The Oil Drum

The keyword is revenue. Revenue is gross sales proceeds. Revenue does not include cost of goods sold as determined by operating costs, biomass purchases, employee wages, salaries, healthcare, plant and equipment, taxes, interest on debt incurred to build the facility, insurance payments, maintenance, utilities, research and development, etc. There is no gaurantee that there would be any profits at all in such a venture. Many dupes read that tech companies were increasing their revenues in 1999 and 2000, then NASDAQ lost more than half its value and some of these high-revenue companies had to shut their doors and file for bankruptcy as revenue is not enough.

The most profitable use of biofuels other than calories contained in food for people and work animals was the use of cordwood to heat homes. Benjamin Franklin, the inventor of the Franklin stove, said that those who cut and split their own wood were warmed twice. A cord of wood cost $200. A cord of dried wood contained 1.2 tons of wood. If you supply 300 tons of split wood a day you might get revenue of 18 million dollars a year. To operate such a venture you may need a large section of forest, a chainsaw, a truck, a hydraulic log-splitter, a wheel barrow, a helper, some yellow page ads or a sign along a major highway, some bookeeping and tax advice etc. One estimated that a household with a wood burning stove might use 3-4 cords a year.