Exclusive: we publish the biofuels report they didn't want you to read

Quite apart from whether they reduce food supplies the other problem is if biofuels even do what's right for the environment. While they do help to wean us from dependence on foreign oil, biofuels are not neccesarily the answer to global climate change unless we're very careful about it. Studies have shown that much biofuel production contributes as much or more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as fossil fuels.

For instance, a study conducted at the University of Minnesota found that:

...converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuels#Carbon_emissions )

It is not enough to just produce renewable fuels; we must control our consumption and change our habits as well as the types of vehicles we drive and the way we live.

Energy efficiency has to be a large part of the picture, as well as the use of cogeneration to produce power more efficiently. The average diesel power generation plant runs at about 35% efficiency, which means that most of the energy used is wasted on excess heat.
Cogeneration reclaims that heat and uses it to provide
hot water for heating buildings, ammonia chillers or for secondary generation of electricity. That brings up the efficiency to about 85%.

Ethanol is basically "moonshine" which is used as fuel for internal combustion engines. Moonshine can be made from many different sources and we can use woody waste materials to create heat and pressure or bacteria will do the job, but probably not fast enough to feed our insatiable demands for fuel.

KL Process Design Group has the first cellulosic ethanol plant in operation in the US which uses a proprietary process to produce ethanol from woody materials. They are making about 1.5 million gallons per year at this point.

This is not science fiction, folks. It is happening right now.

So quit arguing, and start building some stills right now! Just don't drink any cellulosic ethanol as it will kill you.

Well...it's not like they were trying to cause food riots and starvation.

There is a company that already has a home distilling machine that produces ethanol from industrial sugar sources. It was unclear if the final product pumped out was E-85 or ethanol, however, even ethanol would not be difficult for a homeowner to process into E-85.
The machinery would not be too different than a breadmaker(although simpler---breadmaking is an art)--it utilizes the same yeast as is used in making bread rise.

At $10,000 per unit, probably too pricey for an individual household, however, maybe not too expensive for a small group or community to produce their own ethanol.

For this reason, biofuels are non-monopolistic. Geographic and geologic distribution, complex and expensive drilling and refining make petroleum monopolistic by nature. Monopolies are generally not good for consumers----as we are finding out all over again right now. 100 years after Teddy Roosevelt had to break up the monopolies because of the economic damages and abuses they caused. 100 years later people have forgotten thier own history, and we sure could use TR and his Big Stick again right now.

I would have to be next to second HEMP. It's what Rudolph Diesel and Henry Ford designed their biofuel burning engines to run off of. Big business and private interest changed that though.

There are vast amounts of resources other than food to produce fuel, especially from recyclable waste. We should be using all of these means (and hemp I will add again, as you can get almost 5x biodiesel per/acre than current biodiesel crops), to curb our foreign dependency on oil..... but the real question is when will auto companies get on board and produce engines to run stilled ethanol that your average consumer can distill and produce at home? And would the BATF/Gov. be on board since the government wouldn't be subsidizing or taxing all of it?

Shhh...don't publicize this! Only the poorest people who will never contribute anything to society will die of starvation, along with the other worthless mammles factory-farmed for food who are fed most of the grain in the world. C'mon people, it's 'survival of the fittest'!

Biodiesel is a sustainable fuel that can be produced from non-food crops, food crops and waste sources such as used restaurant grease. Even with biodiesel made from soybean oil more than 80 percent of each soybean is still used for animal feed or food. Biodiesel's effect on the food supply is minimal, and to claim otherwise is nothing short of intellectually dishonest. Less than five percent of the world's soybeans are used for U.S. biodiesel production.

You can also make biofuel from kudzu & hemp! No need to use our food supply!

I use over 36,000 gallons of biodiesel every year with my trucking company which is powered solely on 100% BioDiesel. We process it from from recycled cooking oil. No one is eating vegi oil either because it's already been used to cook their food. So obviously no harm there.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the way we get our fuel and I don't think any one should have a problem with using virgin sources either. (that's another story) Now that algae,cellulose etc.. technology is approaching there is really no room for argument.

You are right Ayahuasca.

I've seen that mentioned before on other forums.

The Guardian is a well known tabloid in the UK. It is an odd mix of lurid headlines, and playing loose with the facts---and whatever will fit readers preconcieved notions or ideas, and a cheesecake girlie photo section.

Sort of a cross between the old National Enquirer and Penthouse, with a little Playgirl thrown in for the ladies.

"They" don't want people to know that biofuel can be made from sources other than food. The whole point of that "supposedly leaked" article was to turn people against biofuel before it really got a start.

Biodiesel is being made from salt water algae right now in Rio Hondo TX. 4.4 million gallons/year--that is used directly in current diesel engines.

Spain produces 750 million liters/year of ethanol from cellulose right now, and plans to double production in 2-3 years.

A plant is under construction right now in Soperton GA that will produce 100 million gallons/year of ethanol from logging and millwork wood waste.

I don't know too many people who eat salt water algae and wood.