(Untitled)

[ike]

I promised y'all I'd let you know what I'm up to these days, and since I'm still waiting for my dinner to finish (slow cookers are awesome, but one should really start these things ahead of time... five hours for stew is a long time!), and don't have the energy to do any of the several dozen pages of reading I assigned myself I'm just gonna call

Comments

[virogtheconq]

Corn for ethanol is a really really bad idea - I think there's a negative energy benefit when one considers the complete lifecycle. I've read elsewhere that switchgrass is the most efficient of the ones you mentioned, but its utility is still a bit overstated since it relies on petrol products for maximum biomass production.

That being said, there's probably still some benefit to sticking around in a research lab, if you're looking at (or have the opportunity to study) the biochemical pathways. IMO, the future of energy isn't going to be based on liquid fuels, but they do make for quite nice energy storage. And EtOH has the added benefit of being booze. =O)

[ike]

Oh, absolutely - corn ethanol is just about the worst idea in the history of ideas. The lab I'm in work on cellulosic ethanol - making fuel from the non-food parts of plants in general. The catch being that the corn industry in the midwest is trying to sell corn stover (the stalks and leaves of the corn plants) as a primary feedstock. Which isn't nearly as bad, but it's still pretty terrible.

[virogtheconq]

Isn't the stover reduced/reused/recycled elsewhere, though? Or is it just considered waste right now?

[ike]

It is "just waste", aside from fertilizing and returning carbon to the soil, which is a pretty valuable service.