The biggest mistake of this video is that pure unleaded gas isn't sold at the pumps. Ethanol is mixed in the gasoline in large quantities. So you either by a higher or a lower concentration of Ethanol, but you are always buying at least 20% of ethanol no matter what.
I'm doing research with my Prof. about glycerol - and biodiesel. We produce biodiesel in our labs and soon we probably will be selling it after it is cleaned with brine. Just as good as gasoline, and cheaper.
Eis o real obstáculo da ciência e combustível, a covardia do homem de lutar contra a tolice de ainda pensar que podem matar com a faca que entregou para usarem como ferramenta.
Eis que colheres de plástico entrega-se aos bebês e alguns presidiário confessando o que deles se espera.
H2O é combustível para quem estudar o bastante e acreditar que melhor isto que simplesmente matar ou depender do morto que estava com DNA guardado até debaixo da terra por tantos anos, não para virar fumaça e causar com ela doenças em quem antes não tinha câncer e depois se revolta por ter imputado em si e mais alguém
estudar maneiras de parar os sacrifícios seria pedir demais aos que não deveriam julgar plantas e animais apenas cenário e si mesmo os protagonistas da história contada pelo Deus vivo ?
@MrMyHistory E hoje em meu país os atentos governantes e legisladores nem conseguem dividir o dinheiro do petróleo que ninguém mais seria tolo de queimar para envenenar a si e aos outros seres vivos com fumaça vinda da chama de quem pode ter no DNA a cura da doença que não era para extinguir a vida de toda uma espécie incapaz de pagar o resgate da própria vida, pois este não aceita ouro como pagamento.
We are using gasoline more often because we are in the middle of the sugarcane's offseason. When the ethanol plants are receiving more material, the price goes down again and we start consuming ethanol a lot more than gasoline :) In fact, there is a simple calculation you can make to find out which fuel is more cost-effective. Ethanol price should always be 70% of the gasoline price. If it's over that rate, gasoline is more cost-effective! =)
Ethanol in Gasoline can be a problem in some engines because it can be corrosive, especially in small engines used for outdoor power equipment.
Stihl just recalled a bunch of gas caps on handheld equipment, because the ethanol in the gas made the o-ring seal swell, and the gas cap was then hard to remove.
Ethanol also causes the fuel lines in 2-cycle engines to leak.
Above problems caused by gasoline with >=10% Ethanol.
@periodicvideos Can you do a video on Titin? I heard it's the biggest protein and I wonder what it does. I also heard that the full name is 189,819 letters long and maybe you can try to say the full name? ;)
Unfortunately petro-chemical fertilizers are used by most large scale corn producers in the US. So ethanol is a bit of a wash when it comes to environmental standards and oil conservation.
Processing the hemp plant produces more ethanol, with less effort, than corn. You can't eat hemp, and you can't smoke hemp (unlike it's cousin, marijuana), so there would be no competition as a foodstuff, in turn, be far less expensive.
Why is hemp illegal to grow? Because the chemical companies (like Du Pont) don't like the hemp plant's versatility. Another reason why, is that in America, we subsidize corn - sometimes even paying farms _not_ to plant any to control prices.
Sorry, but it is! The point on being carbon-neutral is great, sounds fantastic. The part where it takes up huge tracts of land that are needed to produce foodstuffs is the retarded bit. You can't realistically provide enough of the stuff without starving.
@Surtak well hydrogen fuel cells for cars definatley luke the honda clarity hydrogen fussion like nucler fussion is maybe a power source for power stations in the future
I would say the H-fuel cells look promising, but I have no clear idea on the necessary infrastructure and general cost of it all, so I'll remain neutral on that.
As for Fusion power, I'm a convinced proponent of R&D into that! A nearly ideal source of power.
@Surtak You're right, producing crops JUST for bio-fuel is actually stupid. Also, it is not carbon neutral because of the high emissions of transporting and processing the crops themselves. Using vegetable oil waste from deep-fryers or something is a little more practical. Better off sticking to using the land for food.
Actually I'd rather switch to solar power. No need for any nutrients whatsoever, but of course still a lot of manufacturing and I don't know how realistic it is to power things like factories on solar power. Or biofuel for that matter.
@Surtak It would be fine if we used hemp for our ethanol source. It has good ethanol produced per biomass. I can't remember exact numbers but it's over 4 times more ethanol from hemp than from corn per acre. Hemp also has thousands of other practical industrial uses that could replace most plastic or oil based products. Hemp crops fully mature in one year so if we used hemp for paper (u know that fine light paper bibles are written on? yeah) we would never need to cut trees for paper.
the point remains that you can't eat that hemp. It changes nothing about my argument at all. You are replacing farmland with fuel-land, or whatever you'd call it. Starving Africa would like a word.
@Surtak Actually, Hemp seed is touted as a health food. It's better than soybean and can be used for all the same things. Hemp can contain up to 50% of it's total weight in seeds. Growing hemp leaves the soil loose and ready for more crops so in climates without harsh winters you can drop more crops. It's not like we're out of farm lands... Hemp is a robust plant that can be grown in any climate that doesn't have snow all year. Hemp CAN realistically provide us with all the fuel we need.
@Surtak Not at all. Hemp grown for industrial purposes is usually less than 0.3% thc or less. 4% is low enough to experience no effect whatsoever. The proteins is what we're afta sah
@Surtak "This sort" is, because it uses foodstuffs for fuel. But in the video, cellulosic ethanol is mentioned. The majority of a plant's composition is cellulose, and millions of tons of biowaste containing cellulose are thrown away each year. Assuming more funding was put into research, it might be profitable to sell cellulosic ethanol at $2/gallon (same energy/dollar as $3/gallon gasoline), while getting rid of a lot of biowaste, and decreasing greenhouse emissions by 85%.
