Comments on: Report recommends Biofuel Institute

By: Alec Smart

Alec Smart — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:55:28 +0000

I got an idea,make cars that run on methane that you can fill from your own toilet,that way you can dump in a load of fuel while taking a dump.

By: JEYKL & HYDE

JEYKL & HYDE — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:05:48 +0000

i’m pretty much for anything that keeps the fuel barons honest,but i can’t see its future.as a nation,we should be much more worried that the goverments water buying scheme is resulting in farmers simply selling their water to earn income,instead of actually GROWING something.with stuff like fertiliser and roundup skyrocketing,the worst drought in history,and really low end prices(try $200/ton wheat,oranges) you can’t blame them.the future of rural australia is at real risk of dying,and as the ageing farming community are leaving their farms(and water allocations)in droves,that one day soon we may ask “where can i get a freshly grown anything,let alone biofuel…

By: chris nq

chris nq — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:42:06 +0000

Bio fuel is the way forward, there is a gult of sugar on the world market, and we have a big industry in australia, everyone keeps talking green, it can be burnt in boilers for power generataton, make paper, wax, plastic, ethanol, none of the plant is left over and it makes a positive on the environment as we are using our sugar industry to help carbon gases,as its renewable product with little input, as well as it producing the most ethanol per acre or hectre out of any other food on planet, I cant see any negatives for australia.

By: Bret

Bret — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:08:23 +0000

Realcars,
That is a pretty broad statement (or opinion as the case may be) – care to elaborate. Do you mean Bio-deisel, ethanol or other? Should we just stuff brown coal in there and hope?

I tend to think that bio-fuels have a large role to play and are an important piece of the future energy jigsaw puzzle.

By: Realcars

Realcars — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:35:31 +0000

Biofuel is a dead end.

By: Bret

Bret — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:53:52 +0000

Yes certainly Australia needs to involved in this important issue on a global scale.
The food vs fuel argument has two sides to the story, and on that score Australia does very well – all ethanol based fuels are not equal.
Look up:
ethanolfacts . com . au/foodfuel

By: WVB

WVB — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:14:50 +0000

I think ethanol or biofuels are a good idea if only a stop gap. You are still burning fuel and creating CO emissions though and you’d need vast tracks of sustainable land and water resources to back it up. Neither of which we have much of here.
I think Honda are on the right track whereby using the non-food component of the plant to create the fuel. The only problem that appears from that is the plant is essentially eradicated from existence. So what happens to the nutrient of the waste plant matter that normally goes back into the soil for re-growth of future or other plant life. This won’t happen leading to another consumption imbalance similar to fossil fuels.

By: JasonP

JasonP — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:26:34 +0000

Toyota drivers?

By: The Salesman

The Salesman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:19:59 +0000

Isn’t there a genetically enhanced bug that consumes sugar cane and excretes a type of oil?

By: mike

mike — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:16:54 +0000

In principal biofuels sound like a good idea, but in reality it just doesn’t work. Advocating biofuels is advocating higher food prices, as farmers will change their production from food crops to fuel crops. Look at places like Brazil, where biofuels receive huge subsidies from government. Not only have food prices gone through the roof, but huge swathes of rainforest are being cleared to grow crops for fuel.
The process of creating biofuels is very resource-intensive. The crops need water and fertiliser, machinery is needed to harvest them and the ethanol needs to be extracted. While millions starve around the world, we’re busy putting that food into our fuel tanks.