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- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- 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”
Tag Archives: biomass
Biocoal from food waste and sewage
Preface. This probably doesn’t have a net energy gain because of the energy to move waste and sewage to a common facility, and then transport these wastes from numerous places to the factory where biomass is converted to coal using … Continue reading
How will 500,000 products made with fossils as feedstock & process energy be created post fossil fuels?
Preface. It is quite likely that after fossils are gone, plastics will no longer be made, since they are incredibly complex – PhDs in numerous fields make them possible – and most kinds have been around for only 50 years … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Oil
Tagged biomass, chemical, crude oil, distillation, feedstock, petrochemical, plastic
1 Comment
Reforestation for the return to biomass after fossil fuels
Preface. Below are excerpts from a New York Times article about forests. My book “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy” explains why the myriad ways we use fossil fuels can’t be electrified (or hydrogenized or anything … Continue reading
Posted in Deforestation
Tagged biomass, Reforest
Comments Off on Reforestation for the return to biomass after fossil fuels
Table of Contents for Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy
Preface. Most of what is in “Life After Fossil Fuels” is also posted here at energyskeptic (especially Peak Soil). And also in my other book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation“. The advantage of books over … Continue reading
Posted in Life After Fossil Fuels
Tagged biofuel, biomass, electric grid, hydrogen, Life After Fossil Fuels, steam engine
Comments Off on Table of Contents for Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy
Will life after peak oil be like the middle ages?
Preface. Winston recreates what life was like from the 5th to the 15th centuries — from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance. Energyskeptic.com shows why hydrogen, wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, fusion, and other alternatives … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biomass, Life Before Oil
Tagged biomass, life before oil, middle ages, wood world
8 Comments
When wood is again our main energy source, how long will it last?
Preface. Just when civilization is decades from returning to wood as the main energy source (due to peak oil in 2018), climate change is allowing invasive beetles to survive winters and kill trees, with drought and wildfires increasing the damage. … Continue reading
Posted in BioInvasion, Drought & Collapse, Nate Hagens, Where to Be or Not to Be, Wildfire, Wood
Tagged biomass, climate change, fuel, heat, wildfire, wood
Comments Off on When wood is again our main energy source, how long will it last?
Generating electricity with biomass at utility-scale in California limited to direct combustion in small 50 MW plants
Preface. It’s obviously much easier and more energy efficient to set logs on fire for heat and electricity than to turn them into ethanol. Burning biomass can’t do much to solve our energy crisis. To produce just 10% of … Continue reading
Steam powered farm tractors
Preface. Steam engines weren’t very efficient, 10 to 20% at best, which is why they went away beginning around 1920 when oil-powered engines came along. At the very best steam engines for transportation reached 10 to 20% efficiency. They were … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass-powered Steam Engines
Tagged agriculture, biomass, steam power, tractor, wood
8 Comments
Charcoal for the high heat needed in manufacturing after peak oil
Preface. De Decker (2011) writes: “A large share of energy consumed worldwide is by heat. Cooking, space heating and water heating dominate domestic energy consumption. In the UK, these activities account for 85% of domestic energy use, in Europe for … Continue reading
Posted in Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Biofuels, Wood
Tagged biomass, charcoal, industrial heat, wood
3 Comments
60 minutes promotes biomass scam
Preface. Hey 60 minutes, do some fact checking first. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and Crackers”. Podcasts: Practical Prepping, KunstlerCast 253, KunstlerCast278, … Continue reading