Ethanol from grass, wood chips and other foliage material is still ways off. Existing now are just small scale model distilleries. The problem right now in implementing it for mass use are three fold. Lack of support from government in terms of soft loans, the current technology costs just too much compared to traditional feedstock conversion (corn and sugarcane), and lastly the current technology consumes a lot of water.
But definitely its a development path that we should pursue. Namely because the feedstock is easily available and its cheaper to propagate compared to existing feedstocks.
Article here
Category: Bioethanol
April 27th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Hello Marc, thought you might be interested in this:
A new study, covered on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle and by the Associated Press, states that the more we replace gasoline with ethanol the worse ozone problems will be, especially in major cities. The research isn’t done by some kook. It’s done by Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford. “It’s true that ethanol does decrease some pollutants, but it also increases some others,” Jacobson says
More info here:
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/apr/science/ee_ethanol.html
April 27th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Hi Mark!, thanks for that info via that link. I was aware already of this article from AP regarding the health drawbacks of ethanol. Even biodiesel has the effect of increasing Nitrogen Oxide emissions that produce smog. NOx emissions however can be reduced by adding the appropriate catalytic converter to your cars tail pipe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_oxide#Emission_control_technologies
In this blog I’ve always preached that its not only about using alternative fuels but also about reducing our consumption. That’s why I frown upon Gov Schwarzenegger’s Pimp my ride Biodiesel car conversion which used a monster engine. I feel that the industry should concentrate equally in making more energy efficient devices.
The great thing for me with regards to our use of biofuels is that we get to stop importing foreign oil
April 27th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Marc,
I’m impressed by your knowledge on alternative fuels and gladdened by the realisation that there are still good and capable people in our country after all. Keep up the good work!
Mark with a k.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Thanks Mark!, coming from you that means a lot