cato said:
...you should show me the research that has been done that proves that you can manage the land like the Amish and still produce large amounts of cheap biofuel.
I agree that it is probably better than current solar cells, thats why I think algae is a good idea. but the problem of maintaining the large pools required for such an operation needs to be solved. it may not be possible to solve the problems with biofuel. we may simply have to choose to wait until our fossil fuel supplies become low enough that it becomes economical to grow biofuels and maintain the environment.
I already posted a study by best university in Brazil in technical agriculture area that surveyed Brazil and found the currently available land with good soil (rainforest does not have it and is being raped for the timber), road access, good rain, etc. and forget the acreage results but if all placed into cane production (would not be as other crops need to be rotated) could supply both US and Brazil's entire mobile fuel needs.
Sugar cane is one of only a few plants that convert solar energy via a four step, rather than three step process. The four step process is more efficient. Algae would be less efficient than cane until GM gets to work on it, but the real break thru is via "enzymatic processing" of any cellulose source. (Brazil's agricultural centers are working hard on this. - Brazil is very good in modern biotech. Brazil has been on the cover of Science Magazine for some of their DNA sequencing work, etc. A real world leader, but mostly applied to making crops more productive, diseases resistant, etc, except for their cloned cows etc. now in "second generation cloned" work/ studies.)
Brazil is the world leader in eucalypts* pulp production (for newspapers etc.) Much of the leaves, small limbs, etc are not currently worth transport/ trouble and cost. What is discarded now in the fields will probably supply all US mobile fuel needs some day if cutting the unused grass wet lands, etc is not cheaper or legally prohibited to keep them as wild life tourist attactions.
PS, current oil prices make "biofuels" produced in Brazil (and in many other lands with 12 month growing seasons, cheap land, cheap labor for cane cutting.) "economical." Why do you think my "flex fuel" car has had only about 50 liters (~ 15 gallons) of gas put into it in the last 2.5 years I have had it? Answer: 100% alcohol is cheaper per mile and adds less air pollution to Sao Paulo's air, which I breathe.
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*Amazing how fast the genetically selected trees grow. Some that I know were only a few feet tall three years ago are at least 30 feet tall now! Eucalypts, is not native to Brazil, so it is legal to treat it like a crop, plant young trees between the rows of older trees and havest a crop every 4 or 5 years. All the big paper companies are here, "farming pulp" year after year and their capital (the soil) is getting better annually.