There is a cute and also informative video called "The Fat of the Land." It
is about 5 women who drive across the U.S. in a 100% biodiesel-fueled van
(oil from fast food restaurants). They make one point about sustainability:
carbon put into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is from plants and
animals which lived long long ago, when CO2 concentration in the atmosphere
was much higher. And plant biomass was presumably higher as well. Carbon
put into the atmosphere from plants grown now is "break even" except for
the fossil fuels used to grow the plants. So according to them biodiesel is
more sustainable than burning fossil fuels. I would be curious to hear
comments from those more knowledgeable than I.
>Hello all,
>
> I wanted to ask some questions about bio diesel. What are
>peoples feelings about this in general? Specifically my questions are
>about the sustainability aspects of it.
>
>1) I know that soybeans are legumenous and fix their own nitrogen. Does
>this mean that in general they don't need to be fertilized? Can they be
>fit into a rotation to eliminate the need to fertilize?
>
>2) How many gallons of soybean oil does a low or non fertilized acre
>produce?
>
>3) Is there a small scale way of producing soybean oil from soybeans?
>
>I just read that president clinton signed an executive order that allows
>for an 20/80 soybean oil/petroleum blend to be used in all federal and
>state fleets of cars. I know that with the current state of soybean
>farming this could probably do more damage than it is worth. Is there
>any safe way to grow a lot of these bio oil crops?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>Paul McEvoy
>
>
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