[SGVLUG] Especially for Tom & his Prius....

[Christopher Smith]

James Neff wrote:
> David Lawyer wrote:
>   
>> The diesel is in fact inherently a pretty bad polluter. 
>>     
>
> What if we used biodiesel made from soybeans?  I don't have hard data,
> but from what I was told the carbon dioxide consumed during the beans
> growth cancels out the CO2 produced while burning it.  Also, soybean is
> hearty and doesn't require as many fertilizers and pesticides as corn
> does for ethanol production.  Biodiesel is a solution to the oil problem
> that we could implement now and can burn in any diesel engine without
> conversion cost. 
>   
It's funny how economic/political factors influence our thinking. People
equate biodiesel with soybeans and ethanol with corn, likely because the
corn and soybean industries in the US are huge and have a lot of
political influence. In fact there are better (in terms of energy
efficiency) choices for both biodiesel (rapeseed oil and certain algaes)
and ethanol (sugar cane).

Other alternative fuel source to throw in the ring: butanol. Supposed to
be more efficient/less polluting but can be made from the same organic
sources that make ethanol. It also can apparently work without
modification to one's car.

--Chris