world has an unlimited oil supply

Originally posted by factfinder38
Where does Bio fuel come from? If I am not mistaken we would need to use a good portion of the world food supply to make this fuel and with the population growing the way it is we won't have it to spare. Am I wrong?

Alcohol comes from crops high in sugars, like corn, for example. This is probably where you heard the falsity that the worlds food supply would be in danger if we used bio-fuels. Do you know how much of our corn is eaten by humans? I wish I could remember the statistic. I'm not one for making them up when I can't remember, so I'll just tentatively say about 3/4 of the corn was used to feed livestock. Much was exported from the US to other countries at really low prices because we had a surplus and other countries needed animal feed. There is no shortage of food, hunger is an economic problem rather than supply. If you search you'll find the information and a few petroleum funded scientists who will encourage the kind of statement you just made.

Food or fuel? - journeytoforever.org is an awesome source for info on alternative fuels
Wikepedia - More about Ethanol (alcohol - this is the type that is drunk)

Bio-diesel can come from any crop that is high in oil. Peanuts, soybeans, and seeds are the best crops to get vegetable oil from (bio-diesel, once again, is refined veggie oil). However this isn't the only source. Ironically, the most likely source that it would be harvested from is plain old algae. Algae is very high in oils and grows in practically any place on earth above freezing, in all kinds of water.

Journeytoforever.org - All you need to know about biodiesel and how to make it
UNH Biodiesel group - Biodiesel from algae
Wikipedia - Biodiesel

Think of a cog as the plannet, if its got no oil, it will seiz up and stall, causing everything to come to a stand still.??

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. TANSTAAFL. Remember that.

Originally posted by shbaz
Alcohol comes from crops high in sugars, like corn, for example. This is probably where you heard the falsity that the worlds food supply would be in danger if we used bio-fuels.

Actually it would be in danger with our current Agriculture practices. Topsoil erosion would speed up in high energy density biofuel crops. Its a real problem that needs to be addressed not only for Biofuel crops but for regular food crops as well.

[edit on 10-1-2006 by sardion2000]

i believe the bigger problem is overpopulation. Maybe not now, but at the current rate we are going to be in trouble in 20 years time, imo.

As I've said in previous posts, it really doesn't matter if they do find some wells that have, or seem to have, unlimited oil. There's always bottleneck issues and limits to production whereas, in theory, consumption/demand can go on forever.

Somebody woke up a two year old thread...

There are many newer and better threads on this topic.

You can use the tags or the search with the word "abiotic".

Or just scan the Peak Oil forum page.

Closed.
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