This is pretty interesting. Are you saying there is a diesel type engine that will run on sugar water? I'd be really interested to see the design principles of such a beast. Is there a link to such a description?
One other thing. I seem to remember Jed saying that burning all the biomass on earth wouldn't feed our present energy consumption and that it takes more petroleum product to make energy from agriculturally produced fuels than from the petrolem directly; i.e., it takes two gallons of petroleum product to make the biomass energy equivalent of one gallon of petroleum. If this is true, then that would be why not. Having said that, I'm still intrigued by the idea of a sugar-water diesel engine. M. =========Original Message=========== The low energy Water Reforming of Glucose to Hydrogen for fuel cells, or hydrogen-powered ICEs: C6H12O6 + 6 H2O ----> 6 CO2 + 12 H2 Then, in a fuel cell or ICE: 12 H2 + 6 O2 ----> 12 H2O This isn't required for direct burning of a sugar-water mix in a properly designed "Swiesel" Engine: C6H12O6 + ( n H2O) + 6 O2 ----> 6 CO2 + (n + 6 H2O) + Horsepower Glucose from plant starch or cellulose is the most abundant Photo-Synthesis product on the earth. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9l.html Globally, primary production amounts to 243 billion metric tons of dry plant biomass per year. The total energy fixed by plants in a community through photosynthesis is referred to as gross primary productivity (GPP). Because all the energy fixed by the plant is converted into sugar, it is theoretically possible to determine a plant's energy uptake by measuring the amount of sugar produced. Why Not? Frederick _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
