Entries from The Big Biofuels Blog tagged with 'water'
1200 gals water make 1 gal ethanol
Corrected headline reads 1200 gal water Wholly irrigated corn can take up to 1200 gal of water to produce 1gal ethanol, according to a report on the MinPost today. That's a lot of water and touches again on my obsession...
The right cellulosic biofuels might help protect the environment
Biofuels from cellulosic feedstock could help to protect the environment by reducing the amount of nitrogen that runs off into rivers and by providing coverage that helps protect the land against wind and rain erosion. That is one of the...
Will water be the limiting factor in biofuel production?
I have blogged in the past about the relationship between water and biofuels. There can't be conventional grain-based biofuels without water. But there was an interesting post on EurActive a little earlier today in response to the annual Davos meeting....
Syngenta unveils tropical sugar beet in India
Syngenta has unveiled a new tropical sugar beet that produces around as much sugar as cane, the company says. The crop matures in five months and uses less water than cane. This could be useful for ethanol production in the...
Desert greenhouses could harness the sea to grow bioufels
Greenhouses in desert areas near the sea could be used to grow a range of plants including Jatropha according to Guardian Unlimited. The answer lies in using the sun's energy to evaporate sea water... ...
A biofuels polemic from Huffington Post
If you are interested in the environmental impact of biofuels in the US check this polemic on the Huffington Post. Makes some good points about the end to end efficiency of biofuels in the automotive sector. You can't comment on...
Ethanol without the microbes
Interesting comment from David Benson, a bit off topic, but bang on the money about alternative technologies. This has a lot of things I like, especially the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis plant which uses hydrogen from electrolysed water, (electricity generated by wind)...
Kudzu its catching on
I reported that Kudzu could be a good biofuel source for ethanol. Looks like the Huffington post agrees. Kudzu is the latest new craze, according to Huffington. Like all crazes I'll give it a couple of months. Now what about...
19 US Govenors sign up to renewable fuels
Green Car Congress tells us that 19 state governors have signed up to an agreement to speed the adoption of biofuels in their sates. Which sounds fine as long as they have got plans to manage the increased water demand...
Ethanol puts pressure on Minasota's water reserves
Ethanol puts enough pressure on Minnesota's water reserves for the state to ask the Environmental Quality Board to look at the demands that planned ethanol plants could put on water in the state, according to the Associated Press. Hattip to...
Consider the trout
Call me short sighted but I'd been banging on about the water, but I'd completely forgotten the fish. A hole that has been filled by Flyfishmagazine, in its ethanol or ground water post. so consider the trout when you're thinking...
Ethanol plants are a bad idea...
Ethanol plants are a bad idea and politicians are at leas venal, according to Residual Forces, which is pretty strident on its dislike of ethanol plants and the demands that they place on water in Minnesota....
Drying of the West
You might not want to build an ethanol plant west of the Mississippi after you've read this article in National Geographic Magazine about the Drying of the West. It looks like the Western states of the US have been enjoying...
ConAgra drops Clovis ethanol plan on costs
ConAgra looks to have pulled out of a plan to build an ethanol plant in Clovis, New Mexico, because the price of corn and water would have been too high, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Corn you can expect, but...
Water ethanol and California
This pushes many of my buttons, its got water, its got California and its got Ethanol. It is symptomatic of the increasing doubt that the biofuel industry is facing in the US....
Water Implications of biofuels production
The US National Academy of Sciences has produced a study Water Implications of biofuels production. The key points are: Water is an increasingly precious resource used for many purposes including drinking and other municipal uses, hydropower, cooling thermoelectric plants, manufacturing,...
We'd like to use an eighth of your avilable water... will that be OK?
We'd like use an eighth of your available water... will that be OK? I'm sure that is not quite how Pacific Ethanol put it to the city of Burley, Idaho, and it won't be a problem, according to a report...
water again, but its not me
Water again, but its not me this time, on always on, Lee Bruno has looked at the biofuel industry's need for water... in a piece called Three Biofuel Waves he thinks they need a lot of water....
Water a problem for biofuels in china and india
Water shortages could follow Chinese and Indian plans to use sugarcane to make biofuels, according to a report from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) , carried on Planet Ark this morning. The report, Biofuels and implications for agricultural water...
Water corn and alternative fuels
I've been going on about water, quite a bit. I make no apologies for it. If I could just quote from Dr Strangeglove (or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb) Ripper: Water. That's what I'm getting...
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