is resilient to typhoons. What we need aside from high yielding crop are also faster cycling crops. Which means that it can produce more than once a year resulting in higher yields by virtue of lesser throughput time
Another thing I’d like to give props to is Valeo’s Camless Engine. Albeit it’s only 50% camless right now (100% camless is expected in 5 years time), as only the input valves are electronically actuated, it’s still half the distance to the goal at hand of creating a more efficient engine Getting rid of the mechanical cam lifters and spring shutters (replacing them with actuators) reduces the work on the engine by about 20%. This equates to better fuel economy and higher engine torque as most of the energy is transferred to the drive shaft. This in turn will offset one of the drawbacks of Ethanol as a fuel, that it has lower mpg.
As I’ve mentioned before, I believe that the success of the biofuels industry in replacing petroleum relies on 3 things:
1. Higher yielding feedstock
2. High yielding processes to convert feedstock to biofuel
3. More efficient engines to use the biofuel.
This needs the cooperation of four sectors: Agriculture, Automotive, Chemical and of course: the Consumers. This ain’t going nowhere fast if nobody’s using it.
Category: Automotive, New Tech
