New Technology for New Fuel
The Economists technology issue came out last week and this time it's concentrating on new technology to counteract climate change.
Woodstock revisited looks at new techniques for producing ethanol. The technology isn't available yet, but the writer makes an argument that instead of using corn for ethanol, why not use trees - Treethanol.
Ethanol is being embraced by politicians and environmentalists for a number of reasons. It's renewable and when burned, it reduces greenhouse-gas emissions. Perfect!
The writer therefore asks: "Why use trees, rather than maize or sugar cane, as a feedstock for ethanol?"
The simple answer is: it's more energy efficient. The ratio of energy you put in to energy you get out is a lot closer than what you would get with sugar cane or other energy crops.
The article makes a great argument for ethanol from trees. Trees grow year round, it's easier to produce ethanol from them (burn a lot easier) but it's more expensive to do that than if you were to use other energy crops. And another downfall is the type of tree will determine the best results. So, a tree's rate is limited by its lignin structure - which is what determines the trees strength and form. Those that contain more will produce more ethanol. But, not all of them do, so that would mean cloning and genetic modification would be used in order to create a type that will yield the best results.
This will create more problems than solutions. It takes years to grow trees and by the time scientists find the genetic variation and then grow it, we may be out of oil.
It's a great idea and I support it, but can this new technology be developed quickly enough?
Woodstock revisited looks at new techniques for producing ethanol. The technology isn't available yet, but the writer makes an argument that instead of using corn for ethanol, why not use trees - Treethanol.
Ethanol is being embraced by politicians and environmentalists for a number of reasons. It's renewable and when burned, it reduces greenhouse-gas emissions. Perfect!
The writer therefore asks: "Why use trees, rather than maize or sugar cane, as a feedstock for ethanol?"
The simple answer is: it's more energy efficient. The ratio of energy you put in to energy you get out is a lot closer than what you would get with sugar cane or other energy crops.
The article makes a great argument for ethanol from trees. Trees grow year round, it's easier to produce ethanol from them (burn a lot easier) but it's more expensive to do that than if you were to use other energy crops. And another downfall is the type of tree will determine the best results. So, a tree's rate is limited by its lignin structure - which is what determines the trees strength and form. Those that contain more will produce more ethanol. But, not all of them do, so that would mean cloning and genetic modification would be used in order to create a type that will yield the best results.
This will create more problems than solutions. It takes years to grow trees and by the time scientists find the genetic variation and then grow it, we may be out of oil.
It's a great idea and I support it, but can this new technology be developed quickly enough?
posted by Anna Kat at 9:24 PM
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