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Search Results for: biofuels
Why biofuels can not scale up to replace petroleum
Preface. This is my favorite paper on why we can’t replace crude oil with biofuels. Of course, oil is a biofuel. But alas, not renewable, since it took over 100 million years to make them. Every year we burn fossil … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Oil, Peak Biofuels
Tagged peak biofuels, peak oil
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Far out #5 (satire): Biofuels made from the victims of climate change, potato power, founding fathers spinning in graves
Preface. The “breakthroughs” you read about in batteries, hydrogen, and other so-called renewables are just as unlikely to happen Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and … Continue reading
Peak soil: Industrial agriculture destroys ecosystems and civilizations: Biofuels make it worse
Preface. In 2018 I thought it was time to reorganize this post, as it grew more and more bloated and disorganized with new information. Eventually it turned into my 2021 book Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Biofuels, Biomass, Energy, Peak Biofuels, Peak Topsoil, Soil
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, biofuel, climate change, EROEI, EROI, erosion, ethanol, fertilizer, hunger, peak soil, pollution, topsoil
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Alternative Energy Booklist: Biofuels, Batteries, Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Hydropower, Hydrogen, Fusion, Geothermal, Wind & tidal, Muscle power, Far out
Why Alternative Energy can’t replace fossil fuels More booklists Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, & … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Book List
Tagged fusion, geothermal, hydrogen, solar, wave, wind
1 Comment
Electric Cars and Biofuels switch dependence from foreign oil to domestic water and weather risks
Figure 1. Energy/Water Nexus Amy Hardberger, Matthew E. Mantell, Michael Webber, Carey W. King, Karl Fennessey [ This Senate hearing covers a lot of ground. I found the most interesting testimony to be the intersection of water and energy, … Continue reading
Posted in Drought, Energy Production, Hydropower, Transportation, Water Infrastructure
Tagged hydropower, peak oil, peak water, water dependence
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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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Department of Energy algal biofuels roadmap: A summary
Preface. If you really want to get into the weeds about the details of why algal fuels have failed to produce biofuels, read this 140 page paper. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Women in ecology author of 2021 Life After Fossil Fuels: … Continue reading
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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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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