Vinod Khosla: Ethanol, Thinking Outside the Barrel, Video

[Ed Ziomek]

I have just seen a most amazing internet video concerning ethanol as an alternative fuel source, already implemented by Brazil.

The link is to a one hour Google Video of Vinod Khosla, "Thinking Outside the Barrel", discussing Brazil's amazing 3-year transformation from a gasolene economy to an Ethanol burning economy.

Many gasolene vehicles in the United States can be converted to Ethanol for about $30.

Volkswagen is considering transitioning 100% away from gasolene driven vehicles, possibly as early as 2007.

Mileage is slightly less with ethanol, but carbon emissions are much less.

Cost to produce ethanol is about 90 cents per gallon, versus gasolene of $1.60 per gallon.

Scientists and economists and even the head of CIA is solidly behind these alternative fuel efforts.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?rurl=video.google.com&oid=0bda3601b59bcd3c&

Search biofuels +ethanol on Google for a direct link.

Vinod Khosla... Medal of Freedom award, I think he deserves it.

[Kevin]

Yes, biofuels do have real potential as part of the necessary conversion to sustainability. Esp. ones that don't compete with primary foodstuffs (like corn and soybeans...).

The scientific journal Nature just did a good news review of what's working, what's in the works, and what are some of the collateral environmental impacts to watch, around the world.

Sorry to say much of the content is subscriber-only, but any good library should have it...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/index.html
Volume 444 Number 7120 pp635-788
(7 December 2006)


Business Features
Introduction: Biofuelling the future p669
doi:10.1038/444669a
Full Text | PDF (363K)
See also: Editor's summary

Sugar cane and ethanol: Drink the best and drive the rest p670
Brazil's sugar-cane ethanol industry is the world's best and able to get better, says Emma Marris.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/444670a
Full Text | PDF (1,573K)

US biofuels: A field in ferment p673
To move US biofuels beyond subsidized corn will be a challenge, reports Katharine Sanderson.
Katharine Sanderson
doi:10.1038/444673a
Full Text | PDF (2,406K)

Liquid fuel synthesis: Making it up as you go along p677
Chemists can make liquid fuel from biomass — or from coal. Heidi Ledford weighs up the pros and cons.
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/444677a
Full Text | PDF (1,404K)

[Davydd]

Before you get too excited about ethanol, read this from the CEO in the know who will mostly profit...

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/ethanol/Marketwatch20060501/

[Richard Haut]

interesting to note that there has been a long-running tussle with the police in your homeland, Taffy.

Welsh farmers have been in the habit of using vegetable oil as vehicle fuel. This gets a lot of opposition. Why ? Because it means that they are running their vehicles without paying duty on the fuel.

there are many alternative forms of propulsion for vehicles. It is not a question of which one, but of a seriousness in the approach to try to find the most practical ways of reducing the amount of petroleum used.

as for the importance of food production, you will I trust understand the total dismissal of the seriousness of such a suggestion from the US. The FDA has finally moved into history as a credible organisation by its blunt announcement that the use of cloned animals for human consumption is perfectly safe. If America is serious in its environmental concerns (and in not continuing its active attempts to corrupt the food chain), it has a strange way of showing it.

[Ed Ziomek]

First of all, thanks for all the great responses, and I wish the best new year to all.

Amazing information from the editorial page of the New York Post... 10% of America's fuel consumption is now ethanol! Also, Rupert Murdoch is a new believer in global warming...as another news item reports a 5 square mile chunk of the North Pole broke off and it is 45 degrees warm in the New York area!

Word on the NY streets...don't bother buying a gasolene-only car...aim for the hybrids which will dominate in the next ten years...by sheer necessity...not price. Gasolene cars will have a shelf life of 3-5 years, then nobody will buy them new or used. (but what do I know?)

I think the time has come to end the practice where we used to have sold our best and richest agricultural areas, the middle of previous farmlands, to condo and supermarket complexes. There ought to be a law against such practices, and eventually there will be.

1. Could soil be invented? Could 10,000 square miles of desert lands of Utah, Nevada be reclaimed with a combination of tree residue, 100% of all human waste products, leaf accumulations, all biological food wastes, simply to produce non-edible sugar cane or corn products to produce ethanol?

You know the answer... sure it can!

2. From now on, can governments mandate that residential rooftops be fitted with solar powered, energy-enhancing power systems? Or wind capture systems? Sure they can!

3. Where the solar panels are not placed, can governments mandate that homeowner's and shopping mall rooftops be designed with reinforced to be handle some form of agriculture business? Extra costs, sure! Extra bureaucracy, sure! The eco-payback would be enormous, in my opinion.

I am reminded of a fish breeding program out of Barcelona...they aimed not at growing fish, but at growing the plankton that would be placed in shoreline locations, in some form of engineered underwater, relatively protective habitat, that the smallest forms of fish could safely thrive, which of course would make larger fish thrive, which ...etc. etc. increase the edible fish populations.

The greatness of the world is not short of great ideas, and these are not my own...but I wanted to share them with you all.

Peace all. Ed Z

[M. Collins]

I have to say that I do like the idea of ethanol used as fuel because of the performance increases and the ease of adapting current vehicles to run on it, though I feel that the genetically engineered and pesticide ridden corn that companys like Cargill Dow and Monsanto propogate could cause some terrible environmental impact that could rival gasoline. I personally don't think that a type of corn that is genetically engineered to be "Round-Up Ready" is okay.

[Adanbas]

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