Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after analyzing 17 years' worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate.
"It's 36 percent more efficient to grow grain for food than for fuel," said Ilya Gelfand, an MSU postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. "The ideal is to grow corn for food, then leave half the leftover stalks and leaves on the field for soil conservation and produce cellulosic ethanol with the other half."
Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
"It comes down to what's the most efficient use of the land," said Phil Robertson, University Distinguished Professor of crop and soil sciences and one of the paper's authors. "Given finite land resources, will it be more efficient to use productive farmland for food or fuel? One compromise would be to use productive farmland for both -- to use the grain for food and the other parts of the plant for fuel where possible. Another would be to reserve productive farmland for food and to grow biofuel grasses -- cellulosic biomass -- on less productive land."
So that pooh poohs the zero food chain effect nonsense
The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for biofuels to comprise 22 percent of the nation's transportation fuels by 2022.
This doesnt really help the car makers right now when offering their customers cars that are cheap yet do far less damage to the environment, so electric it is
And on to algae and waste decomposition
Dr Ralebitso-Senior believes that, although anaerobic digestion is an established process already being used by some waste-to-energy companies, its full potential has not yet been realised in solving many of the problems associated with growing biofuel crops.
"We can produce most biofuels using crops -- but the big issue is whether the land could be used for food instead. The loss of agricultural crops is a major concern.
"We call this the food-fuel conflict as the economic returns of growing crops for fuel are often higher and with more farmers choosing this option, foodstuffs inevitably become more expensive."
She says, "Using anaerobic digestion is an alternative method which has considerable potential, but we still do not understand a lot about how it works. That is what we are investigating in the laboratory, seeking ways in which we can optimise and, therefore, exploit the process effectively.
Yeah that sounds like it is gonna rock up and replace oil in time for Xmas, also confirms wht Honda with the biggest R&D budget in the world are not building algae powered Leaf cars