[extropy-chat] cheap alcohol

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Sep 21, 2005 at 07:11:52AM -1000, Robert Lindauer wrote:

> Why is ethanol such a bad idea?

Because bioethanol utilizes only a tiny fraction of energy captured
in plant biomass on a given land area. You need fermentation of sugar
(direct, or from hydrolyzed cellulose), and destillation. Lousy
yield, and takes energy as input. Negative impact on soil and biodiversity.
Details e.g. here:

	http://www.biodiesel.co.uk/levington_tables.htm

Both biodiesel and bioethanol are primitive (derived from alimentary
agriculture: plant oil and destilled spirits) ways of extracting
energy from biomass.

A better way would be using pelletized fuel burners, or 
pyrolyse/gasify/reform/platform biomass into gases and liquids
useful for synthetic chemistry and energy generation (fuel cell or
gas turbine).

This is *still* primitive, though, because a more advanced
process would directly use solar flux for artificial photosynthesis/
photovoltaics, and at a higher yield than natural photosynthesis.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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