eppie,Feb 8 2006, 03:31 AM Wrote:...But as said before in this thread, if you purposely plant things like sugarbeets for getting fuel, it will cost you a lot of space. And remving dead material from forrest to convert into biodiesel will seriously alter the biome there..so also not an option.::Nod::
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That is why I would think we could look to fast growing (nuisance) plants, especially ones that go out of control due to our vast mountains of excreted fertilizer. I'm not sure what the best crop yield/acre is for bio-fuel production.
" The agricultural residues that could be harvested sustainably in the United States today, for example, could yield 14.5 billion gallons of ethanol (four times the current output). "Energy crops," such as hardy grasses and fast growing trees, have higher ethanol yields and better energy balances than conventional starch crops. One likely candidate is switchgrass, a tall perennial grass used by farmers to protect land from erosion. It requires minimal irrigation, fertilizer, or herbicides but yields 2-3 times more ethanol per acre than corn does. Such crops could potentially be harvested on marginal land, avoiding the conversion of healthy cropland or forests to energy-crop production."
Analysis: Ethanol's Potential -- Looking Beyond Corn
I suppose we might also be able to develop conveyored (solar powered) hydroponic plant factories that might utilize waste water for fertilizers and vertical space to conserve land.