Post AtZ6tpbXZvae5HHbxw by acdha@thepit.social
 (DIR) More posts by acdha@thepit.social
 (DIR) Post #AtZ6tpbXZvae5HHbxw by acdha@thepit.social
       2025-04-28T01:29:55Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       “if farmers took a bold leap and covered 46% of land currently used to farm ethanol with solar panels, that would then generate enough energy to reach the 2050 decarbonization goal for the US. The comparison shows how much lower the efficiency of growing corn for energy is when compared to solar production. … it would require about 31 hectares of corn ethanol to produce the same amount of energy generated by one hectare of land covered in solar panels.”https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/26/there-is-one-clear-winner-in-the-corn-vs-solar-battle/
       
 (DIR) Post #AtZ7IgHzLkaMQszFw0 by mike805@noc.social
       2025-04-28T17:22:18Z
       
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       @acdha Ethanol for fuel was never anything but a financial scam. All the transport and refining is done with gas and diesel, so corn ethanol is very much a fossil fuel.How about growing food on the land and reducing unnecessary transport? There are some systems to combine solar and farming.We're still going to need a lot of batteries to store that energy.
       
 (DIR) Post #AtZ7IhYKeTFkLrdp32 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
       2025-04-28T23:44:56Z
       
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       @mike805 > Ethanol for fuel was never anything but a financial scam*Corn* ethanol, yes. It was one of many attempts to find new sinks for the mountains of unneeded corn grown in the US. Because of badly mistargeted government farming subsidies, maintained by armies of agri-corporate lobbyists.Corn produces far less ethanol per volume than almost any other plant, and there is plenty of wate biomass ethanol would be better made from.@acdha
       
 (DIR) Post #AtZ80FxsaHytWyMLiq by mike805@noc.social
       2025-04-28T23:52:36Z
       
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       @strypey @acdha Every now and then one reads about ethanol made from cellulose. How is that going?If you could master that, then any biomass could be turned into fuel (or booze!)The downside: quite a bit of the world's biomass would probably get hacked down with machetes and shoveled into a refinery.
       
 (DIR) Post #AtfcIH2sXpRYYtyawK by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
       2025-05-02T03:00:28Z
       
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       @mike805 > ethanol made from cellulose ... If you could master that, then any biomass could be turned into fuelAny biomass can already be turned into fuel, leaving the cellulose and any minerals to be used as a fertiliser. The downsides are, as you say, that wilderness, food, etc can be turned into fuel. Which is why we need robust regulation to prevent that.But I still see useful transitional tech in making biofuels from waste biomass, eg sewage;https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/15/uk-first-poo-bio-bus-bristol-regular-service@acdha
       
 (DIR) Post #AtfcRjGyxsuqiL58HQ by mike805@noc.social
       2025-05-02T03:02:06Z
       
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       @strypey @acdha There was hype a few years ago about enzymes that could break down cellulose into sugars, which could then ferment into ethanol. So you would be able to clear weeds (or grow weeds on purpose) to make fuel directly. Apparently they were too expensive at the time though.