ALL ESTIMATES ARE ROUGHLY
Oil
Spent in USA
$100-150 billion every year on crude oil
Used in USA
60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel
120 billion gallons of gasoline
Biodiesel
To grow the “feedstocks”
$80,000 per hectare for algal ponds
3.85 million hectares of algae ponds would be need to replace all petroleum transportation fuels with biodiesel
$308 Billion just to build the farms
Operating cost
$12,000 per hectare
$46.2 billion per year to yield all the oil feedstock necessary for the entire country
I will add more fuel later must go watch TV now
***EDIT***
Ok I am back, it turn out that makeing ethanol and biodiesel are around the exact same cost. But I doubt that they will ever be a realistic source of fuel.
I found this and thought you might find it interesting
“”…but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is going down the wrong road, because you use more energy to produce these fuels than you get out from the combustion of these products.”"
Studies done everywhere show that cost and disposal of the bi-products are going to be a problem, plus energy wise its just not worth it. They are working on these problems trying to figure something out to make it more feasible.
In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:
corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and
wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that:
soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and
sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
My company builds biodiesel and ethanol plants throughout the USA. There are more and more plants build each month, and YES, this is the future of fueling our transportation future. IT is NOT! just a fad.
Ok, cost of producing ethanol or biodiesel is only relevant to the size of the plant. The larger the plant the cheaper it is to produce. Regular diesel is about $3.50/gallon retail, and biodiesel is about $3.00 per gallon. You will need to build a plant so that it cost less than $3.00 per gallon to make a profit and stay in business. We build from 1 million gallons per year to over 50 million gallons per year.
Average= $2.00/gallon, but it gets cheaper every day to produce since the technology is already proven.
We also sell home biodiesel kits. You can make 80 gallons in your garage. If you get the raw material(waste vegetabble oil) from a local restaurant for free, then it is about 20 cents per gallon to make.
Most of you guys are also forgetting that the oils can be used first for any number of things before it’s converted to biodiesel. As for the byproducts the only byproduct of biodiesel is glycerin which is used in hundreds of products and is biodegradable.
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ALL ESTIMATES ARE ROUGHLY
Oil
Spent in USA
$100-150 billion every year on crude oil
Used in USA
60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel
120 billion gallons of gasoline
Biodiesel
To grow the “feedstocks”
$80,000 per hectare for algal ponds
3.85 million hectares of algae ponds would be need to replace all petroleum transportation fuels with biodiesel
$308 Billion just to build the farms
Operating cost
$12,000 per hectare
$46.2 billion per year to yield all the oil feedstock necessary for the entire country
I will add more fuel later must go watch TV now
***EDIT***
Ok I am back, it turn out that makeing ethanol and biodiesel are around the exact same cost. But I doubt that they will ever be a realistic source of fuel.
I found this and thought you might find it interesting
“”…but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is going down the wrong road, because you use more energy to produce these fuels than you get out from the combustion of these products.”"
Studies done everywhere show that cost and disposal of the bi-products are going to be a problem, plus energy wise its just not worth it. They are working on these problems trying to figure something out to make it more feasible.
In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:
corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and
wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that:
soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and
sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
My company builds biodiesel and ethanol plants throughout the USA. There are more and more plants build each month, and YES, this is the future of fueling our transportation future. IT is NOT! just a fad.
Ok, cost of producing ethanol or biodiesel is only relevant to the size of the plant. The larger the plant the cheaper it is to produce. Regular diesel is about $3.50/gallon retail, and biodiesel is about $3.00 per gallon. You will need to build a plant so that it cost less than $3.00 per gallon to make a profit and stay in business. We build from 1 million gallons per year to over 50 million gallons per year.
Average= $2.00/gallon, but it gets cheaper every day to produce since the technology is already proven.
We also sell home biodiesel kits. You can make 80 gallons in your garage. If you get the raw material(waste vegetabble oil) from a local restaurant for free, then it is about 20 cents per gallon to make.
Most of you guys are also forgetting that the oils can be used first for any number of things before it’s converted to biodiesel. As for the byproducts the only byproduct of biodiesel is glycerin which is used in hundreds of products and is biodegradable.