[Peakoil] Much higher ethanol yield from sugar cane?

[Antony Barry]

On 20/10/2006, at 11:36 AM, Alex P wrote:

> This may make ethanol viable, I'm skeptical but you never know.
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1763365.htm
>
> One thing is for sure, we need a truly scientific approach to these
> problems.

Assuming it works how much land would we need? I've seen estimates  
that if the US converted to ethanol based on corn they would need  
five times their current agricultural land to grow the crop. That's  
conversion from the grain and I suspect the leaves would weigh in a  
few times higher than the grain.

Even so as a guesstimate the amount of land needed to grow feedstock  
for ethanol production is of the same order of magnitude as the land  
to grow food.

Already it is estimated that we are using 40% of the total world area  
for our needs and we are going to want more to cope with the extra  
2-3 billion people expected in the next 30 years.

Even with super-efficient yeast converting any vegetation to ethanol  
I suspect we could ever only sustain a fraction of our present  
transport needs with ethanol alone. The less important will have to  
go and that means individual personal transportation will take a big  
hit.

Tony

phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
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