Real Biomass Ethanol?

[webbie]

From:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn
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But yields from a grass that only needs to be planted once would deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy as ethanol for every megajoule of petroleum consumed—in the form of nitrogen fertilizers or diesel for tractors—growing them.
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That represents a 5 to 1 ratio

 

[babalu87]

Can anybody get rich by selling grass?

 

[Corey]

I'm no math whiz, but how is 13.1 megajoules of ethanol out for every 1 megajoule of petroleum in represented by a 5:1 ratio?

Seems like it might be closer to...maybe....13.1:1?

 

[webbie]

There is more to it than the growing, there is the distilling, etc.

So the end result ends up over 5 to 1.

Imagine jets flying on grass!

 

[TMonter]

The only problem with jets on alcohol is energy density. Alcohol has a much lower density than jet fuel. It may be one of those situations where you use jet fuel for long range flights and alcohol for short range ones.

 

[webbie]

Oh, we'll have to use the old dinosaurs for international flights......

I'll have to do some calcs to figure out how many grass pellets that same amount of grass would make! Or bio logs.

 

[begreen]

Imagine jets flying on grass!

I did a bit of that in my younger years