Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: js1138
Half of all biomass is currently eaten or used. If every bit were available for fuel, it would represent about ten percent of our energy needs.

I, too, find that VERY hard to believe!

Tell that to the folks in Florida & on Lake Victoria battling water hyacinth, or the folks in the Southeast watching kudzu overcome everything in it's path.

77 posted on 03/20/2008 8:07:13 AM PDT by BwanaNdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies ]


To: BwanaNdege

You really don’t have to get to that level of detail in calculating biomass. We know how much energy the earth receives in sunlight, we know what percentage is converted to biomass by plants, and we know the quantity used.

What’s left over includes your kudzu and water weeds. I’m not including ocean biomass, which is not available for energy conversion. Maybe in some future time.

Plants convert about one tenth of one percent of solar energy into usable biomass. Even the worst solsr cells are a hundred times more efficient. I have seen arguments that genetic engineering could produce more productive plants.

I’m just saying that with current technology, biomass could not replace more than ten percent of fossil fuel.


81 posted on 03/20/2008 8:34:38 AM PDT by js1138
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson