Engineered duckweed could be a more sustainable source of biofuel

[Vmedvil5]

It seems that Engineered Duckweed could be a more sustainable source of biofuels, read more at Engineered duckweed could be a more sustainable source of biofuel (newatlas.com)

[write4u]

4 hours ago, Vmedvil5 said:

It seems that Engineered Duckweed could be a more sustainable source of biofuels, read more at Engineered duckweed could be a more sustainable source of biofuel (newatlas.com)

I hear all these stories of biofuels being cultivated, but I have not heard anyone estimate the quantity of fuel that could be harvested and what it would take to meet the current need for any combustion type fuel. Note that combustion fuels are extremely poor in energy yield.

Gasoline has great inherent energy, but cars only get between25-35 % lawful energy yield, with diesel a little higher @ 55-60 % energy efficiency. 

Half of the energy is lost as heat.   Current world oil consumption is :

ENERGY

 

Quote

 

449,979,322 Energy used today (MWh), of which:

383,047,808- from non-renewable sources (MWh)

67,762,961- from renewable sources (MWh)

2,819,592,797,937 Solar energy striking Earth today (MWh)

92,290,659 Oil pumped today (barrels)

1,423,654,215,332 Oil left (barrels)

14,847 Days to the end of oil (~41 years)

1,079,051,686,931 Natural Gas left (boe)

56,792 Days to the end of natural gas

4,290,842,576,403 Coal left (boe)

147,960 Days to the end of coal

 

https://www.worldometers.info/

 

 

Are we sure that we can grow the amount of biofuels the equivalent of 92,290,659 barrels of oil ?

If we look at the easily convertible energy we receive from the sun, why are we fooling around with combustibles which all produce CO2 .

 

Industrial Hemp is a wonderful ecofriendly crop that can be used for biofuel and has the added benefit as a CO2 scrubber.

1 acre of Hemp sequesters the equivalent of 20 acres of trees, due to its rapid growth rate, plus it yields all kinds of other commercially useable products.

 

I'd like to hear how much biofuels converted from renewable duckweed can yield in barrels. After all that is the bottom line. It is not about ability to produce, but how much can be produced. 

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by write4u

[Vmedvil5]

1 hour ago, write4u said:

I hear all these stories of biofuels being cultivated, but I have not heard anyone estimate the quantity of fuel that could be harvested and what it would take to meet the current need for any combustion type fuel. Note that combustion fuels are extremely poor in energy yield.

Gasoline has great inherent energy, but cars only get between25-35 % lawful energy yield, with diesel a little higher @ 55-60 % energy efficiency. 

Half of the energy is lost as heat.   Current world oil consumption is :

ENERGY

 

 

Are we sure that we can grow the amount of biofuels the equivalent of 92,290,659 barrels of oil ?

If we look at the easily convertible energy we receive from the sun, why are we fooling around with combustibles which all produce CO2 .

 

Industrial Hemp is a wonderful ecofriendly crop that can be used for biofuel and has the added benefit as a CO2 scrubber.

1 acre of Hemp sequesters the equivalent of 20 acres of trees, due to its rapid growth rate, plus it yields all kinds of other commercially useable products.

 

I'd like to hear how much biofuels converted from renewable duckweed can yield in barrels. After all that is the bottom line. It is not about ability to produce, but how much can be produced. 

 

Well, I have reports on US biofuel production however I don't have all the necessary information to answer your question which would require a global biofuels report.

Link = EIA: US biofuel capacity reaches 21.469 billion gallons in July | EthanolProducer.com

"A standard barrel of oil contains 42 gallons. This is the U.S. measurement that has been used since the 1800s, as it was the volume of a standard wooden barrel used for hauling many types of liquid."

So, the US is at about 511,166,666.6 barrels of biofuels a month as its capacity which is about 17,038,888.8 barrels a day being around 18% the number of oil barrels produced.

I mean there is a shortage of biofuels to supply all the energy that oil does due to availability of farmland, biofuels can probably never fully replace oil. It will have to be a combination of Nuclear Energy, Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Hydroelectric Energy and Biofuels Energy that is the only true path to a zero fossil fuel energy system. Honestly, I would do nuclear power then power electric cars with it as my grand solution to all this but eventually we will run out of uranium as energy consumption increases but not for quite some time. 

The reason why I choose nuclear power is simple energy density.

"The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel nuclear power plants. One kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about 20 terajoules of energy (2×10¹³ joules), assuming complete fission; as much energy as 1.5 million kilograms (1,500 tonnes) of coal."

"The fission of 1 g of uranium or plutonium per day liberates about 1 MW. This is the energy equivalent of 3 tons of coal or about 600 gallons of fuel oil per day"

Edited October 20, 2022 by Vmedvil5