Seven Generational Ruminations

Who says biofuels have to be a diversion of food crops? Biological life is very flexible and I believe it's possible for biologists to genetically engineer a biological life form which can directly produce massive quantities of liquid fuel. Maybe. In any case... A Montana State University professor has found a fungus from the Patagonia rainforest that produces a new type of diesel fuel. This is like the algae research, but this fungus could do even better than that.

There's a 'UN food price crisis summit in Rome' at which a debate is occurring about biofuels. On the one hand they are seen as the ultimate in green fuels, but on the other hand the rise of biofuels is impacting the availability of food. To grow biofuels means to divert farmland and food production equipment or people into production of biofuel material.

In Haiti the food riots were severe enough that a UN "Peacekeeper" was killed, and the Prime Minister was forced to resign.

Over the weekend the more I thought about the food riots the more wrong this seemed. Here are some stories of potential food riots in the Phillipines.

I read this news article immediately after watching an episode of Doctor Who, and it seemed a story that would fit right in. 'A dramatic rise in the worldwide cost of food is provoking riots throughout the Third World where millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages grow and cereal prices soar.' The article says food riots are occurring in many countries, that the riots are due to rising food prices, and the rising food prices are due to food being diverted to biofuel production.

There are a range of biofuels companies who recently got sales or added investment or larger production facilities.

This news.com article claims that Galp Energia is working on a project to produce biodiesel using algae. They are supposedly being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, specifically through DARPA. The program is said to be producing 6,500 barrels a day and they are based in Portugal and they have a business partner based in Italy.

I wasn't able to find any news on the DARPA site, though it's interesting that DARPA does have a biofuels research program. That biofuels research is geared to producing jet fuel.

'Real' alternative fuels must be pushed quickly: "ISSUE: Higher gasoline prices OUR VIEW: Americans ready for alternative to simply driving less With gas prices heading for $4 a gallon, will consumers make changes in their habits or bite the bullet and pay more and more? Opinion Research Corp. survey results suggest there are changes: Nearly six in 10 people claim their driving behavior has changed because of rising gas prices."

Biodiesel and other biofuels offer us a possible route out of the mess with the global peak oil situation which in turn is causing the high oil prices. But for this to work the business operations making the biofuels must themselves be stable.

Ethanol, the most popular and commercial biofuel, has long been refined out of plant matter, but it requires the costly, energy-intensive step of distilling every molecule of water out of the solution.

...If the process can be scaled up to industrial levels, it could be a major step toward the creation of a transportation fuel that is relatively clean burning, doesn't contribute to global warming, and provides U.S. farmers with billions of dollars of new income.