Comments on: Green jet fuel making headway, closer than thought

By: alt.energy review » Blog Archive » Boring Bugs and Biofuel

alt.energy review » Blog Archive » Boring Bugs and Biofuel — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:03:42 +0000

[...] Green jet fuel making headway, closer than thought (cleanbreak.ca) [...]

By: Caroline Keddy

Caroline Keddy — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:17:07 +0000

We are currently vertically farming foods for consumption and algae for biofuels. Based in Vancouver. I would like to see our company listed on the site and some articles/information about vertical farming. In addition, Continental Airlines flew an 1 1/2 hr test flight yesterday successfully running on biofuels from algae. Come check us out if you are interested in alternative food and fuel sources.

http://blog.valcent.net

Caroline Keddy

By: Air New Zealand reschedules biofuel test flight for Dec. 30

Air New Zealand reschedules biofuel test flight for Dec. 30 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:01:38 +0000

[...] For background on this biofuel test flight, check this post. [...]

By: Air New Zealand reschedules biofuel test flight for Dec. 30 | Alternative Energy News

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:02:28 +0000

[...] For background on this biofuel test flight, check this post. [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:03:16 +0000

Derek, those facts do seem a bit bleak but there are more UKs out there than you think. There are large areas in the American mid-west that currently grow corn (maize) using irrigation which is depleting aquifers; perhaps they would be suitable for Jatropha production. There must be areas in Russia, China, India and South America that are marginal for food as well. My guess is they won’t be growing it in the Cotswolds, but in western Nebraska maybe it could be viable.

By: Derek

Derek — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:15:43 +0000

Some simple facts, courtesy New Scientist Issue 2669:
1. Annual aviation jet fuel consumption: 238 million tonnes
2. Current Jatropha oil yields: 1.7 tonnes per hectare
3. Jatropha planting required to replace fossil fuels for aviation: 1.4 million square kilometers (about 6X the total area of the UK).

Maybe there is some degraded and poor farmland out there which could produce oil, but there isn’t 6 UK’s worth of it. If this catches on, quite a bit of that land is likely to be “reclaimed” by destroying a natural environment (see Brazilian soybean farms, Malaysian palm oil) in order to farm it, and that usually ends up being much worse for net carbon emissions than the fossil fuel it replaces.

By: Buddy Ebsen

Buddy Ebsen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:56:20 +0000

I really don’t understand why food crops and land that might be used for food crops is suddenly sacred. What about all the farmland that gets eaten up by sprawl? Is that causing worldwide food shortages and price increases?

What about all the land that is currently used for growing tobacco? Is that causing starvation? What about all the grain, hops, and grapes that are used for alcoholic beverages? Surely cotton fields could be put to better use, we all wear artificial fibers now anyway, don’t we? Then there’s meat production, which uses hundreds of times more tonnage of food crops than is produced in return, for a huge net loss.

Unless there are worldwide price controls placed on food, then it is supply and demand, both on the crops themselves, as well as the land. If food prices rise enough, then disused farmland will be put back into production, trust me. And if corn for tortillas is in high enough demand, then the ethanol distillers are going to be quickly looking for alternatives.

I do think Jatropha is an excellent choice, as Tyler points out it will practically grow in a crack in a stone. All this angst about food crops for fuel seems misplaced, however. If someone figured out how to eat Jatropha, would it suddenly become evil to use it as fuel?