Eh, not really no. You're still using a lot of farmland, labour and resources to grow it in the first place. It's LESS wasteful than for instance corn, but it's still ot viable.
@Surtak Cellulosic fiber does not require extra "cellulose crops." ALL crops already have cellulose in them that we don't utilize anyways. Just by converting the plant waste that we already churn out in massive amounts can produce billions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol.
It's fairly viable IF the U.S. took out the subsidies from sugar-based ethanol and gasoline, and put it towards cellulosic ethanol. It produces competitively priced fuel from material that we already have too much of.
Or, of course, someone could come up with an ingenious way to store large amounts of electrical power for extended periods of time, i.e. batteries orders of magnitude more efficient than current ones - but good luck there!
The only sustainable fuel in future will be hydrogen from electrolysis of water. This can be done by large scale high temperature electrolysis at power plants (e.g. from GenIV nuclear reactors such as thorium-based Molten Salt Reactors) or portably by fuel cells (e.g. the car in Japan that was recently demonstrated to run purely on water).
Biofuels are a completely broken idea from scratch. Supply competition: the land, water, agricultural and other resources required just to feed people will become greater and greater as the world's population grows and demands Western living styles, particularly meat. Demand acceleration: again rising living standards+population would cause biofuel use to increase faster than fossil fuels. In the end, you end up with another carbon trap, except this time its agricultural rather than fossil.
Bioethanol for now, is expensive cuz it isn't used enough. "Critical mass of use" must be achived, but i think that production of biobased plastics (like green PE from Braskem) will stimulate production of bioethanol from sugarcane.So far only 1% of sugarcane is used for bioethanol in Brasil (that's very low) P.s: U can make alot of things from celulose especially bioplastic(Cellophane, Celluloid..) I study in Slovenian polymer technology college, that's where my pasion for polymer comes from :P
Ethanol is hardly a good idea. It retains water, it's corrosive, it gets far less mileage to the gallon, it's far more expensive than oil without subsidy, and it takes a lot more energy to manufacture typically powered by coal burning.
So whatever environmental benefit you think you're gaining from not burning oil your just spending in a coal plant somewhere else. But hell, I guess out of sight out of mind right.
I agree. We need to come up with a fuel source that does not directly compete with arable land used for food production. We shouldn't keep robbing Peter to pay Paul!
He didn't explain second generation ethanol from cellulose enough. That would be interesting to see what has been tried. Methanol is made with wet cellulose and heat but it's carcinogenic. Too bad because it's easy and was common back in WWII during fuel rationing. I wish I could ask him for further discussion on nitrating ethanol and methanol and mixing small amounts in with ethanol to boost power.
@DrakeDorosh I know one method that they are trying is to engineer organisms that can produce enzymes to break down cellulose and ferment that as well (along with lignin and lignocellulose).
@invinciblemode Sure, the governmental funded destruction of the rainforest utilizes chainsaws. Everyone else burns the shit to the ground, because it nourishes the ground and is both cheaper, faster and easier.
@themightychickens Soil from the so called "rain-forest" isn't proper nor used for sugar cane, the amount of thumbs up ur comment got only shows that people care more about "being green" than they do for the real matter.
@xeel224109 "Soil from the so called "rain-forest" isn't proper nor used for sugar cane"
That's why they use slash and burn farming techniques which are destroying the rain forest. The rain forest they cut down for sugarcane, (google it if you don't believe me), is only good for one crop so they just cut down more the next year.
@themightychickens That's not so true. Brasil got alot of agricolture surfaces,8% of all is used for sugarcane and only 1% of sugacane is used to produce bioethanol. So no rainforest is burn't down cuz of that. Problems are cows cuz they need alot more surfaces for grass etc.
... or we would use no actual fuel to power cars, but a form of stored energy. Electricity, or hydrogen. I think biofuels wont be the solution, right now biofuels are a burden on world food supply and also on the environment as activity around biofuel destroys primary forests.
Corn (maize) in the US is an uneconomic crop. It is only grown in such large quantities because the US government subsidizes the heck out of it and distorts the value proposition. If the corn was not made into ethanol it would be made into high fructose corn syrup, which is bad for your health. On balance, using it to make fuel is probably better than using it to make "food".
The "sweet corn" used for ethanol is probably called "field corn" here-- it's much more starch than sugar, so there's an additional step required to break down the starch so it can be fermented. That's a big reason why the energy gained from corn ethanol is break-even at best.
Add in the fact that corn requires huge amounts of land and often herbicide and fertilizer, and you begin to get an idea of just how colossally bad an idea corn ethanol is.
We are used to paying $4/gal for gasoline now. No reason to price any alternative any cheaper. Big Oil blocks the development of alternative fuels. We need open-source fuel. Everyone buy diesel cars and make biofuel in the garage (use waste oil from restaurants, etc). Stop using so much oil and Big Oil won't have money to buy Congress, we'll stop going to war in the Middle East to protect our Oil, etc. Anyway, not turning this into a political post.
btw 1st time i had to downthumb a pt vid...no numbers, no facts (some, much, maybe, should). if i wanna hear unscientific stuff like that i go watch some al gore bullshit
love how everybody freaks out about co2 these days. all the actual dangerous stuff that people breath in 24/7 in a town is hardly mentioned anymore. Biofuel is not an alternative for other countries, brazil and some other are exceptions where its possible without starving people.
