Friday, June 20, 2008

Ethanol

I have a question (what else is new?)

Why are we trying to turn food into ethanol, when there are other biofuels available, at least in theory? Here are some crazy, and I do mean crazy, ideas that may only work in cartoons:

  • By the looks of the local catering hall, they are throwing out enough food to feed all the poor there are. Some work with food banks to get leftovers to people to eat. But dumpsters are overflowing with food that may not be edible but should be convertible into biofuel. The sugar in wedding cakes alone, which as we know taste like crap in most cases and are never eaten, can be turned into ethanol.
  • Has anyone thought of tobacco? Smoking is bad and that means a lot of tobacco farmers are growing the fur coats of the plant world (think P.E.T.A.). Can tobacco be used here?
  • How about hooking up power generators to stationary bikes at health clubs. Let the spinning classes benefit everyone and not just those wearing spandex and headbands. Where is Olivia Newton John when we need her? (let's get physical, physical...)
  • or, if we want to be like Mr. Burns (ex-cellent) we can hire people to work at generators. They get a wage and we all get power. It may not be efficient but it's better than a puff of diesel smoke in your face when the truck at the red light hits the accelerator.
Oh, to be a grad student again and working on new energy sources, not just ways to extend the old ones.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about exhaust fumes from pundits & economists ?

LP said...

LOL...That would cure all our issues...

Corn is the dumbest bio fuel out there...it takes 1 unit of energy to produce one unit of fuel...not to mention Corn needs almost perfect conditions to grow properly...just dumb...not to mention it's our money that goes into growing that crap...well the only benefit of this is that, there will be less corn to make high fructose corn syrup...so there will be less fat people around...so we spend less money on health care...so maybe high corn prices are good for us in the long run

Brazil did it right...sugar cane ethanol...it takes one unit of energy to produce 6 - 8 units of energy