Do u think that it will be enough land (for Biofuel) to feed all those cars on earth?

Question

I believe no, But to do that it will come on the exoense of other food farms needed for human living.
* They will consume much water, even at the moment we have some shortages of it in certain areas, so to spend water to produce that large amount needed of biofuel is a desasterous attempt.
Other free renewable (sun,wind,waves & flowing water) will be cheaper, cleaner & ideal.

Answer 1

For most biofuels - no. Especially if we don't want to replace food crops, or encourage the cutting down of the rainforest to grow biofuels. However, algae has some great potential because:
-The potential of algae per acre is huge compared to other crops (15,000 gallons versus 1,000 for switchgrass or 46 for soybeans)
-It can be grown in areas where food crops cannot be grown.
-New technology has it growing in a contained environment - thus no contaminating other crops.

Algae isn’t quite commercially available yet but should be in the next few years.

The site below has a wealth of information on algae and they do something that is very important which is support open source information. What that means is that because information is shared openly a solution can be found as quickly as possible. It also means that once a solution is found it will be available to all instead of one person or company controlling it.
http://www.oilgae.com/


This article discusses how much area it would theoretically take in algae production to fuel all the cars in the U.S. at our current rate of consumption (15,000 square miles)
http://www.biodieselnow.com/blogs/algae_as_a_feedstock/default.aspx

Answer 2

On a sunny day, a square meter of land gets about 1 kilowatt of solar energy landing on it. Converting that into something useful, that's the trick!

I think distilled biofuels like ethanol are ludicrous, the energy cost of distillation is just too high. Biodiesel from soy is better but it's far too low-yield to be a significant part of the energy picture. But if algae can increase the yield the way they are talking... then maybe.

Answer 3

We totally do. All we need is 9 square miles to make all the fuel that is country would need. For all of you that are interested in Biofuels - Please read Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Bidiesel America. Both by Josh Tickell.

Getting back to the land issue, I said 9 square miles would be all that we need. How this is possible is a new technology that is fast taking over the European Biofuels industry. This new technology puts what made the fuel we use today back to work. And for those who think I am talking Dinosaur bones, I'm not and that is not where Crude Oil came from. Oil came from Algae that got coved up over millions of years and broke down to make the fuel will burn today.

New companies are taking Algae; one of the most oil saturated plants know to man and making biofuels out of it. Both Bioethinal and BioDiesel can be made from this oil. This new technology is in its baby stages here in the US and due to lack of government subsidy it will be there for at least the next few years. Read Josh's books and look up algae technology. Its amazing stuff.

Answer 4

No, there's not enough land to grow sufficient crops to fuel all our cars with biofuel. Yesterday on YA someone said we could only fuel 10% of our cars - I don't know if that's accurate, but it's in the ballpark.

Biofuels are mainly a way to ease us off of our reliance on oil. It's not a big long-term solution. In the long-term we need to increase our use of electric and hybrid cars.

Answer 5

I agree with godron-wookie that the push-bike is the most environmentally effective form of transport.

My feeling is that here in the west, the economically rich parts of the world, we constantly take take take from much poorer areas of the world to feed our greed, percieved essentials such as being able to get around as quickly as wecan with out a thought or care about how it effects the rest of the planet.

The land that would be used for growing crops to use for bio-ethanol fuels is sorely needed to feed the people who live there, but who cares about them as long as we're ok. We can't see them, so we disregard them.

So do we just allow people to starve because we need to feed our appetites for cars - why do we always have to feel the car is such a nessessity for getting around? By creating the next generation of so-called environmentally cars is like saying we're all going to fade away if each of us can't carrying on possessing a car, when in reality its the illusion of it being such a nessessity, come what may, that will be the death of this planet!

Answer 6

No! That seems like cutting off your arm to loose weight. I think it is good to think about alternatives, but biofuel like ethanol require far more energy to produce (farming and processing) than they give. Just from an energy budget perspective they are terribly inefficient. I would like to see the numbers that compare the energy gathered from an acre of solar to an acre of sugar beets or whatever.

Answer 7

No there isnt, and they are cutting down rainforest to grow the palm oil for biofuels its total bullsh*t.

9 square miles? Haha you mug, thats enough for 1 car for 1 year you muppet not a whole country. Clown.

Answer 8

Food prices are rising now. There has already been riots In Mexico because the corn price has gone up.

Answer 9

as i under stand it there would not be enough land to support the world population in food and keep transport running there is one country that it is working for and that is Brazil who can provide enough food and fuel to keep there country running smoothly

Answer 10

I say No. Right now, the prices of everything is going up because of the demand for corn.