Been gone all weekend, this has been quite a hot topic. Anton makes a very good point and I will attempt to add my two cents without "bile".
I am new to bio-fuels and relatively new to alternative energy analyses, I have really been enjoying the discussions on this list and want to thank all in helping my education. I do however hold advanced degrees in both mathematics and physics and am not new to numbers and thier correct usage. After reading the many posts on this topic, no offense intended to anyone else, but Jerry's numbers make the most sense. A 50% efficient process, followed by a 50% efficient process leaves you with 50% x 50% = 25% of the original energy, NOT 50% - 50% = 0%. I changed the percent values in my example from some of those quoted recently to make it clear why subtracting and adding percentages is just plain INCORRECT. The idea of efficency "to the road" as Jerry put it, or related to that "pollution per highway mile" as I put it in an earlier message, is in my opinion the statistic that matters. The idling losses (and other losses like heat) of an ICE are not trivial. Jerry pointed this out very convincingly I thought, and I did not read any rebuttals to this point. I have seen the quoted 7% efficiency to road number many times from multiple sources. Keith is ablsolutely correct in reminding us that cleaning up the current fuel supply is the best way to go in the short term considering that ICEs make up the vast vast majority of the vehicles out there today, but in the long run there already exist cleaner alternatives that deserve their due credit. To Jerry's bit of pop culture referance "can't we all just get along" I'd like to add in reference to the multiple strategies taken by list members "it's all good". -Andrew ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~> eGroups is now Yahoo! Groups Click here for more details http://click.egroups.com/1/11231/0/_/837408/_/982008134/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
