There's a long and thorough post over on the Huffington post about biofuel. Does'nt like the idea of it basically because it will do bad things to Brazil. It seems to miss one or two thoughts:
Lets talk about fuel economy. Brazilian ethanol could come to the US if the tariff is removed, which could happen in 2008 at the earliest. And this could see more of the Amazon jungle turned over to sugar cane, and Brazilian grasslands too. (It was OK for the US to plough the prairie, though, apparently).
Alternatively, the US could grow more corn and convert that to ethanol, and in both cases expensive oil would stay in the ground for a little longer. Both of these scenarios also mean that there will be increasing demand for water. who will have the rights to the water? Farmers or people who live in towns and villages?
Or how about US Consumers decide that they would like less power and more miles per gallon from their cars? If fuel efficiency were to be increased then the incremental rise in demand for gasloine would slow and may possibly fall.
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Comments (3)
As Biopact has several times pointed out, Brazilian sugarcane is grown about 1000 km away from the Amazon rain forest, where the environment is not suited for growing sugarcane in the first place!
Posted by David B. Benson | September 24, 2007 7:15 PM
Posted on September 24, 2007 19:15
The Huffington article is very interesting, tho too long. It does look as though drivers everywhere are increasingly interested in trading power for fuel economy.
Posted by Barbara | September 25, 2007 1:08 PM
Posted on September 25, 2007 13:08
"Or how about US Consumers decide that they would like less power and more miles per gallon from their cars? If fuel efficiency were to be increased then the incremental rise in demand for gasloine would slow and may possibly fall."
- It's funny how different biofuels can have varying positives/negatives.
For instance biodiesel blends... even though the FAMEs have lower energy densities than petro-diesel... theres no loss in MPG since the higher viscosity of the FAME within the fuel in my opinion undergos more efficient combustion at the injector: MPGs are left unchanged in many biodiesel blends unlike E blends.
I still say the futures "fuel cell powered blended-liquid fuel cars".
I can't see anything else as a better alternative right now.
Posted by Mark C R UK | October 16, 2007 1:19 PM
Posted on October 16, 2007 13:19