Comments on: Biodiesel Now Yielding 3.5 to 1? http://www.diamondcutlife.org/biodiesel-now-yielding-35-to-1/ Sustainable Living: More Joy And Less Consumption Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:59:35 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Crafty Green Poet http://www.diamondcutlife.org/biodiesel-now-yielding-35-to-1/comment-page-1/#comment-81 Crafty Green Poet Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:20:00 +0000 http://www.diamondcutlife.org/biodiesel-now-yielding-35-to-1/#comment-81 I agree with the previous commentator, biodiesel from waste oil - very good environmentally, but agrofuels are bad both because they take land out of food production and because they lead to deforestation. I agree with the previous commentator, biodiesel from waste oil – very good environmentally, but agrofuels are bad both because they take land out of food production and because they lead to deforestation.

]]> By: amazingdrx http://www.diamondcutlife.org/biodiesel-now-yielding-35-to-1/comment-page-1/#comment-80 amazingdrx Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:48:38 +0000 http://www.diamondcutlife.org/biodiesel-now-yielding-35-to-1/#comment-80 Hi Alison, saw your comment on Gristmill on relative happiness. I always term it quantity based life versus quality of life. Quantity of possesions and consumption is the modern measure of happiness. 10 loaves of agrichem tasteless bread are better than one loaf of real bread with real taste. Anyway, back to biodiesel. Biodiesel from waste good. Biodiesel from fuel farming bad. Fuel farming replaces an ecosystem that extracts and stores GHG from the atmosphere, like Brazilian rain forest with soy, or prairie with corn ethanol, with a crop that is then burned as fuel in a gas guzzler. So no, corn and soy, and switchgrass and crop waste, is not sustainable source of fuel. Sorry. The only source of sustainable "fuel" is wind, solar, water power and other renewables. Charging plugin hybrids through a distributed renewable smart grid, that's sustainable. And heating your home with a geo heat exchange heat pump, that is sustainable heating. You could go to a generator powered by waste biodiesel that heats your home with waste heat and sends power back into the grid though, that would be better than sinply burning it. But the best use of precious liquid fuel is in a plugin hybrid, as a backup fuel after the 40 or 50 miles of battery range is exhausted. Hi Alison, saw your comment on Gristmill on relative happiness. I always term it quantity based life versus quality of life. Quantity of possesions and consumption is the modern measure of happiness. 10 loaves of agrichem tasteless bread are better than one loaf of real bread with real taste.

Anyway, back to biodiesel. Biodiesel from waste good.

Biodiesel from fuel farming bad. Fuel farming replaces an ecosystem that extracts and stores GHG from the atmosphere, like Brazilian rain forest with soy, or prairie with corn ethanol, with a crop that is then burned as fuel in a gas guzzler.

So no, corn and soy, and switchgrass and crop waste, is not sustainable source of fuel. Sorry.

The only source of sustainable “fuel” is wind, solar, water power and other renewables. Charging plugin hybrids through a distributed renewable smart grid, that’s sustainable.

And heating your home with a geo heat exchange heat pump, that is sustainable heating. You could go to a generator powered by waste biodiesel that heats your home with waste heat and sends power back into the grid though, that would be better than sinply burning it. But the best use of precious liquid fuel is in a plugin hybrid, as a backup fuel after the 40 or 50 miles of battery range is exhausted.

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