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- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
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- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
Category Archives: Biofuels
Are biofuels a sustainable and viable energy strategy?
Preface. In 2000, Melanie Kenderine at the U.S. Department of energy stated that: “This nation has abundant biomass resources (grasses, trees, agricultural wastes) that have the potential to provide power, fuels, chemicals and other bio-based products” (136). That’s a good … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
Tagged biofuel, EROEI, EROI, net energy, subsidies
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Biofuel distribution wastes valuable diesel fuel
Biofuels can’t use the existing refined petroleum distribution pipeline system, by far the cheapest way to move fuel — 17.5 times cheaper than truck, 5 times less than rail, 2.25 times less than barge, on average (Curley), so delivery of … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels
Tagged biofuel, distribution, pipeline
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Energy generation water consumption
[ Notice how much water biofuels use, especially soybeans for biodiesel Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Notes from “Working Document of the NPC Future Transportation Fuels Study. Topic … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Energy Production
Tagged biodiesel, biofuels, consumption, corn stover, E85, energy, water, water use
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Commercial scale cellulosic ethanol still not happening in 2016 – why?
Here’s Rapier’s latest column on cellulosic ethanol explaining why it still isn’t commercial yet, despite attempts since the 1900’s. He points out that we have been able to create cellulosic ethanol since 1900, but not economically. February 13, 2016. Cellulosic … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels
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New land converted to cropland to grow biofuel crops equal to 34 coal-fired power plants
Summary of article below: Between 2008 and 2012 over 7 million acres new land, much of it grasslands, were converted to croplands, damaging native ecosystems, and mimics the extreme land-use change that led up to the Dust Bowl in the … Continue reading
GAO on why ethanol, and other non-drop in fuels, face pipeline & installation at service station challenges
[The challenges that ethanol faces in being put into new or modified pipelines and added to gas stations are issues faced by all alternative fuels (methanol, CNG, LNG, DME, diesohol, CTL, hydrogen, and so on) in a transition from gasoline … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Biofuels, Fuel Distribution, Pipeline
Tagged biofuel, E85, ethanol, non drop-in fuel, pipeline, service station
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Biofuels do not scale up enough to power society
Richard, T. August 23, 2010. Challenges in scaling up biofuels infrastructure. Science. (329) Below are excerpts from this paper. Look at the impossible scale of biomass required: 150 EJ/year = 15 billion metric tons of plant biomass = 200 billion … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels
Tagged biofuel, delivery, densification, lignocellulosic, limits to growth, scaling up, transport
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Large agribusiness gets corporate welfare via illegal ethanol subsidies
What more proof is needed that the Energy Returned on Energy Invested of ethanol is negative? They’re losing money and getting corporate welfare to keep the scam going, meanwhile destroying prime topsoil, poisoning the land with pesticides, and eutrophying the … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
Tagged agribusiness, biodiesel, EROEI, ethanol, illegal, subsidies
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Germany National Academy of Sciences report: Don’t use biofuels
Preface. This German study explains why biomass doesn’t scale up to make biofuels, whether from algae, cellulose, or plants, as well as why trying to do so would harm the environment. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Women in ecology author of 2021 … Continue reading
Posted in Algae, Biofuels, Biomass, Biomass EROI, Wood
Tagged algae, biodiesel, biofuel, environment, ethanol
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Biofuels can be explosive
Oil and natural gas can be cheaply distributed by pipeline, but ethanol must move by very expensive truck or train. 6 Feb 2011. Ohio train derailment prompts evacuations. CNN. 7 Oct 2011. Freight Train Derailment in Illinois Prompts Evacuations. Associated … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels
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