@bartj777 Maybe not in the next 5 years, but 20 years from now there will be so little of the cheap/ easily accessible oil left that it will be prohibitively expensive. It's not propaganda, it's the exploitation of a finite resource.
@finlarg well, oil is already expensive enough that the more difficult to obtain sources have become profitable. There's enough shale oil in Canada to last the whole world for another 100 years. We've been hearing from government sources that oil is running our ever since the 1800s. I think they've cried wolf enough times that I don't believe it anymore.
@bartj777 "...I think they've cried wolf enough times that I don't believe it anymore..."
I presume from your comment that you're unaware of the fact that we're burning fossil fuels at an estimated 3 million times more rapidly than it took for them to get there in the first place?
You don't think that they're going to run out sometime?
Even if they last for another 100 years, is that not comparitively short compared with human history?
@finlarg That's just oil, which represents only a small minority of the hydrocarbons on the earth. This is how it always works--we pick the low hanging fruit first, and then as technology advanced and methods become more efficient we get the tougher stuff later. First it's the easy to get and process sweet crude, then the sour, then the shale oil and so on. We didn't know how to build an airplane until someone came along and figured it out. People will figure this out too.
@bartj777 Fosil fuels also include oil and natural gas. You seem to have extraordinary confidence in humanities ability to alleviate it's problems through technology!
Our society is dependant on fossil fuels, whether we like it or not. If our population continues to grow and our demand for resources continues to increase, we are facing a highly uncertain future. Can't you see this?
So far I've not even mentioned the harmful side effects of burning fossil fuels...
@fredb3 I know I'm probably adding fuel to this but... Please keep on mind that the planet is still technically recovering from a near global ice age that only ended 8-10,000 years ago. The climate is still setling down.
Yes actually your not really contributing to any fuel, some one already out up as an example of a repeatable test:
"1) The Earth is heating up is very easy. The repeatable experiment involves a thermometer."
I provided a link to a measurement chart from 5000BC which does corroborate your statement. In fact the hottest periods were during the Roman and Minoan eras.
@periodicvideos have you ever heard about abiotic oils? I have heard that there are quite a few known pockets and was wondering how they could come to exist. This question is a result of hearing the Prof. Say that we will eventually run out of oil reserves.
If someone were to find a way to turn cellulose into ethanol, or any other such like fuel, wouldn't we turn to living/dead trees, and our lawns for fuel?
Er, humanity does know how to turn cellulose into ethanol. I'm not sure about its cost effectiveness and such, since I'm not an expert in this field, but I'd guess that the reason it is not widely used (yet?) is because we don't have too much refineries and industries and such capable of producing the stuff. Also, oil companies have HUGE political and economical power and they are not going to stand by and watch as you kill their cashcow.
@AnonymousKdub What do you expect him to do, just stand there not moving any muscles that aren't required in speech? and over 90% of communication actually comes from body language, not from the words in which we speak.
There still will be the major problem of how much land we actually dispose of... We're already cutting down tropical forests for land to raise cattle, now we're gonna use up our arable land resources to.. fuel our SUVs? While soon enough, the world population will face increasing famine and a water crisis? I don't think so... Ethanol is not greener, it's pretty damn irresponsible to even consider it as an alternative fuel.
@masturbatedsmile Well there's that and there's the fact that the amount of energy produced by just burning the raw plant material as is, produces 100x more energy than converting it into ethanol.
According to many articles that I've read, ethanol from biomass is a very ineffective fuel source beaucause more energy is put into extracting it then we get out. I'm not sure if you knew about this, but I've done my research.
Thanks to Prof. Poliakoff for bringing some small bit of sanity and blending of science, psychology and economics to the discussion of alternate motor vehicle fuels.
I hope for analogous videos dealing with propane/lpg IC engines and possibly the practicalities of hydrogen powered vehicles (logistics of distribution; are metal halides still the best option, etc?)
Thanks again for so many videos that are at once both entertaining and informative.
I live in Brazil, so I know the fact that we are in the last 3 years aprox, living a fuel crisis. The price of the sugar cane went skyhigh, and so did the gasoline, as we still import a lot of petrol from other countries. Brazil is still a very dependent country and very "Plantation" country like, we only export basic things like minerals and plants/food. This is what makes me mad about this country, we have all the Nature's support, but we don't create nothing, we just sell to someone else.
@NathnaelShenkute I guess I was just a little presumptuous about the viewers of these videos. I figured most of them would disregard religion... but maybe not.
The big problem with a lot of biofuel (both bioethanol and biodiesel) comes from crops grown on cleared rain forest. This is bad, really bad, and means it is actually more environmetnally friendly to burn fossil fuels! For this reason I believe the UK government effectively banned the import of biofuels produced from cleared rainforests. Biofuels from other sustainable sources that don't involve forest clearance are welcomed and even encouraged.
Let's say someone thinks global warming is a myth. SO WHAT??!?! you're missing the point; we DO know that oil will run out some day, and we WILL eventually have to do something about it. why not start now? and saving energy is saving money.
@swedishgorilla1 baloney- slang for foolishness (Yeah, I think this spelling makes more sense for both , too).
While bologna- um, er, Jim Gaffigan please help a brother out " If your eating steak it must be something special. If your eating bologna you're special." Also, Carl's Jr. now has fried bologna sandwiches. Great I can have cat butt breath all day, lol.
