leaking pen wrote:
Hmm, since its a conversion of the cellulose tissue, thats not
neccesarily true. tree waste certainly has a lot more energy than the
seeds it makes does.
Not over the entire life of the tree. And, as I said, especially not
for a domesticated agricultural tree, such as an apple or orange
tree. Most of the chemical energy ends up in the fruit.
I was thinking more of grain crops, however, such as corn and wheat.
I am not suggesting that it is a bad idea to make ethanol out of
sawdust and ag waste. The addition of 0.06 gallons of gasoline per
capita would be welcome. However, it will not significantly impact on
the energy crisis or the world supply of oil. U.S. oil consumption is
20,680,000 barrels per day, or 868,560,000 gallons. That's about 2.8
gallons per capita per day. There is no way 0.06 gallons (2% of that)
is going have much impact. That's on the same scale as checking your
tire air pressure -- which is a darn good idea, by the way! Saves gas
and makes the car safer to drive, too.
Even if I had miscalculated by a large factor, I doubt it is more
than 5% of oil. Things like plug in hybrids will have a far bigger
impact. They could reduce oil consumption by two thirds in a decade.
That is the scale of the change we need.
Naturally we could do both: ag waste and plug-in hybrids. But there
is a limited amount of capital available (and way less than there was
a week ago). Money and skilled engineers are always a limited
resource. We should invest in technology that will have the biggest
impact first. It is usually used to tell which has the biggest
impact: you find out which saves the most money. That is a crude
metric, but it works.
- Jed
