The Oil Drum

87 comments on The Man Who Wrote the Book on Algal Biodiesel

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karlnick on May 17, 2007 - 5:47pm

This is a research center for turning wood to gas http://www.chrisgas.com/

Substitute natural gas yields five times more energy per acre than biodiesel from oil plants http://eescopinions.eesc.europa.eu/eescopiniondocument.aspx?language=sv&... section 4.2.1 in the left margin. The link is unfortunately only in swedish but i guess that it is possible to find the document in other languages because it is written in brussel.

One of the most important parameters must be the energy content so i used the following links and calculated the energy content for different crops.
http://www.vedeldning.com/vedeldning.htm http://www.gde-net.se/files/1/87/88/HX81O95Orr3TtQpLUlafUh496GvEq583.pdf swedish links again but i just can't find the numbers in english.
MWh = Mega Watt hour
8-20 MWh/hectare/year Grain
35-44 MWh/hectare/year Energy forest (fast growing trees (salix in swedish) on farmland)
16-26 MWh/hectare/year Forest (i am not sure if forks are included in the volume)

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wimbi on May 17, 2007 - 8:48pm

I appreciate all the good work being done in Sweden on biomass.

People in the US have to do a few obvious things- forget about the present absurd transport system with its reliance on private vehicles of sinfully low efficiency; Then forget about the 10kW per person lifestyle in general; Then put the various energy sources where they fit best- for example, biomass for space heating and CHP.

AND

Remember that there are other thermal power devices than diesel and spark IC engines. Then go look up the NASA space power stirling engines and note how long they last and how efficient they are. And then think of what these things could getting their heat from SOLAR ENERGY instead of isotopes.

But, truth to tell, almost no hope here (USA), Maybe Sweden???

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Alfred on May 18, 2007 - 9:21am

I changed language=sv to language=en and it worked fine.

Try
http://eescopinions.eesc.europa.eu/eescopiniondocument.aspx?language=en&...

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wimbi on May 20, 2007 - 10:39am

Very good! I especially like the obvious recommendation that biomass be used for heating, releasing FF for vehicles, instead of wasting time money and energy trying to turn biomass into liquids for vehicles.

This seems SO OBVIOUS that I keep wondering why people on TOD keep talking about all the hocus-pucus of biomass-to- liquids.

So, please tell me why I am wrong about this, ok? If you do, I promise to shut up about it.