@zanariot All energy forms started out as inefficient industries funded by the government. It is incredibly expensive to set up and operate any kind of power production facility and almost no private industry could afford to champion a new system which might take 20 to 40 years to become profitable. Instant gratification fails completely in the energy sector and if we want long term supplies of renewable industry we may need to sacrifice in the near term to benefit in the long run.
There is one fundamental problem with biofuels: you need to grow plants. And to replace conventional fuels you need a LOT of plants. To grow a lot of plants you need a lot of fertile soil. And THAT IS LIMITED! Even if we started growing biofuel plants everywhere we grow food, even then it wouldnt be enough. If you use fertilizers, pesticides, etc. to increase yield, you will increase the energy cost of growing. Bottom line: its impossible to make enough and we gain little net enegy.
@Madarpok Actually if we could find an efficient way to convert cellulose into biofuel then we wouldn't have that problem. Look up "Switchgrass." The stuff grows EVERYWHERE with no cultivation at a fast rate. You could literally harvest it off the side of a highway. Problem is the current methods of breaking down the cellulose involve chemicals like sulfuric acid and other efficiency issues.
@cidvisions If we can find a way to grow plants like swithchgrass on areas not previously usable(a transgenic switchgrass with nitrogen fixating capabilities would be AWESOME) and convert the cellulose it could be a viable source of fuel for vehicles. But fueling vehicles is only part of the problem. Fossil fuels are the major source of electric power, and it will be very hard to replace with renewable sources.
I'm actually happy the Professor refrained from global warming claptrap. We can all agree that fossil fuels will eventually run dry (once again, the urgency of the matter is debated), and that by using food staples as fuel, you are creating an even greater problem when typical foods inflate in price. Perhaps once we get our priorities in order (as individuals, not as a government-subsidized project), the rest may fall into place.
biodiesel is becoming a big thing here in this little part of canada, made with all the old cooking oil from restaraunt deep fryers...also in the southern climes theyre using pure coconut oil in place of diesel, but that only works in warmer climes since it congeals at lower temps
Many companies are looking at bacteria to create Ethanol now. But one of the big companies here in the U.S. based in San Francisco, CA was purchased by Chevron. One of the major Oil companies. I hope they don't slow research in that company...
I love the Professor, but, I will bet that he would be unable to speak if you tied his hands down. I have a cousin like this. We used to tease her and tell her to sit on her hands while she spoke. But, every time, within a few seconds her hands were free and she went on as ever.
The professor is right with everything he said. People are going to use gasoline as long as it's cheaper. But as gas continues to rise in price eventually they will all switch. It's good that Brazil has ethanol stations NOW as apposed to later to make the transition smooth
Can you do a short video on the band of anti-matter discovered around the Earth? Or is that more SixtySymbols? (And if it is, will they be doing a video?)
I've often thought couldn't you use seaweed to make biofule. Wouldn't take away from the land growing crops to feed people and it would provide a good environment for fish to live increasing their population too. Just a thought
@thequeenofspades I think the bigger problem with hydrogen is the efficient and safe storage of it. But when they make that work, it will be the future.
The problem with fermentation is the massive release of carbon dioxide during the fermentation. Your car may not be putting it out, but the brewery IS. I KNOW, I brew my own, often.
@fredb3 why are you saying this? Are you trying to state that the earth's climate (assuming it's what you meant when saying the earth is heating up) is not warming/not warming as a result of man? Please clarify.
The biggest mistake of this video is that pure unleaded gas isn't sold at the pumps. Ethanol is mixed in the gasoline in large quantities. So you either by a higher or a lower concentration of Ethanol, but you are always buying at least 20% of ethanol no matter what.
marksp 2 weeks ago
Algae farms! ^_^
AllAroundBang 3 weeks ago
I'm doing research with my Prof. about glycerol - and biodiesel. We produce biodiesel in our labs and soon we probably will be selling it after it is cleaned with brine. Just as good as gasoline, and cheaper.
frichikendz 4 months ago
Eis o real obstáculo da ciência e combustível, a covardia do homem de lutar contra a tolice de ainda pensar que podem matar com a faca que entregou para usarem como ferramenta.
Eis que colheres de plástico entrega-se aos bebês e alguns presidiário confessando o que deles se espera.
/watch?v=N9VUrgbN2L8&feature=relmfu
MrMyHistory 4 months ago in playlist poize
H2O é combustível para quem estudar o bastante e acreditar que melhor isto que simplesmente matar ou depender do morto que estava com DNA guardado até debaixo da terra por tantos anos, não para virar fumaça e causar com ela doenças em quem antes não tinha câncer e depois se revolta por ter imputado em si e mais alguém
MrMyHistory 4 months ago in playlist poize
@MrMyHistory
gás hélio também não serve ?
estudar maneiras de parar os sacrifícios seria pedir demais aos que não deveriam julgar plantas e animais apenas cenário e si mesmo os protagonistas da história contada pelo Deus vivo ?
MrMyHistory 4 months ago in playlist poize
@MrMyHistory E hoje em meu país os atentos governantes e legisladores nem conseguem dividir o dinheiro do petróleo que ninguém mais seria tolo de queimar para envenenar a si e aos outros seres vivos com fumaça vinda da chama de quem pode ter no DNA a cura da doença que não era para extinguir a vida de toda uma espécie incapaz de pagar o resgate da própria vida, pois este não aceita ouro como pagamento.
