Category Archives: Biomass

Fill ‘er up with kelp?

Posted on July 12, 2024 by

Preface. Here are just a few of the dozens of reasons why seaweed can’t make a dent in energy supplies: A negative return on investment like corn ethanol No commercial biofuels are being made from it. Kelp is mainly used … Continue reading →

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European Power plants are burning American forests

Posted on July 5, 2024 by

Preface. More than half of Europe’s “green” energy comes from burning wood, a lot of it imported from America.  Now Denmark would like to import methanol made from pinyon pines and junipers from hundreds of thousands of acres in the … Continue reading →

Posted in CO2 and Methane, Deforestation, Wood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy

Posted on March 22, 2024 by

Preface: By far the largest renewable energy resource used in Europe is wood. In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts forhalf of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. Although Finland is … Continue reading →

Posted in Wood | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe

Posted on March 15, 2024 by

Preface. These are updates to Ward & Brownlee’s book “Rare Earth: Why Complex life is Uncommon in the Universe”. If we are one of the few planets with intelligent life, what a shame it would be if we destroyed ourselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Wood | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why methanol cannot replace petroleum as a transportation fuel

Posted on December 20, 2023 by

Preface. Methanol, or CH₃OH, is primarily used to make chemicals for plastics, paints, and cosmetics. It is made from coal or natural gas. “Green” methanol is made from biomass or biogas from landfills or sewage plants. Or it can be … Continue reading →

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Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?

Posted on December 6, 2023 by

Preface.  In this post the New York Times writes about renewable airplane fuel from corn ethanol, and questions whether there is enough water and a few other problems.  First I’m going to summarize their issues with this, and then follow … Continue reading →

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Why biofuels can not scale up to replace petroleum

Posted on May 22, 2023 by

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 →

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Deforestation in the news

Posted on March 5, 2023 by

Preface. I wrote in “Life after fossil fuels” that as energy declined, it would be hard to cut down distant forests with limited oil supplies.  I thought this because even in Britain, so denuded of trees people turned to filthy … Continue reading →

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Can we eat enough fried food for biodiesel to keep trucks running?

Posted on April 15, 2022 by

Fatberg from London sewer If the U.S. can’t make enough biodiesel from plants, then the question becomes: Can we step up our fast-food game? Can we eat more French fries?  Biodiesel is already made from used cooking oil (11.5% of … Continue reading →

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Why it is hard to replace diesel with biodiesel

Posted on April 12, 2022 by

Biodiesel is the great hope, our main hope, the only renewable fuel of all the many options, and the closest to the diesel essential for rail, trucks, and ships to do the actual work of civilization. The U.S. produces over … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiesel, Food production, Oil, Peak Biofuels, Peak Food, Transportation, Water | Tagged , , | 1 Comment