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Breakthrough in Biofuel Production


Zack
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Good deal...I was thinking this would just be a replacement for e85 but if they can replace gasoline that'll be great since people will be able to keep using their cars.

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I still see electric cars more environmental. Their efficiency ratio is way better than any combustion car and you don't need a lot of fields to get electricity. Sun and wind power are virtually unlimited sources of electricity, but you'll still need a lot of woods or biomass to grow biofuel and that still means cutting the rainforests and that's bad, m'kay.

 

The process also uses a lot of energy and makes the efficiency not that great.

 

Electic cars are pollution free, very quiet, very reliable (because of simple technology and no need for complicated transmission) and they give huge torque from low reps which means faster movement in traffic.

 

They don't sound like a growling tiger but more like star trek equipment. Good enough.

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The problem with electric cars is the batteries. Mining what is in a modern battery is very bad for the environment. Batteries need to be replaced and recycling of the old cells is very dirty as well. Same goes for the batteries used in hybrid cars. Plus the range on them is very short as of now.

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The problem with electric cars is the batteries. Mining what is in a modern battery is very bad for the environment. Batteries need to be replaced and recycling of the old cells is very dirty as well. Same goes for the batteries used in hybrid cars. Plus the range on them is very short as of now.

 

That is mostly true, but it gets better everyday.

 

I too think that electric cars are the future. I will enjoy the "sports cars" that can do 0-60 in 1 second and still be environmentally friendly.

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I think the best solution will be a mixture of these next generation (biomass) biofuels and electric cars.

 

When they learn to grow biomass effectively and environmentally on oceans, there will be s**tloads of biomass available for biofuel production. The article Zack sent is very positive news towards that happening in our lifetime.

 

Always nice to read good news.

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That is mostly true, but it gets better everyday.

 

I too think that electric cars are the future. I will enjoy the "sports cars" that can do 0-60 in 1 second and still be environmentally friendly.

 

Its getting better but I wouldn't even ball it bad yet...its just less terrible. I really think the true future of energy will be nuclear energy. Its very controversial I know but I really think thats the future of clean energy for everything we do. Maybe our cars will even run on electric lines which will make for a more efficient system if our cars don't need a power source built in.

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nuclear energy. Its very controversial I know but I really think thats the future of clean energy for everything we do.

Have you checked out the site www.iter.org ? Fusion nuclear energy, making abundant and clean power in a similar way to the sun.

 

But my bets are on solar:

http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/23/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheaper-than-coal/

 

"Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal."

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Solar is good too but for night time use you need dirty batteries...at least now. Also solar panel production isn't so clean. Solar panels are ceramic and require very high temperatures, very precise refinement and big kilns that burn a lot of fuel. Flat objects are really inefficient to fire...hence the reason I don't make many plates.

 

As for the fusion energy thing it makes a lot of sense too...its very young but we'll see where it goes.

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What about wind power, I've heard a little about that. Wind, and solar power would be the way to go, I think. And somehow, it should be possible to have enough solar power that it could get you through the night too. But I really don't know very much about it.

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Wind is great too. Probably one of the better sources but people are affraid of what it'll do to the landscape. I say landscape is only something we care about...animals don't give a crap so I say go for it...the world will be cleaner for it. A good thing about wind is that we can potentially provide more energy than we need without the use of batteries to store the energy since it can provide direct energy to consumers. Thing is...we're gonna need a hell of a lot of wind mills...and as of now they do kill quite a few birds(many endangered birds) so we'd have to make them much larger so the blades wouldn't move so quick...that way if they hit a bird the bird will just get misdirected a bit. Smaller mills(this includes the ones most of us see as enormous) spin relatively fast...the large ones we see may look like they're spinning slow but thats just because the blades are long...they really are moving fast.

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