MrMyHistory 4 months ago in playlist poize
We are using gasoline more often because we are in the middle of the sugarcane's offseason. When the ethanol plants are receiving more material, the price goes down again and we start consuming ethanol a lot more than gasoline :) In fact, there is a simple calculation you can make to find out which fuel is more cost-effective. Ethanol price should always be 70% of the gasoline price. If it's over that rate, gasoline is more cost-effective! =)
mahalberton 5 months ago in playlist Brazil Trip (supported by Briggs)
My biology teacher said that oil will never run out.
However the last drop will be really expensive.
masterfredd 5 months ago
Is that at 2:35 a giant scarecrow or what?
HeilNizar 5 months ago
Ethanol in Gasoline can be a problem in some engines because it can be corrosive, especially in small engines used for outdoor power equipment.
Stihl just recalled a bunch of gas caps on handheld equipment, because the ethanol in the gas made the o-ring seal swell, and the gas cap was then hard to remove.
Ethanol also causes the fuel lines in 2-cycle engines to leak.
Above problems caused by gasoline with >=10% Ethanol.
joeylawn36111 6 months ago
@periodicvideos Can you do a video on Titin? I heard it's the biggest protein and I wonder what it does. I also heard that the full name is 189,819 letters long and maybe you can try to say the full name? ;)
Minecrafter2133 6 months ago
Unfortunately petro-chemical fertilizers are used by most large scale corn producers in the US. So ethanol is a bit of a wash when it comes to environmental standards and oil conservation.
donnybgood 6 months ago
I love how everyone here became experts at biofuels and geopolitical issues here in Brazil, lol.
oikra 6 months ago
Processing the hemp plant produces more ethanol, with less effort, than corn. You can't eat hemp, and you can't smoke hemp (unlike it's cousin, marijuana), so there would be no competition as a foodstuff, in turn, be far less expensive.
Why is hemp illegal to grow? Because the chemical companies (like Du Pont) don't like the hemp plant's versatility. Another reason why, is that in America, we subsidize corn - sometimes even paying farms _not_ to plant any to control prices.
KacelaJ 6 months ago
wow thanks, people buy on value. who knew?
A gallon of ethanol has a lot less energy than a gal of gasoline- even E85, (15% ethanol) gives you 30% less miles per gal than pure gasoline.
Don't think ethanol will ever be a winner as long as there's 'free' complex hydrocarbons in the ground.
Mike1614b 6 months ago
As I always say, the vast majority of people care about the environment as long as it is practically and economically convenient.
Many will never admit that, but that's just the way things are.
denisfilming 6 months ago
This sort of bio-fuels is absolutely RETARDED!!!
Sorry, but it is! The point on being carbon-neutral is great, sounds fantastic. The part where it takes up huge tracts of land that are needed to produce foodstuffs is the retarded bit. You can't realistically provide enough of the stuff without starving.
Surtak 6 months ago 12
@Surtak also you still have to mix it with oil anyway
frogspawn11 6 months ago
also proffessor we ar not going to have to use fuels from bimass. Hydrogen power is the way forward as everyone including top gear say
frogspawn11 6 months ago
@frogspawn11
Referring to Hydrogen fuel-cells or hydrogen fusion?
Surtak 6 months ago
@Surtak well hydrogen fuel cells for cars definatley luke the honda clarity hydrogen fussion like nucler fussion is maybe a power source for power stations in the future
frogspawn11 6 months ago
@frogspawn11
I would say the H-fuel cells look promising, but I have no clear idea on the necessary infrastructure and general cost of it all, so I'll remain neutral on that.
As for Fusion power, I'm a convinced proponent of R&D into that! A nearly ideal source of power.
Surtak 6 months ago
@Surtak You're right, producing crops JUST for bio-fuel is actually stupid. Also, it is not carbon neutral because of the high emissions of transporting and processing the crops themselves. Using vegetable oil waste from deep-fryers or something is a little more practical. Better off sticking to using the land for food.
WeaselWJ 4 months ago
@WeaselWJ
Completely agreed.
Actually I'd rather switch to solar power. No need for any nutrients whatsoever, but of course still a lot of manufacturing and I don't know how realistic it is to power things like factories on solar power. Or biofuel for that matter.
Surtak 4 months ago
@Surtak the total space needed to grow ethanol for all of the US is 1/7th of that required for food
spongebob7285 3 months ago
@spongebob7285
Which they'd have to grow instead of that food.
Even with such a euphemistic number, it makes no sense.
Surtak 3 months ago
@Surtak lets hope someone figures out hydrogen fusion.
mikeymikemikey1 1 month ago
@Surtak It would be fine if we used hemp for our ethanol source. It has good ethanol produced per biomass. I can't remember exact numbers but it's over 4 times more ethanol from hemp than from corn per acre. Hemp also has thousands of other practical industrial uses that could replace most plastic or oil based products. Hemp crops fully mature in one year so if we used hemp for paper (u know that fine light paper bibles are written on? yeah) we would never need to cut trees for paper.
Jebus495 1 month ago
@Jebus495
the point remains that you can't eat that hemp. It changes nothing about my argument at all. You are replacing farmland with fuel-land, or whatever you'd call it. Starving Africa would like a word.
Surtak 1 month ago
@Surtak Actually, Hemp seed is touted as a health food. It's better than soybean and can be used for all the same things. Hemp can contain up to 50% of it's total weight in seeds. Growing hemp leaves the soil loose and ready for more crops so in climates without harsh winters you can drop more crops. It's not like we're out of farm lands... Hemp is a robust plant that can be grown in any climate that doesn't have snow all year. Hemp CAN realistically provide us with all the fuel we need.
Jebus495 1 month ago
@Jebus495
Hemp food....are you suggestiong we all eat space cake sah?!
Surtak 1 month ago
@Surtak Not at all. Hemp grown for industrial purposes is usually less than 0.3% thc or less. 4% is low enough to experience no effect whatsoever. The proteins is what we're afta sah
Jebus495 1 month ago
@Jebus495
Shame, space cake is the only way I'd eat stuff made of hemp :P
Surtak 1 month ago
@Surtak "This sort" is, because it uses foodstuffs for fuel. But in the video, cellulosic ethanol is mentioned. The majority of a plant's composition is cellulose, and millions of tons of biowaste containing cellulose are thrown away each year. Assuming more funding was put into research, it might be profitable to sell cellulosic ethanol at $2/gallon (same energy/dollar as $3/gallon gasoline), while getting rid of a lot of biowaste, and decreasing greenhouse emissions by 85%.
GeekProdigyGuy 2 weeks ago
@GeekProdigyGuy
Eh, not really no. You're still using a lot of farmland, labour and resources to grow it in the first place. It's LESS wasteful than for instance corn, but it's still ot viable.
Surtak 2 weeks ago
@Surtak Cellulosic fiber does not require extra "cellulose crops." ALL crops already have cellulose in them that we don't utilize anyways. Just by converting the plant waste that we already churn out in massive amounts can produce billions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol.
It's fairly viable IF the U.S. took out the subsidies from sugar-based ethanol and gasoline, and put it towards cellulosic ethanol. It produces competitively priced fuel from material that we already have too much of.
GeekProdigyGuy 2 weeks ago
@Surtak If you are starving because your country produces bioethanol, you deserve to starve.
CertifiedBad4ss 3 days ago
Random chat line commenting on climate change vs the crushing majority of the science community.
I dont know why you even waste time and comment on this. Your stupid comments will be gone in 15-16 hours.
tilemacro 6 months ago
Or, of course, someone could come up with an ingenious way to store large amounts of electrical power for extended periods of time, i.e. batteries orders of magnitude more efficient than current ones - but good luck there!
utubesqueeze 6 months ago
The only sustainable fuel in future will be hydrogen from electrolysis of water. This can be done by large scale high temperature electrolysis at power plants (e.g. from GenIV nuclear reactors such as thorium-based Molten Salt Reactors) or portably by fuel cells (e.g. the car in Japan that was recently demonstrated to run purely on water).
utubesqueeze 6 months ago
Biofuels are a completely broken idea from scratch. Supply competition: the land, water, agricultural and other resources required just to feed people will become greater and greater as the world's population grows and demands Western living styles, particularly meat. Demand acceleration: again rising living standards+population would cause biofuel use to increase faster than fossil fuels. In the end, you end up with another carbon trap, except this time its agricultural rather than fossil.
utubesqueeze 6 months ago
its sad that most people do not know tht ethanol is your ordonary drinling alcohol which you find in all alcoholic beverages
jacobpaprotskiy 6 months ago
ahh the sacred blessed teapot :)
ArenThomasian 6 months ago
Bioethanol for now, is expensive cuz it isn't used enough. "Critical mass of use" must be achived, but i think that production of biobased plastics (like green PE from Braskem) will stimulate production of bioethanol from sugarcane.So far only 1% of sugarcane is used for bioethanol in Brasil (that's very low) P.s: U can make alot of things from celulose especially bioplastic(Cellophane, Celluloid..) I study in Slovenian polymer technology college, that's where my pasion for polymer comes from :P
huryfaca 6 months ago
dear brady and the professor, you never disappoint me=)
julescicle 6 months ago
daora nunca imaginei que viesse ao brasil
h1n1h2n2 6 months ago
For the first time I thought it was Petronas fuel station behind the professor,but when I read it carefully,it is Petrobras.
Well,I guess it normal for Malaysian like me to missread it as it is very similar to Petronas! :D
kuro96inlaila 6 months ago
Ethanol is hardly a good idea. It retains water, it's corrosive, it gets far less mileage to the gallon, it's far more expensive than oil without subsidy, and it takes a lot more energy to manufacture typically powered by coal burning.
So whatever environmental benefit you think you're gaining from not burning oil your just spending in a coal plant somewhere else. But hell, I guess out of sight out of mind right.
Berelore 6 months ago
I agree. We need to come up with a fuel source that does not directly compete with arable land used for food production. We shouldn't keep robbing Peter to pay Paul!
WhiteTiger333 6 months ago
Flying Spaghetti Monster bless the professor.
RustyCyler 6 months ago 29
@RustyCyler The Sacred Flying Teapot blesses this video and all others!
ndgreenaway 6 months ago
@superdau
IPCC Continues to lie about CO2 look for this
Fearose 6 months ago
I really do enjoy how the Brazillians use a comma instead of a period as their decimal point. $2,299 would be pretty pricey for a liter of ethanol.
axelasdf 6 months ago
can scientist make a way to 'extract' sugar from plants without killing it?
like bees and honey, for example..
MidnightRedemption 6 months ago
alright. lets start planting sugar fields!
zombieX111222333 6 months ago
This is half of my chemistry GCSE in 5:30 mins :/
nickcoulthard 6 months ago
He didn't explain second generation ethanol from cellulose enough. That would be interesting to see what has been tried. Methanol is made with wet cellulose and heat but it's carcinogenic. Too bad because it's easy and was common back in WWII during fuel rationing. I wish I could ask him for further discussion on nitrating ethanol and methanol and mixing small amounts in with ethanol to boost power.
