quote:
Originally posted by TexasTDI:
quote:
Originally posted by Al:
I agree..we don't have tha space to grow enough to make it worth while.
If you're talking about BD coming from Soybeans and Rapeseed, you are correct. BUT there are other plant oil sources that produce much more oil per acre. One excellent example is the Jatropha tree.
http://www.d1plc.com/energy/plantation.php
"It takes two to three years for jatropha trees to reach maturity and generate typical economic yields of 3.5kg (7.7 lbs) of seeds per tree. These seeds can then be crushed to produce crude jatropha oil (CJO) that can be refined into biodiesel. Once mature, jatropha has a productive lifespan in excess of thirty years.
D1 estimates that a 5,000 hectare (12,355 acres) plantation, set in waste or marginalized land, will support a minimum of 2,200 productive trees per hectare (2.47 acres). With each 5,000 hectare (12,355 acres) plantation on average supporting 10 million productive trees, and each tree yielding approximately 3.5kg (7.7 lbs) of seeds per annum, the total harvest will be 35,000 tonnes of seeds. Assuming an oil yield of 40%, when crushed this will produce about 14,000 tonnes of CJO. We estimate that each tonne of jatropha oil will produce 1,100 litres (291 gallons) of biodiesel. A mature plantation can produce 15 million litres (3,962,581 gallons) of biodiesel per year.
Each 5,000 hectare (12,355 acres) plantation should create a minimum of 2,500 new jobs." [/QB]