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As a 30-year mechanic, I love diesel engines and the idea of running bio-diesel is very attractive. But as usual the devil is in the details.

I did some research lately and I won't bore everyone with the math. But the fact is that if we converted every acre of farm land in the US to production of rapeseed (canola), which is one of the highest oil yielding plants that is also suitable to be grown in all climatic areas of the US, it would NOT amount to enough bio-diesel to replace even the amount of diesel we currently use in this country.

That is if we use ALL of our farmland to produce bio-diesel!

We obviously won't be able to do that.

The salt water algae is interesting, but even if the greens were to allow it, I highly doubt that all of the California coast would be suitable for growing that crop. So the question there is: What are the requirements for algea-culture and is there enough SUITABLE ocean to grow it in?

There are other issues as well, but as far as I can see, the best we can hope for with bio-diesel or ethanol is to supplement petroleum and other technologies. That in it's self, though, is a valuable consideration because it can be used to offset much of what we import from the middle east, which means we would be giving fewer dollars to the Mussies who seek to destroy us!

That's the realistic view.

Goodbye farm subsidies hello bio-diesel!

I did some research lately and I won't bore everyone with the math.

I'd find the math to be very interesting. What part of your petroleum needs would be decreased with 5% of our farmland used, etc. Please post.

This is why I find using cottonseed oil a great idea. We are not planting cotton specifically for the oil and are using the byproduct of the seed. it would be interesting to see how many other "secondary" use oil crops we could use to produce biodiesel and not plant specifically for the oil.