DrakeDorosh 6 months ago
@DrakeDorosh I know one method that they are trying is to engineer organisms that can produce enzymes to break down cellulose and ferment that as well (along with lignin and lignocellulose).
Eulich 6 months ago
You guys seem to forget that in order to create bio-fuels in Brazil, the rain-forest is being burnt down...
themightychickens 6 months ago 21
@themightychickens It's funny because it's not true, most of our forests are being destroyed for soy bean planting, not for sugar cane.
xxhitman1992 6 months ago
@xxhitman1992 So because they burn more forest to plant soy beans than they burn to plant sugar canes, it's okay???
What kind of fucked-up logic is that?
themightychickens 6 months ago
@themightychickens cut. not burned. Indonesia practices slash and burn. not Brazil.
invinciblemode 6 months ago
@invinciblemode Sure, the governmental funded destruction of the rainforest utilizes chainsaws. Everyone else burns the shit to the ground, because it nourishes the ground and is both cheaper, faster and easier.
Please, don't be so bloody deluded.
themightychickens 6 months ago
@themightychickens Chill man, that anger of yours won't do anything. I agree with everything you say but what can WE do?
invinciblemode 6 months ago
@invinciblemode "Chill man" - The words of a man with nothing of value to say.
themightychickens 6 months ago
@themightychickens WTF? Why are you so hostile towards me? I just can't be bothered to say anything that makes sense. You have a problem with that?
invinciblemode 6 months ago
@themightychickens Exactly!
Sunderas 6 months ago
@themightychickens Soil from the so called "rain-forest" isn't proper nor used for sugar cane, the amount of thumbs up ur comment got only shows that people care more about "being green" than they do for the real matter.
xeel224109 6 months ago
@xeel224109 You know, I don't really give a fuck, it's only oxygen anyways. Not like we need it or shit.
themightychickens 6 months ago
@xeel224109 "Soil from the so called "rain-forest" isn't proper nor used for sugar cane"
That's why they use slash and burn farming techniques which are destroying the rain forest. The rain forest they cut down for sugarcane, (google it if you don't believe me), is only good for one crop so they just cut down more the next year.
cidvisions 6 months ago
@themightychickens That's not so true. Brasil got alot of agricolture surfaces,8% of all is used for sugarcane and only 1% of sugacane is used to produce bioethanol. So no rainforest is burn't down cuz of that. Problems are cows cuz they need alot more surfaces for grass etc.
huryfaca 6 months ago 12
responding to the video....
... or we would use no actual fuel to power cars, but a form of stored energy. Electricity, or hydrogen. I think biofuels wont be the solution, right now biofuels are a burden on world food supply and also on the environment as activity around biofuel destroys primary forests.
kurtilein3 6 months ago
The problem is that fossil fuels are toxic and/or just cannot be turned into food.
And ethanol for cars is made from food, or from crops that have demands similar to foodplants, growing fuel where food could grow.
Thats the issue that needs to be fixed.
kurtilein3 6 months ago
Corn (maize) in the US is an uneconomic crop. It is only grown in such large quantities because the US government subsidizes the heck out of it and distorts the value proposition. If the corn was not made into ethanol it would be made into high fructose corn syrup, which is bad for your health. On balance, using it to make fuel is probably better than using it to make "food".
ib9rt 6 months ago
The "sweet corn" used for ethanol is probably called "field corn" here-- it's much more starch than sugar, so there's an additional step required to break down the starch so it can be fermented. That's a big reason why the energy gained from corn ethanol is break-even at best.
Add in the fact that corn requires huge amounts of land and often herbicide and fertilizer, and you begin to get an idea of just how colossally bad an idea corn ethanol is.
melchior00625 6 months ago
HUEHUEHUEHUE BRBRBRBRBR
spinseffing 6 months ago
Get a bicycle
tobbeb84 6 months ago
Mechanical cow stomach. Plants into fuel.
We are used to paying $4/gal for gasoline now. No reason to price any alternative any cheaper. Big Oil blocks the development of alternative fuels. We need open-source fuel. Everyone buy diesel cars and make biofuel in the garage (use waste oil from restaurants, etc). Stop using so much oil and Big Oil won't have money to buy Congress, we'll stop going to war in the Middle East to protect our Oil, etc. Anyway, not turning this into a political post.
kcazzo69 6 months ago
bring on the alcohol fuel, more horse power
jonnois 6 months ago
Mr Fusion when will you come :(
Harekiet 6 months ago
btw 1st time i had to downthumb a pt vid...no numbers, no facts (some, much, maybe, should). if i wanna hear unscientific stuff like that i go watch some al gore bullshit
managarm1349 6 months ago 2
love how everybody freaks out about co2 these days. all the actual dangerous stuff that people breath in 24/7 in a town is hardly mentioned anymore. Biofuel is not an alternative for other countries, brazil and some other are exceptions where its possible without starving people.
managarm1349 6 months ago
Come on, Prof! They're called 'petrol stations'.
shouryuuken100 6 months ago
Or we just find a way to make new oil
adler3008 6 months ago
Oil isn't running out anytime soon. That's the propaganda speaking.
bartj777 6 months ago
@bartj777 Maybe not in the next 5 years, but 20 years from now there will be so little of the cheap/ easily accessible oil left that it will be prohibitively expensive. It's not propaganda, it's the exploitation of a finite resource.
finlarg 6 months ago
@finlarg well, oil is already expensive enough that the more difficult to obtain sources have become profitable. There's enough shale oil in Canada to last the whole world for another 100 years. We've been hearing from government sources that oil is running our ever since the 1800s. I think they've cried wolf enough times that I don't believe it anymore.
bartj777 6 months ago
@bartj777 "...I think they've cried wolf enough times that I don't believe it anymore..."
