Is biofuel viable?
A study by David Tilman and colleagues at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0604600103) says probably not. They calculate the result of America turning all its maize and soybean production into biofuel. They further assume that some of this biofuel will be used to manufacture the farm machinery, fertiliser and pesticides needed to grow the crops and to run the machinery used to cultivate and harvest it. The remaining biofuel would meet less than 5% of America’s current liquid fuel requirement. Its clear that ethanol production isn’t particularly efficient: The energy inputs, in the form of fertilisers, cultivation and harvesting are considerable. Studies have put these inputs at anything from 75% to over 100% of the energy content of the resulting ethanol. – Congressional Record page H211, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett: “THE PEAKING OF WORLD OIL”, House of Representatives, February 8, 2006, http://www.peakoil.net/P
