RRC Archives

i'm sorry i guess i was unclear. i know that there is a net gain currently. as long as there are less people needing grease than there is grease, we are using a recycled resource.

my question is, is it scalable? what happens when more people need grease than there is grease in existence. once the free recycled resource is used up there will be a demand for it. once there is a demand for it, people will have to supply it explicitly for vehicles. Then they will charge for it and use some sort of fuels to create it.

is it more efficient to grow the corn and process it into grease and turn it into bio-desiel than it is to extract oil and process it into gasoline?

For this thought expiriment we can assume that:
1)logistical hurdles can be ignored, so we don't have to worry about replacing the current oil based infrastructure.
2)that we are talking about creating a fixed supply. so we can ignore the fact that creating a massive amount fuel makes creating each gallon of fuel cheaper to create. Lets assume that we are making 100,000 barrels of each fossil fuels diesel and 100,000 barrels of bio-diesel.

i imagine that probably no one on this board knows the answer to this but maybe they do.

"the babe senator from South Dakota is hot, she gave a speech covered by C-Span the other day- Willie should bring her out at the next Farm Aid"

wille nelson or slick willie? I figure they both would like a hot chick from SD.

merrick wrote:i'm sorry i guess i was unclear. i know that there is a net gain currently. as long as there are less people needing grease than there is grease, we are using a recycled resource.

my question is, is it scalable? what happens when more people need grease than there is grease in existence. once the free recycled resource is used up there will be a demand for it. once there is a demand for it, people will have to supply it explicitly for vehicles. Then they will charge for it and use some sort of fuels to create it.

is it more efficient to grow the corn and process it into grease and turn it into bio-desiel than it is to extract oil and process it into gasoline?

For this thought expiriment we can assume that:
1)logistical hurdles can be ignored, so we don't have to worry about replacing the current oil based infrastructure.
2)that we are talking about creating a fixed supply. so we can ignore the fact that creating a massive amount fuel makes creating each gallon of fuel cheaper to create. Lets assume that we are making 100,000 barrels of each fossil fuels diesel and 100,000 barrels of bio-diesel.

i imagine that probably no one on this board knows the answer to this but maybe they do.

It may be scalable if we use hemp seed as the oil source. I'm sorry. I sound like such a hippy. If we all start driving tiny diesel powered cars it will work. But if everybody wants a 500hp Suburban we're as screwed as we soon will be. Seems as if gas was $2.30 last time I looked here in Louisville.

And yes, vegetable oil is supposed to make diesel engines run smoother and longer.

It may or may not be more efficient but it is renewable and doesn't create as many emmisions. It could however be worse for the environment if we use pesticides and herbicides to increase production of soybeans for the purpose of biodiesel.

The current administration wants to reduce our dependence on foreign oil seems like using soybeans from the midwest is a good place to start if we aren't going to explore other alternative energies.

Hemp produces far more useful oil than soybeans. It seems as though UK did a study on hemp produced biodiesel and they were able to make it for about .60/gal when gasoline was around $1.00/gal. The oil from hemp works very well in manufacturing plastics and lubricants which is one of the many stupid reasons farmers can't grow it.