On 25 Apr 2006 11:27:15 -0700, "tillius" wrote:



I'm not saying bio-fuels are the sole answer. As far as replacing petro
based fuel with bio-fuels, it would take between 300,000,000 and
500,000,000 acres to produce enough biomass to replace our current
petroleum use. Keep in mind those figures given in my previous post did
not consider the additional fuel produced from conversion of waste
biomass (corn stalk, rice straw, etc) into bio-fuel. There are currenly
over 600,000,000 acres of viable farmland not currenlty being farmed.
This farmland is capable of producing high-level feedstocks such as
corn and is not being used because of lack of demand. That alone is
more than enough to replace our gasoline supply with bio-fuels.

Other biomass feedstock can be grown on those arid lands where water is
a problem, look at Jatropha or even Hemp which can easily grow on those
lands. Hemp is a potential feedstock I didn't mention before, primarily
because of the reaction mentioning hemp gets, but hemp is capable of
yeilding 1000-1500 gallons of bio-fuel per acre.

I do agree, proper utilization of hydro, solar, wind and nuclear energy
is critical to satisfying our energy needs going forward. I also agree
we need to commit more resources to developing hydrogen fuel cell
technology. There is absolutely no reason future vehicles could use a
hybrid IC/electrical propulsion system using bio-fuels such as butanol
and hydrogen-fuelcell technology. As a matter of fact, with the newest
methods of producing butanol, the primary byproduct of the process is
hydrogen, which can easily be reclaimed as the primary fuel source for
bio-fuel production.

Till

When I grew up on the farm, we always had about 40 acres (out of the 160)
in the 'soil bank'. The land was not used to grow corn or other crop for
income or feed, but it was *used*.

A crop such as clover would be planted in the field, allowed to grow fully,
and then plowed under. The purpose was to fertilize the soil. Without this
process commercial fertilizer would be required, or the land would become
'worked out'.
--
'Til next time,

John H

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