Grad Student Believes Wood May Replace Oil
international |
environment |
other press 
Thursday August 04, 2005 18:10
by Twiggy
(That's the trees f****d then)
Wed Aug 3,11:08 PM ET
MOSCOW, Idaho - A University of Idaho graduate student believes the answer to the world's crude oil crisis grows on trees. Juan Andres Soria says he has developed a process that turns wood into bio-oil, a substance similar to crude oil.
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3Is that the end of all forests, no more trees? How clever..
The stupid thing about all vegetable and plant based oils is that they only give a roughly one to one ratio of energy input versus energy output, which pales in comparison to fossil fuels which give us hundreds of times more output compared to input.
Suggesting bio-oils as an alternative to conventional oil would involve turning most of the planet's arable land into an oil farm just to meet current energy demands, never mind the fact that our demands increase every day and it would leave no room for food crops.
Bio-oil is a cul-de-sac the real solution is to reduce energy consumption to sustainable levels not to just find replacement fuels for our current unsustainable lifestyles.
There is a very real alternative in nuclear energy. Yes, there are some very serious issues to consider but in facing dwindling and enviormentally [not to mention climatic] damaging fossil fuels, there is a very real alternative offered.
What do we do with the nuclear waste I hear you ask,. Well, here's a novel solution... bury it in secure locations in the middle of endangered rainforests and have a thousand mile exclusion zone around each one. Mad Ted? Well, no. The exclusion area of Belarus surrounding the old Chernobyl plant is rife with normal, healthy wildlife, unintruded upon by man. And that was a disaster area. Nuclear waste dumps wouldn't expose surroung countryside to such radiation.
Once electricity supplies are met by nuclear option, the viability of electric or fuel-cell vehicles becomes very real.
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