| Re: Hawaii to be national renewable energy example? |
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Group: soc.culture.hawaii · Group Profile
Author: Alvin E. TodaAlvin E. Toda Date: Feb 12, 2008 14:20
On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Dan Birchall wrote:
>> We already know that it takes more energy to
>> produce ethanol than we get out of it.
>
> Minor detail: cellulosic methods of ethanol
> production are, I believe, significantly more
> efficient than the starch-based ones that have been
> getting used in the US.
>
> The (federal) government is hosting an international
> conference on renewable energy in early March (q.v.
> www.wirec2008.gov); I'm going to stop in and see if
> anybody feels like chatting about the
> recently-announced Hawaii stuff.
Isn't the cellulosic method based on using chemicals
like acids to break down the cellulose wh8le
starch-based ones involve organisms like yeast to break
down the starch? Latest method in the Hawaii news is an
algae that contains vegetable oil which can be
efficiently grown in huge ammounts in the ocean. The
light vegetable oil and be mixed with heavier mineral
oil to be refined locally. This increases the types of
mineral oils that our refineries can use. And the
vegetable oil could be used in place of a diesel oil,
or a fuel oil for electric power plants. Don't know
much about these, but it would be good to know what
Hawaii's options are.
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