In the video below, Robert Rapier, Managing Editor and Director of Analysis at the Consumer Energy Report, discusses the challenges of producing cellulosic ethanol, the role natural gas plays in biofuel production, and the uses of excess heat in the production of biofuels.
In general, a circular production model with the production facility in the middle is most efficient. Flat land, deep soil without rocks, lots of sunshine and adequate water supply give significant efficiency advantages.
These conditions do not exist in sufficient scale on the Big Island, making it difficult to produce biofuels in any cost-effective way.
Hi Richard, great to bring that up. There’s increasing pressure to harvest the wealth of trees for biofuels, biomass to energy, biochar, or what have you– often under the guise of “ecological” benefit. In reality, especially in the context of climate change, harvesting forest for any of these uses achieves no net good for Hawaii in the context of either fuel or climate, and causes direct harm in local warming, rain-fall, systemic albedo, trans-respiration due to local increased local windspeed, and erosive run-off. While it’s technically feasible, maybe, to minimise these effects, it’s unlikely economically so, and important that the hazards of such industry are given equal weight with proposed benefits.
Thanks!
Jay