Room for improvement in biofuel production - Fuelly Forums

Click here to see important news regarding the aCar App

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 06-24-2007, 12:08 AM   #1
Registered Member
 
theclencher's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 542
Country: United States
Thumbs up Room for improvement in biofuel production

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070621...5jK3aY8cOSl7MF
__________________

__________________
Tempo/Topaz:
Old EPA 23/33/27
New EPA 21/30/24

F150:
New EPA12/14/17

theclencher is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-24-2007, 02:07 AM   #2
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 244
Country: United States
Now all the sugar farmers need to band together, pay the high priced lobbyists more money than the corn farmers paid theirs, and push for sugar as the crop of choice to manufacture ethanol. After that the soy bean farmers can do the same. Whereas sugar has a 40% greater energy output than corn (corn-based ethanol has, at best, a 10% net gain in energy output than the energy used to produce it), soy is said to be 80%.
__________________

__________________
cems70 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-24-2007, 09:35 AM   #3
Supporting Member
 
cfg83's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,779
Country: United States
theclencher -

What's the current energy content of sugarcane, the crop used in Brazil? It sounds like this process would push corn over sugarcane. Is there any comparison of how much more "energy in" is needed? Does it take 5% more processing energy to get the 40%?

Note : Just did some googling. Articles are all over the map on this. Couldn't find the answer I was looking for. This is the closest I could find, but it has no numbers :

First comprehensive energy balance study reveals cassava is a highly efficient biofuel feedstock Wednesday, April 18, 2007
http://biopact.com/2007/04/first-ful...y-reveals.html
Quote:
Tropical crops have a significant advantage over biofuel crops grown in temperate climates: they convert sunlight more efficiently into biomass and yield far more of it. The result: the energy balance of biofuels made from such crops is considerably stronger. Or in other words, to produce one unit of energy in the form of a liquid fuel, tropical crops require far less land and resources than crops grown in temperate regions.
CarloSW2
__________________
Old School SW2 EPA ... New School Civic EPA :

What's your EPA MPG? https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calculatorSelectYear.jsp
cfg83 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-24-2007, 12:01 PM   #4
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,138
Country: United States
If you just squeeze out the sugar from the cane, you miss all the potential energy in the cellulose in the cane... Not sure if they have any way to extract that energy in Brazil. I'm guessing they just burn it and use the energy to cook down the cane juice.
__________________
Bill in Houston is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
PepsiCo Connections? SVOboy General Discussion (Off-Topic) 3 10-12-2006 04:52 PM
Modifying exhaust to increase mileage? Matt Timion General Fuel Topics 15 01-07-2006 07:44 PM

» Fuelly iOS Apps
» Fuelly Android Apps
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:09 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.