If a new fuel could be made out of anything but food crops, what should the ingredient be?

Question

I worry about food prices rising up and healthy foods being even less affordable to the poor and needy...

What is your opinion of fuels possibly being made out of the parts of crops that we can't eat (i.e. corn cobs, banana peels, orange peels, apple cores) or the sun-spoiled crops that nobody can end up eating?

Any other ideas?

Answer 1

A realistic solution would be to use a quick growing, low maintenance crop such as hemp, especially the seed. Hemp seeds are very rich in oil, which could be used as source of bio-diesel.
Hydrogen has a lot of potential as well.
Ultimately, we should switch to electric vehicles, and power plants that generate electricity with minimal impact emissions i.e. solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal, etc.
But this won't happen until people stop walking around with their heads up their.....

Answer 2

It's a good question. I assume you mean food crops directly eaten by humans. One non food crop would be switch grass. Although I'm no farmer, it looks on TV like something that grows pretty densely without a lot of effort like planting in rows and spaced so many inches apart.

But even then two gotchas come to mind. Whatever crop it, is, it will have to be grown on land not presently used for farming as long as the population continues to increase and demand food at the same time.

And the second gotcha would be that if it contains "sugar" or anything else that could be made into a fuel, then its probably already a food crop for some non human species, like cows and horses. That would put upward pressure on the price of cattle feed, and you know what that would lead to.

I'm going to think about this one some more, thanks for posting it.

Answer 3

Many non food plant material can, and is being, burnt as fuel in various parts of the world to produce power. I think here you are perhaps referring to the production of liquid fuels for use in cars. There is considerable effort being put into developing processes for the production of liquid fuels from the waste products of food production (eg stalks) or from plants grown on land which is unsuitable for food production. The technology is often not at all straightforward. One such development is that of Jatropha oil to produce bio diesel:

"BP and D1 Oils plc announced today that they are to form a 50/50 joint venture, to be called D1-BP Fuel Crops Limited, to accelerate the planting of Jatropha curcas – a drought resistant, inedible oilseed bearing tree which does not compete with food crops for good agricultural land or adversely impact the rainforest – in order to make more sustainable biodiesel feedstock available on a larger scale."

see http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7034453

Answer 4

I love that idea...kind of like what Doc did in Back to the Future with the garbage fueled car. It think it's totally possible. I would like to add hemp.

Answer 5

Maybe we could capture all of the hot air being spewed forth by liberal politicians and Hollywood celebrities. This should supply sufficient energy to power a least one or two cities.

Answer 6

I think it'd be a double-whammy problem solver if we could make fuel out of litter in general...cigarette butts, sunflower seed shells, computers, cell-phones, used diapers and condoms, chew-spit, phlegm, nasal discharges (and others)...etc...

The Amazing New...

"Gross-a-Gasolinator...!!!"

Just an idea...(slinking away like an embarassed little rat)

Answer 7

How about human waste, cow poo, dog poo anything that has poo. There's enough of that everywhere you look. If they can make fertilizer out of dead animals (like road kill animals) and poo why can't they make some type of fuel. Give the scientist something to think about.

Answer 8

Methane can be made out of sewage and garbage. It has been done before and is being done today. It is just more expensive than drilling for natural gas (which is mostly methane).

Answer 9

Fuel should be made of of human waste. There will never be a short supply over that!

Answer 10

Dead plant matter; leaves (nature provides dead leaves every Fall), grass clippings, inedible parts of food crops.