David J. Hughes wrote:

Dale Eastman wrote:



wrote:

Biodiesel is just replacing one type of emission with another - and it
takes a lot of power to harvest/process the stuff.



One square mile is 640 acres.
One square mile is 5280 feet by 5280 feet.
A tractor pulling a 30 foot wide disc plow will requi

5280/30 = 176 passes. That's 176 linear miles to plow the entire 640
acres.

Now the next question is, how much horsepower (fuel consumed) to cover
the 176 miles?

And then there are the herbicide/pesticide/fertilizer/harvest passes
also.

Take it away Nick.



300 gallons biodiesel produced per acre.
300 time 640 = 19200 gallons.

Tractor pulling 30' disc plow get @ 4 miles peer gallon
4 times 176 = 704 gallons

19200 over 704 = 27.3
or
704 over 19200 = 4%

Worst case (the disk plowing will have the highest power requirement)
is 5 times over the field or 5 times 704 gallons = 3520 gallons
or 18%. Should do much better though.

Per BP annual energy report:

Million barrels per day:
Gasolines 9.436
Middle distillates 6.087
Fuel oil .795
Others 4.199
Total USA 20.517
http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?...tentId=7017990


9.436 million barrels times 42 gallons / barrel divided by (19200-704)
gallons yield per square mile = approximately 21,427 square miles to
meet our transportation demand.

Have you got a link to support that 300 gallons per acre?

The following numbers are gallons per acre.

macadamia nuts 240
brazil nuts 255
avocado 282
coconut 287
oil palm 635
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html

The oil palm tree is a tropical plant which commonly grows in warm
climates at altitudes of less than 1,600 feet above sea level. There
is one species, the Noli or Elaeis oleifera (H.B.K) Cortes which is
native of America; another species is Elaeis guineensis Jacq. which
originates from the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa (hence its
scientific name) and better known as the African oil palm.
http://www.fedepalma.org/oil_palm.htm

Palm Oil, an ingredient found in many everyday products, is
contributing to the rapid destruction of rainforests. Orangutan
habitat in Sumatra and Borneo is being clear-felled at an alarming
rate for conversion to oil palm plantations. The orangutan, perilously
close to extinction, is suffering profoundly as a result.
http://www.safepalmoil.org/