What plants might be grown, just for bio-fuel?

[Michaelangelica]

What a shocking travesty
Chocolate used as bio-fuel (!)
use rainforests, subsidised corn, plastic waste, Indonesia, any thing before that!
"Chocolate lovers of the world unite. You have nothing to loose but your chocolate!"

[Monomer]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Cool article Monomer. Where HAVE you been hiding btw?

Yeah, I've been slack!! Too many other things taking up my time

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

What a shocking travesty
Chocolate used as bio-fuel (!)
use rainforests, subsidised corn, plastic waste, Indonesia, any thing before that!
"Chocolate lovers of the world unite. You have nothing to loose but your chocolate!"

It's okay Michaelangelica! They're using the waste from the chocolate-making process so if you keep eating it then there will be more waste to use as fuel.

Chocoholics can assuage any guilt they may feel after a new process was developed that turns the by-products of making chocolate into a biofuel -- meaning you can eat your chocolate and be eco-friendly.

Eat more chocolate and help the environment | Environment | Reuters

Chocolate is turned into fuel (with video) - Lancashire Evening Post

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Monomer

Yeah, I've been slack!! Too many other things taking up my time
It's okay Michaelangelica! They're using the waste from the chocolate-making process so if you keep eating it then there will be more waste to use as fuel.

Phew, that's a relief

[Michaelangelica]

A little off topic but this article summeries the many issues surrounding bio-fuels
EG

Weighing Environmental Costs and Benefits

When crops grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus negating any greenhouse gas emissions that result from burning biofuels.
However, planting, fertilizing and harvesting the crop requires machinery that utilize fossil fuels, as do the fermentation, distillation and transportation processes.
All together, the energy required to generate one gallon of corn-based ethanol is equal to about 60-75 percent of the energy produced (NRDC, 2006).
As a result, GHG emissions are only reduced by 15-40 percent relative to oil on a per gallon basis (WorldWatch, 2006).

and

corn prices doubled last year, causing social unrest in Mexico where corn tortillas are a dietary staple (BBC News, 2007).

On the other hand, biofuel production can boost incomes in rural areas, where three-quarters of the world's poor reside, which may increase their ability to secure food supplies

March 2007 Monthly Update: Global Biofuel Trends | EarthTrends

[Michaelangelica]

I need a little THINK and will come back to to you all
-such great posts and me with no rep to give.

[Michaelangelica]

The beginnings of a biofuel backlash?

Europe, Cutting Biofuel Subsidies, Redirects Aid to Stress Greenest Options

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: January 22, 2008[/I]

Governments in Europe and elsewhere have begun rolling back generous, across-the-board subsidies for biofuels, acknowledging that the environmental benefits of these fuels have often been overstated.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Paul Dodds/Bloomberg News

A biofuel plant under construction in England in 2005. Countries in Europe are revising incentives for biofuel production.

But as they aim to be more selective, these governments are discovering how difficult it can be to figure out whether a particular fuel — much less a particular batch of corn ethanol or rapeseed biodiesel — has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner. Biofuels vary greatly in their environmental impact.

“A lot of countries are interested in doing this, but it’s really hard to do right,” said Ronald Steenblik, research director of the Global Subsidies Initiative in Geneva. “You can’t look at a bottle of ethanol and tell how it’s produced, whether it’s sustainable. You have to know: Was the crop produced on farmland or on recently cleared forest? Did the manufacturer use energy from coal or nuclear?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/bu...ml?ref=science

[freeztar]

Good for them!
Corn ethanol subsidies in America are a joke imho.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Good for them!
Corn ethanol subsidies in America are a joke imho.

Yes agreed and I wonder how much money goes to the Corporate Farm rather than the Family Farm?
Because of the USA corn subsides and the Indonesian destruction of its environment for palm oil; biofuels have a bad name, which is a pity.
Indonesia will destroy anything where there is a buck to be made, as in their rape of forests, and genocide of the people, in Papua.

In Australia though, we can easily produce a lot more sugar cane without clearing forests. At the moment most goes for sugar or rum. Ethanol 10% mixes are available but the price break is just not there; even though the ethanol is not double taxed at petrol is.

Australians don't have to make a choice between food Vs alcohol. ( Um you know what I mean!)

We have not yet begun to research the possibilities of crops for dry desert areas or salt damaged or marginal land.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

We have not yet begun to research the possibilities of crops for dry desert areas or salt damaged or marginal land.

What about jatropa?

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

What about jatropa?

I think it has beeen mentioned. Post 34 etc
It sounds good
A little like the Castor Oil plant that grows wild around Sydney (?)

Jatropa Curcas: The Bio Diesel Medicinal Plant


J. mutabilis
This wonderful plant is not only used as for medicinal purposes but has now been developed as an alternative diesel fuel.
Jatropa Curcas: The Bio Diesel Medicinal Plant
Enlarge Image
Jatropa Curcas or locally known as Tuba Bakod in our country has been used by our ancestors as a folkloric medicine for rheumatic pains, snake bites and also insecticide. The leaves are used as medicine for muscle ailments like rheumatic pains. Simply by applying oil on the leaves and heated by flames and then applied to the skin on where the ailments are. Although it has medicinal properties, the fruit and seed is not edible and poisonous when ingested. The leaves have anti-inflammatory properties but toxic when excessively used internally. The pounded leaves when pounded and made into a poultice can be used to aid in snakebites and also effective as an insecticide.

It seems to have its own website?
Jatropha curcas news
Lots of Pics here
Google Image Result for http://mangalorean.com/images/features1/20070902jatropa23.jpg

A fairly tropical plant by the look of it.