biodiesel? 1 calorie of fuel to grow 1 calorie of corn...

levenade · Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:19 pm

Pollan mentions on p. 46 that, when it comes to industrial corn, it takes over 1 calorie of fossil fuel to grow one calorie of industrial corn, excluding processing and shipping. Which would mean...turn fuel to corn, at a loss, then turn corn to fuel, at more loss...? Kinda upsets the whole idea of biodiesel as a renewable energy source doesn't it?

unless the production of biodiesel from corn uses organically, or otherwise less petrol-dependently farmed corn...

anyone know?

Ophelia · Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:26 pm

I feel suspicious about biodiesel and I've heard contradictory analyses about it.
I would have thought that what you quoted and wrote made perfect sense.

I checked what was happening in Europe, and what attracted my attention was that Germany was the highest producer in the EU-- not that it's much in terms of quantity, but Germany is very environment conscious, so if they're taking the lead the chances are that they have studied the matter thoroughly.

Here is the link I've read:

http://www.ebb-eu.org/biodiesel.php#whatis

levenade · Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:09 am

i read up a bit on this...

biodiesel has its virtues, mostly when it comes to emissions. it adds about 60% less CO2 to the atmosphere as burning petrol directly, because corn absorbs CO2 as it grows, burning it later on is largely cycling CO2, as opposed to creating more. basically, we'd be using petrol to create Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, instead of CO2 and heat (as in burning directly)

but as for renewable biodiesel, as far as i know, it's gotta come from non-petrol dependent processes. currently there are alternative sources of biomass being used...like waste cooking oil and animal fat, algae (which interestingly has the highest biomass to fuel conversion rate) farmed on sewage, etc...but as you can imagine, these sources are no where close to even shaving a hair off of our demands.

i think its great that they're doing such inventive things as turning waste into fuel. but really they are only tinkering, and it's too bad that biodiesel has become such an anodyne to the energy anxieties that would be motivating us to do more.

Ophelia · Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:48 am

I agree that its use can only be limited to a few projects, for example in my city (Tours) they have run buses on biodiesel for several years and they are pleasant to use, they're not noisy.
Cars that use a mixture of petrol and biodiesel have recently been introduced in France, my father drives one for example.
When people tell you about the advantages of this new product, it's never clear whether they have included the cost, in terms of the environment, of making biodiesl in the first place.

I heard George Bush make enthusiastic references to biodiesel in speeches-- this is one of the reasons why I'm skeptical about it.

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