40% USA Corn used for biofuels / 2,500 gallons of water for 1 gallon of biofuel

[ChewChewTrain]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uApxOjZzUdU

[14Corolla]

He lost me when he stated the amount of water required to produce ethanol with sugarcane. Then mixes that with ethanol produced from corn.
He didn't state how much water is needed to produce ethanol from corn.
I quit the video at that point.

[luv2spd]

Sugarcane requires the most amount of water as a plant, when I was in Hawaii I couldn't believe how much water is needed just to keep growing sugarcane, that's why they don't do that as much anymore. I would assume corn uses a lot less water than sugarcane,we had corn fields in Europe and never had to water them, the rain was enough. He should have said how much water corn requires if that's the number one plant that is used for biofuel.

I have mixed views on nuclear power, learning about them in engineering school I still think they are one of the cleanest energy out there. The only problem is the unknown risk associated with them such as flood, earthquake, meteor, etc. I would be perfectly ok living next to a nuclear power plant as long as it is not susceptible to environmental disasters. Solar power has major environmental effect as well, I will post an article when I find it on what can go wrong with those.

[14Corolla]

I remember a farmer telling me about corn. Said it's so easy that everybody grows it. Even if it's just an additional food for their cattle.
He said: All you have to do is plant it. Soon afterward it needs a good rainfall. After that, nothing needed. It really grows well in rather dry weather in general.
Wouldn't hurt it to have another rain later...a couple months after planting. The worst is too much rain. Ruins it. Happens easily.
When the corn is bad because of drought. It never got any rain.

[rfruth]

corn is a hungry plant IIRC (plan to fertilize)

[gregsfc]

I think it takes alot of additional water to refine the corn into ethanol, but as far as I know, the earth's atmosphere keeps us from wasting water. Except for the 105 pounds of water contained in my body, all the water I use I continually give back to the earth, and I'll even give that water back in the end.

I don't care how much water it takes to make a fuel. Where I work, we use 14,000 gallons of water per minute 24/7/365 to raise 320,000 pounds of trout per year. The water flows through our system via gravity all the time; it never stops. We filter via an effluent system; and put it back in the same river that it would have gone to if we hadn't used it only along a detoured route. Imagine how badly a journalist could demonize our operation simply by stating the number of gallons water we use annually to produce 320,000 pounds of food per year.

[luv2spd]

This is the World's largest solar plant:



The World’s Largest Solar Plant Just Torched Itself

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by luv2spd

This is the World's largest solar plant:
]The World’s Largest Solar Plant Just Torched Itself[/url]

The circle of mirrors closest to the collector makes sense, but what's up with those 90 degree corners at the outer edges?

[LDB]

Solyndra??

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by LDB

Solyndra??

They went out of business by competing Chinese solar panels. Don't know if they were out engineered, out priced, or both, though.

Interestingly, I heard the Chinese commies knew full well that they were going to pollute the hell out of their country. Their "central plan" was to roll those short term profits into clean technology.