Posted on 08/27/2009 6:16:20 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
New York, NY (AHN) - Experts are looking at the fuel potential of watermelons as millions of tons of the fruit not sold in the market can be converted to clean-burning ethanol to power cars and airplanes.
Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture in Lane, Oklahoma made the finding in a study published in the journal "Biotechnology for Biofuels" Tuesday.
Chemist Wayne Fish, who led the study, found in experiments that 1.4 pounds of sugar can be extracted from the flesh and rind of a 20-pound watermelon. From that amount of sugar, seven-tenths of a pound of ethanol can be derived.
Fish estimated that 2.5 million gallons of ethanol can be extracted from the 360,000 tons of deformed and blemished watermelons left spoiling in fields across the U.S. every year.
He also said that water and nitrogen in leftover watermelon juice can be a good substitute for corn and molasses in the production of ethanol.
OMG, no...
Oh great, there go the prices of watermelon.
LOL! Imagine the transportation cost of rounding up all those watermelons that are basically 98% water to begin with.
When you are transporting product to be turned into ethanol; it dang well better have a high sugar content to low water content or the transportation costs are going to kill you.
LOL! That kid sure gets around! :)
Oh look at that, I’m on empty. Om nom nom!
How about excess oranges and other citrus fruits being converted into ethanol? Or maybe potatoes (which work just fine for producting vodka)?
Ethanol, while it has a number of beneficial advantages, suffers from one huge disadvantage - without subsidies, it is not competitive as a motor fuel. In no way does it save any significant amount of petroleum consumed, and its carbon footprint is probably as large, for each horsepower produced, as such fuels such as coal and Diesel oil.
The two ways that plentiful energy COULD be produced, by accelerated extraction of petroleum, coal and natural gas, and by vast expansion of nuclear plower generation, are pretty largely foreclosed by hysterical and superstitious reaction from an uninformed and willfully ignorant band of banshees and harpies, mythical creatures made real by reiteration of the lies and fabrications of a malevolent few.
The byproducts of burning one hydrocarbon are the same as burning another.
Here's another jewel:
He also said that water and nitrogen in leftover watermelon juice can be a good substitute for corn and molasses in the production of ethanol.
I'm no chemist, but I'm pretty darn certain that water and nitrogen are not the equivalents of corn and molasses. But, I've been wrong before.
;^)
I’m SO stealing that.
Most things in nature are, mostly, water and carbon. Hydrocarbon. I.e, petroleum.
All just a matter of chemistry and that little sticking point, costs. If you have the money, you can run cars on tulip petals.
Transport (burning .5 gal of oil)200 lbs of melon to distill (by burning 1 gal of oil) to produce 1 gal of Deathanol(which then gets 10% worse mileage than real fuel). Net result, 200lbs of human food and 1.5 gallons of oil gone to produce 1 gallon of Deathanol. Now multiply by billions of gallons.....
Ding ding ding, I think we have a winner for the dumbest idea of all time. It’s actually a crime against humanity.
There are many, many crops that could but the costs of harvesting them would be prohibitive.
Corn, Molasses are mostly water and carbon. Coal is mostly carbon. Nitrogen is a plant fuel for the production of starch/carbon.
Anyways, by and large, all these.....schemes...do ‘work’, it’s just that they cost many times more than classic hydrocarbon sources like oil or coal.
I’m applying for a Federal grant that will pay me for years to put out studies ‘showing’ large People’s Farm Co-operatives will lower costs.
However, you Sir, as a saboteur of our soon to be Bright and Shiny Future, will be rounded up to be educated, or re-educated as the case may be.
“you Sir, as a saboteur”
See ya in the gulag!
My Scottish and Irish ancestors knew this instinctively and they never had a problem remembering this even when under the effects of great quantities of said fermentibles.
Perhaps these "experts" should stop imbibing so much of their product or stop using old automobile radiators for their heat exchanger then they won't keep being surprised...
Ethanol as a transportation fuel is a waste of energy, resources, and money. Its energy density is much lower than hydrocarbon fuels, which is particularly critical for flight. Airplanes are designed around their engines and the fuels they consume, so a low-energy fuel requires a complete redesign.
I an convinced that the transportation fuel of the future will be the same as today’s - light liquid hydrocarbons (LLH) similar or identical to gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel. The source may be different - most probably, bio-engineered algae instead of the long-buried, prehistoric algae beds we find and extract now. But for the next several dozens of decades (or even centuries) these will continue to move us and our stuff where we want to go.
How bout letting stores have stills to handle waste produce.
OOps the ramifications are boiling over.
“Why do these ‘expert’ science types keep being surprised that things filled with sugars can be fermented?”
You betcha! Even stupid, little old me knows that...and to prove it, I have three bottles of jug wine ‘fermenting’ in the basement as I type. I even know that combining yeast and sugar makes alcohol, LOL!
Maybe I could corner the Watermelon Wine market from my very own basement? ;)
Dagnabbit! Don't go confusing them with science, the great pumpkin told them it was good for the planet, don'tcha know....
Are they saying we can render all environmentalists to ethanol???
After they are all made into ethanol we won’t need ethanol any more since we will be able to drill and use our own oil!!!!
You betcha! Love that old song. :)
The Bum Rap on Biofuels
American Thinker | 5-13-08 | Herbert Meyer
Posted on 05/14/2008 3:59:06 AM PDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2015711/posts
Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed
ethanol producer Magazine | May 16, 2008 | By Kris Bevill
Posted on 05/17/2008 9:22:13 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2017389/posts
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