Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
Back to Main

November 23, 2004
Bio Fuel

Fuel for nought
The adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster

Road transport in the UK consumes 37.6m tonnes of petroleum products a year. The most productive oil crop that can be grown in this country is rape. The average yield is 3-3.5 tonnes per hectare. One tonne of rapeseed produces 415kg of biodiesel. So every hectare of arable land could provide 1.45 tonnes of transport fuel.

To run our cars and buses and lorries on biodiesel, in other words, would require 25.9m hectares. There are 5.7m in the UK. Even the EU’s more modest target of 20% by 2020 would consume almost all our cropland.
If the same thing is to happen all over Europe, the impact on global food supply will be catastrophic: big enough to tip the global balance from net surplus to net deficit.

If, as some environmentalists demand, it is to happen worldwide, then most of the arable surface of the planet will be deployed to produce food for cars, not people.

…

We need a solution to the global warming caused by cars, but this isn’t it. If the production of biofuels is big enough to affect climate change, it will be big enough to cause global starvation.

George Monbiot, in his piece, does not even calculate the energy (fertilizer) needed to grow the crops, to convert them to fuel and to transport them to the relevant market.

Bio fuel is just a great scam of the farmer lobbies to get just another subsidy. Putting that money into research for less energy consuming transport is more efficient.

Any regulation effort should be on stricter limits of maximum fuel consumption, maybe in form of a progressive consumtion tax, not on new ways to devastate landscapes.

Posted by b on November 23, 2004 at 08:34 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Then of course, there are a few elephants in the living room, but it’s quite un-PC to mention them. First, the mobility level of the average Westerner is purely insane and unsustainable. In fact, the current level of pollution of the US or the EU alone may well doom most of the planet, which goes to show how much is left to do. Second, there’s that minor population problem – since most resources are quickly being depleted. If you want to feed mankind in the long run, the current way of getting food is clearly unsustainable as well (depletion of fisheries, massive use of oil and various nefarious chemicals to grow crop, and long-term decrease in arable land). Basically, in the long run, you can only feed mankind if people massively shift to vegetarian or accept to eat meat once a week at best, because meat is 10 times more energy-intensive than veggies. Or you just have to massively decrease the world population – which may well be needed since changing eating habit won’t affect the other resources. It’s also worth noting that major population decrease shouldn’t be considered as a way of saying we should merely get rid of 3rd world people to preserve the Western way of life, since the West all by itself is enough to wreck the planet.
Whatever, I fully agree biofuel is close to insane. It may be used if that’s the only efficient fuel we’ve left, and only to power a few necessary vehicles in emergency cases, maybe some ambulances or firefighter trucks. But you’ll never drive a whole country with it. Then of course, it’s just a wealthy country luxury.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Nov 23 2004 8:49 utc | 1

I’d like to get jerome’s take on this.
Monbiot’s article seems somewhat knee jerk.
Maybe there’s a happy medium.
We have one hell of a lot of productive land sitting idle over hear.
Just thoughts. Don’t want to start a flamethrower war over this.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 23 2004 15:00 utc | 2

Atomic power?

Posted by: alabama | Nov 23 2004 17:26 utc | 3

If only we could power our world with hot air, we could attach the turbines to politicians’ offices and legislatures. Now there’s a utopian vision!

Posted by: kat | Nov 23 2004 17:46 utc | 4

@Kat:
I think you meant “orifices”.
Sorry, I misread: I thought the politicians were the prime energy source.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 23 2004 18:36 utc | 5

Uh, um, I heat my house with corn… Its locally grown! Is that ok?

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 23 2004 19:36 utc | 6

Uh, um, I heat my house with corn… Its locally grown! Is that ok?
Yeah, I heat mine with wood but not so much I have to invade my neighbors to sustain myself.
I used to throw cob corn into my furnace in NW Iowa. It’s mostly all solar energy, even the fertilizers, tractor fuels, etc. Only a few millions of years of stored solar energy spewed out in one hundred year orgasm.

Posted by: Juannie | Nov 23 2004 23:37 utc | 7

I had a lecture about this today. Anyway, the short version was that biofuels grown in the way they are grown in the west are an energy waste as more energy is used producing them then they yield. If they are grown in a traditional way (horses and horse manure, instead of tractor fuels and fertilizers) it yields more energy then is used.
It was a kind of depressing lecture as the lecturer showed that biofuel (except wood, so Juannie is ok), solar cells and ethanol all takes more energy then they give. Except the fossil fuels, all that is availabel (with todays technology, solar might be good in the future) is basically wind, water and nuclear. Time to start using less…

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Nov 24 2004 1:01 utc | 8

That is depressing sweed type death. Well, whether or not burning feed corn is a net energy waste it is significantly cheaper than natural gas. And we get some exercise lifting all of those fifty pound (paper) bags.

