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Re: Ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops is not worth the energy
Maybe not economic from subsidised US corn;
but what about un-subsidised Australian sugar cane?
Germany seems to be going the bio-fuel rd. anyway by the look of this article
Growing Crops for Fuel: Thanksgiving in the Gas Tank - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
Quote:
Its remote location-and its modesty make Penkun the ideal place for one of the most impressive sets of structures of the coming post-industrial age. Some 40 concrete vats, each 28 meters (92 feet) in diameter, will take up most of the available space in the local industrial zone, launching the biggest organized digestive process in history. Corn produced on 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres) of farmland, totaling more than 200,000 tons a year, will decompose in the containers the way it would in cows' intestines, emitting methane-containing biogas in the process.
The artificially produced intestinal gas is a high-quality fuel and will drive an array of 40 six-foot-tall, 12-cylinder motors, which in turn will produce electricity through generators. Nawaro AG, the operator of what will be the world's most productive biogas power plant, plans to have all the cylinders up and running at the first facility by late summer of this year. From then on, they will supply the German power grid with a constant stream of 20 megawatts of electricity.
The biogas power plant at Penkun, Germany
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Norbert Michalke
The biogas power plant at Penkun, Germany
Although the corn plant in the eastern German state won't exactly be replacing any nuclear power plants at this level, it does mark the first step in an extensive corporate strategy that is expected to transform much of the vegetation in Germany's east into the world's leading source of renewable methane gas. Nawaro AG plans to bring one new electricity factory of the same size on line each year from now on. "But we don't expect to make any money with the first one," explains CEO Balthasar Schramm.
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Last edited by Michaelangelica; 05-27-2007 at 06:22 PM..
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