8 Votes
Dispelling Biodiesel Myths
Apparently, many people are still confused as to the difference between biodiesel and ethanol fuels. As an advocate for biodiesel and alternative energy sources, writer Clayton Cornell outlines and dispels twenty-one biodiesel myths in an attempt to improve understanding. The most significant points to take away are that:
- biodiesel and ethanol are produced by different mechanisms
- biodiesel runs on stock diesel engines while ethanol needs special components
- biodiesel contains nearly twice the energy of ethanol
Similarly tagged OmniNerd content:
- Toward More Perfect Solar Absorption, by gnifyus over 4 years ago
- DARPA Algae Bio-Fuel Project on Hold, by gnifyus almost 5 years ago
- Algae Biodiesel, by VnutZ about 5 years ago
- GM Makes Mr. Fusion, by VnutZ over 5 years ago
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Energy/Carbon Balance by PowerPointSamurai
I don’t know what the site cited says, but the University of Minnesota found that biodiesel is at least 93% net energy positive, and 43% carbon negative using soybeans as the feedstock. There are a lot of better feedstocks, with the best being algae, which could produce enough biodiesel on 2% of US land (any area, not farm land) according to the National Renewable Energy Lab’s report on the DOE’s "Aquatic Species ":http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/biodiesel_from_algae.pdf program. Of course, this assumes all engines go over to diesel to run it.
I’m betting on a mix of electric cars for commuting, and biodiesel for long hauls with cellulostic ethanol spackeling the gaps.