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 24 2004 1:08 utc | 9

@Stoy:
How dry is the corn–Corn Crib dry–and the furnace you installed in September is doing the job? You burning corn and cob or just corn?
@Swedish:
Sorry, I’m an optimistic hardhead: and curious.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 24 2004 1:21 utc | 10

Biomass is interesting too:
Hybrid poplar etc. Fast; naturally rgenerative,with a vengeance; easy to plant and propagate; only real cost really in harvesting and processing. BTU approximating lignite.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 24 2004 1:30 utc | 11

Stoy:
well, the perspective of the lecture was the general, not the specific. So I really don´t know much about corn or corn cobs. Maybe your local producer is on to something.
The short version of the lecture was: eat the food and burn the wood. Somehow it rings true to me.

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Nov 24 2004 1:34 utc | 12

Flash:
The corn is shelled feed corn and it is (supposed) to be 15% moisture or less. The grain elevator down the street where we get the corn says it is less than 15%. We had a few days a week or so ago that were low 30s to low 40s and we were going through 100 lbs in about 24 hours. The stove is working well for us but it just highlighted the fact that we desperatly need to insulate our basement around the foundation, followed not quite as desperately by our attic. The kitchen and laundry room which are at the back of the house and I suspect were later additions are very cold; we can feel the cold air pouring in from under our cabinets and up through the floor and through the very thin wall between our laundry room and enclosed back porch, which has no storm door. My wife was going to go to Manard’s this evening to pick up some insulation but it is too late in the evening now.
My wife’s father and his wife have a 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid and we took it down to Tenn, SC and NC and back at the beginning of the year and we really liked it. When we need to replace our Plymouth Breeze we plan on getting a hybrid. I also consider living in our house a form of recycling since it is 114 years old.

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 24 2004 2:14 utc | 13

Hybrid Poplar Utility Project in Wisconsin
Very Interesting.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 24 2004 2:16 utc | 14

@Stoy:
Thanks. My house is much the same, a little older, so I can definitely relate.
I’m Insulating now as best I can. Buying $1.99 fuel oil sparks desperation and innovation.
Let us know how it’s working out over the winter.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 24 2004 2:33 utc | 15

Before everyone gives up hope on biofuels, I’d like to plug this article. I agree that crop-based biofuels will play only a small role in a renewable energy future. Algae-based biodiesel seems like a more workable approach, though not without problems.
Someone said the dreaded n-word farther up. Fusion is best viewed as a pipe-dream, but I’d like to see this country get behind research and development of a new generation of PBMRs. China, naturally enough, is moving this way. I don’t trust the existing powers in this country with any more old-fashioned PWRs.

Posted by: Tom DC/VA | Nov 24 2004 4:28 utc | 16

Burning for energy sounds like the only use I can imagine for genetically mutilated crops; aside from that I’m surprised no one has mentioned the insanity of the water, of which we surely do not have enough, which is required to grow crops just to run vehicles.
And biowaste is needed to replenish the soil.
It infuriates & terrifies me that Am. elites are so insane, destructive, out of touch as they hover behind the gates of their palaces (Kerry – 5, incl. a private island) & ship their buckolas overseas, that we do not have a Dept. of Sustainable Dev. in the Cabinet to plan a transition -NOT utilizing market forces that will bankrupt 90% of us.
Anybody have a clue what % of America know what we’ve called Civilization is doomed is Very Short Order? Maybe 70% Blue-state; 35% Red-state?
I guess i found the word I’ve been restlessly casting about for…….We Are Doomed. Yes, truly so.
Even more than Europe, since we are larger & were substantially built post WWII, when oil was cheap & plentiful. Structurally in ways, not easy for individuals to effect out of our shrinking paychecks, US built to use much more energy than Europe.

Posted by: jj | Nov 24 2004 5:48 utc | 17

Thanks for that article Tom!
I wanna Dodge Intrepid ESX4!

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 24 2004 6:23 utc | 18

Flash Harry, I will definitely keep everyone posted on the corn stove. What did you link to, I clicked it and it downloaded an .asp file, which I am not sure what to do with?

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 24 2004 6:26 utc | 19

@Stoy:
Link works. It’s a 14 page state agency report in PDF format.
Takes a while to load.
Might send this over to Jerome to get him to put the abacus and green eyeshades to it.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 24 2004 13:37 utc | 20

@Harry:
I am not challenging the fact that the link works, it just doesn’t work for me. I suspect that an .asp file is used to establish the download and my Mac doesn’t know what to do with it. At least that is my theory. I tried it at least two times and had the same prob. Honestly though, I am not going to read a 14 page doc. I would love to hear Jerome’s analysis though.

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 26 2004 6:26 utc | 21

Back to Main