[OFB Cafe] Bio Fuels

[Derek Broughton]

On July 17, 2008 22:25:52 Rick Bowers wrote:
> I almost hate to interrupt the flow of the Cafe
> with a new topic, but I received the following
> except in an email today. Does anyone (I *know*
> Chris will) have any details on this or maybe some pro/con discussion?
>
> "Bio Fuels: We've all heard about

Ethanol is essentially useless as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses.  About 
the only source of alcohol that uses less energy to produce than it yields is 
cane sugar.  The Brazilians have some energy efficient alcohol production.  
Corn is _always_ a net loss.

> This is a 2% to 5% blend of bio-diesel that is mixed with regular
> heating oil. 
...
> There are a lot of things to like about Bioheat®, including
> the environmental benefits of producing fewer
> harmful emissions during production and
> combustion and also reducing the carbon dioxide
> to the atmosphere by 78%. 

That would be a bald-faced lie.  If we assume that the bio-diesel produced 
zero emissions (impossible), then we'd be talking a maximum of 2-5% 
reductions.  However, production of bio-diesel invariably involves some 
energy expenditure, and it doesn't burn any cleaner than regular oil (though 
it may not produce a net greenhouse gas emission, as the "bio" part is 
recycled carbon).
-- 
derek