Gwynne Dyer: Biofuel mania ends days of cheap food

[Night Owl]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:07:49 +1200, "George.com" wrote the following in rec.gardens:

[...]

They said on the news today that he's having his colon examined tomorrow. Personally, I think that's a big waste of time and money.

After all, he's had his own head up his arse for years now, so why bother paying someone else to look?

[George.com]

roftl. That said, we are not that clever either. Reading in the paper today there will need to be 38,000 ha of maize planted, we are told, to feed a bio-fuel plant planned in the Waikato. That equates to 415,ooo tonnes of maize to make 150 million litres of ethanol. Oh well, we don't want breakfast cereal any more anyway. We'll just drink ethanol.

rob

[George.com]

The dumb way, maize growers will like the rising prices, the chicken farmers won't.

Kowhai maize grower John Hodge welcomed the prospect of an ethanol plant in the region. He said New Zealand lagged behind other countries on biofuel production and wanted to see the Government subsidise set-up costs as in the US. Mr Hodge received just under $300 per tonne for his last crop, which is used as chicken feed. He said that growers were expecting rises for the coming season, and were also hopeful more demand from a local plant might help increase prices in future.

The smart way, shit of a good idea

New Zealand and airliner manufacturer Boeing are secretly working with Blenheim-based biofuel developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to create the world's first environmentally friendly aviation fuel, made of wild algae. If the project pans out the small and relatively new New Zealand company could lead the world in environmentally sustainable aviation fuel. It's understood Air NZ is undertaking risk analysis. If everything stacks up it will make an aircraft available on the Tasman to test the biofuel. The fuel is essentially derived from bacterial pond scum created through the photosynthesis of sunlight and carbon dioxide on nutrient-rich water sources such as sewage ponds.

And equally good, another shit of a good idea

's not rocket science, says Niwa's Rupert Craggs. Recently he and a few others demonstrated how easy it is to produce electricity from the biogas that comes off farm effluent ponds, using a converted generator. "We plugged in two fan heaters, three spotlights and a three-phase motor - and they ran for over two hours. At full throttle it generates 13kW, we were running it at nine or ten." Such technology is not novel, he says. "Most large domestic wastewater treatment plants capture biogas. There are also farm-based technologies but these have not been cost-effective. What we're trying to show is that farmers can do it themselves

[zxcvbob]

This is one of the most promising methods I've read about:

have a prototype refinery near Carthage, MO that makes oil out of turkey guts and feathers from a nearby processing plant. They can also refine sewage, old tires, contaminated food, garbage; basically anything with lots of carbon in it.

Unfortunately I haven't heard much from them in about a year. I think their process doesn't fit the federal definition of "biofuel" so they miss out on the subsidies going to corn-based ethanol, etc.

Bob

[George.com]

plant

with

few

processing animal carcass waste into fuel is not a new idea but it is a smart one. We get tallow from meat works that can be further refined into bio-diesel. Problem is getting a big enough feed source. These folk obviously have access to a reasonably big poultry slaughter supply. One bit amused me, talking about avian flu. "In response, countries have begun planning in anticipation of an outbreak. CWT could be instrumental in helping to reform these infected animals into valuable oil that is both renewable and safe."

The tyre bit is interesting. We had a joker a while back who said he could get oil from plastic waste & tyres. Maybe the costs are too might to make it profitable at present.

rob