I doubt there's enough of a supply to run the country on SVO if that's what you mean.

I just read on a Swedish page that you need 5000-6000ha of land to produce 5000 cubic meters of vegetable oil.

That should be about 10000 acers for 1320000 gallons of vegetable oil and you can grow it on normal farmland.

The US uses one billion gallons a day of oil, that would be 3 billion acers of land for a years supply, hmm do you have that much farmland?

I suppose food prices could start to rise if we grow fuel on farmland, so it's not entirely positive really.

Simon

A little quick math based on the numbers here https://www.dieoff.com/page40.htm
says we have about 600 million acres. We're a little short.

No idea if the source is correct. It was just the first Yahoo hit I got...

That's what I mean... these politicians say ethanol or svo or hydrogen will save the car industry when oil is expensive, but there's no way it will ever be as large scale as gasoline. It's likely that some more pumps will start showing up, and it may be a viable option for some cars, but it's not going to be anywhere near as big as gasoline, and certainly far less efficient, at least in this decade and most likely the next few

I was on the ethanol bandwagon but got off. It simply isn't going to work well. Diesel is a better option, and biodiesel (not veggiediesel) looks to be the most promising, made from algae emissions. They use special strains of algae that make a lot of oil, skim the oil, and there it is. And, says that the algae makes more usable fuel with a 1 acre pond than you can get from 30 acres of crops, and it's cleaner to begin with. Combine this with the fact that a diesel is far more efficient than gasoline (gasoline burns all its fuel almost instantly, while a diesel burns for the entire power stroke, which is what makes all the torque) for pushing a vehicle, you have a real winner here. Because of the way diesel burns, you can use a smaller engine to push a vehicle than you need for gasoline, and with a turbo on it the diesel is just as fast.

Get algae diesel into our tanks, and it will burn cleaner, carry us farther on a gallon, and make our crude supplies last far longer since you really only need to mix in regular diesel in the wintertime, and then at a 15 percent mix rate to ensure wintertime starting.

This won't be the final solution, but it'll get us further down the road to one. Same with nuclear power. I don't see it as a final solution (eventually solar cells will be able to provide unlimited power, seems they are able to double the output on average every 3 years) but I do see it as an effective bridge to the next level. When you combine the increases in solar cell efficiency with the increases in electrical product efficiency, I see two points far apart building a bridge to each other, with solar cells making more power and appliances needing less power to operate, the magic crossing point is actually coming along a lot faster than people realize.

Just last year they came up with a new cell that makes 3 times more power than they used to, and they just came up with the first LED that makes as much light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb. One old solar cell would make enough power to operate one 60 watt incandescent, a new solar cell of the same physical size will make enough power to operate 3 60 watt incandescents, 12 CFLs, or 30 60 watt-equivilent LEDs. Just as a rough example. :D

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Telco: If it makes you feel any better, I have hated trucks far longer than SUVs have even existed. My friend drove one (not by choice) and we hated it together. They are totally worthless (even more so than an SUV) if not properly used. I think it would be nice if we had permits where you had to prove that you were really going to use a car for its intended purpose. Otherwise you wouldn't be allowed to drive a huge *** dually or whatever else people are driving these days...

Erdrick, what kind of American are you? Don't you know we have freedom to choose how much gas to burn?! If there are any laws about owning the right cars, it should be for people that drive small cars "efficiently" since they aren't helping our great nations growth!

:D:D:D