I presume from your comment that you're unaware of the fact that we're burning fossil fuels at an estimated 3 million times more rapidly than it took for them to get there in the first place?
You don't think that they're going to run out sometime?
Even if they last for another 100 years, is that not comparitively short compared with human history?
finlarg 6 months ago
@finlarg That's just oil, which represents only a small minority of the hydrocarbons on the earth. This is how it always works--we pick the low hanging fruit first, and then as technology advanced and methods become more efficient we get the tougher stuff later. First it's the easy to get and process sweet crude, then the sour, then the shale oil and so on. We didn't know how to build an airplane until someone came along and figured it out. People will figure this out too.
bartj777 6 months ago
@bartj777 Fosil fuels also include oil and natural gas. You seem to have extraordinary confidence in humanities ability to alleviate it's problems through technology!
Our society is dependant on fossil fuels, whether we like it or not. If our population continues to grow and our demand for resources continues to increase, we are facing a highly uncertain future. Can't you see this?
So far I've not even mentioned the harmful side effects of burning fossil fuels...
finlarg 6 months ago
@fredb3 I know I'm probably adding fuel to this but... Please keep on mind that the planet is still technically recovering from a near global ice age that only ended 8-10,000 years ago. The climate is still setling down.
killerdustbunnies 6 months ago
@killerdustbunnies
Yes actually your not really contributing to any fuel, some one already out up as an example of a repeatable test:
"1) The Earth is heating up is very easy. The repeatable experiment involves a thermometer."
I provided a link to a measurement chart from 5000BC which does corroborate your statement. In fact the hottest periods were during the Roman and Minoan eras.
Can be found here:
wattsupwiththat.{}/2010/12/28/2010—where-does-it-fit-in-the-warmest-year-list/
{}=com
:)
fredb3 6 months ago
@periodicvideos have you ever heard about abiotic oils? I have heard that there are quite a few known pockets and was wondering how they could come to exist. This question is a result of hearing the Prof. Say that we will eventually run out of oil reserves.
killerdustbunnies 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@periodicvideos Can a 100% ethanol be use for fuel and beer?
xarlz159 6 months ago
Comment removed
xarlz159 6 months ago
If someone were to find a way to turn cellulose into ethanol, or any other such like fuel, wouldn't we turn to living/dead trees, and our lawns for fuel?
EPhantom125 6 months ago
@EPhantom125
Er, humanity does know how to turn cellulose into ethanol. I'm not sure about its cost effectiveness and such, since I'm not an expert in this field, but I'd guess that the reason it is not widely used (yet?) is because we don't have too much refineries and industries and such capable of producing the stuff. Also, oil companies have HUGE political and economical power and they are not going to stand by and watch as you kill their cashcow.
d3st88 6 months ago
@EPhantom125
That being said.. Google up the stuff, if you are interested in the topic.
d3st88 6 months ago
Thumbs up if you just realized the professor cant talk without moving his hands.
AnonymousKdub 6 months ago
@AnonymousKdub What do you expect him to do, just stand there not moving any muscles that aren't required in speech? and over 90% of communication actually comes from body language, not from the words in which we speak.
EPhantom125 6 months ago
Good news is we will never actually run out of oil. It would just be harder to extract and more expensive. There will also be less of it.
rjhrjh3 6 months ago
Great address of issue.
super1commenter 6 months ago
There still will be the major problem of how much land we actually dispose of... We're already cutting down tropical forests for land to raise cattle, now we're gonna use up our arable land resources to.. fuel our SUVs? While soon enough, the world population will face increasing famine and a water crisis? I don't think so... Ethanol is not greener, it's pretty damn irresponsible to even consider it as an alternative fuel.
masturbatedsmile 6 months ago 18
@masturbatedsmile Well there's that and there's the fact that the amount of energy produced by just burning the raw plant material as is, produces 100x more energy than converting it into ethanol.
greatniss 6 months ago
Good, informative.
Probewitch 6 months ago
Has to be the nicest community of people on these videos xD
I love it.
imalwayswatchingu00 6 months ago
According to many articles that I've read, ethanol from biomass is a very ineffective fuel source beaucause more energy is put into extracting it then we get out. I'm not sure if you knew about this, but I've done my research.
Help spread the word.
naruto994400 6 months ago 2
Very interesting, Prof.
draoi99 6 months ago
Using food to power cars... It must just me be me..
cyclenut 6 months ago
hmm food for thought
ElementHTTP 6 months ago
Great video, everyone.
Aramakie98 6 months ago
Thanks to Prof. Poliakoff for bringing some small bit of sanity and blending of science, psychology and economics to the discussion of alternate motor vehicle fuels.
I hope for analogous videos dealing with propane/lpg IC engines and possibly the practicalities of hydrogen powered vehicles (logistics of distribution; are metal halides still the best option, etc?)
Thanks again for so many videos that are at once both entertaining and informative.
disorganizedorg 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
its like
"new fuel that don't pollute as much? HELL YA"
"but it doesn't work as good ._."
"._. well at least it is good for the environment :)"
"but the farms destroy rain forest and take up much space"
"._. well at least since its not gasoline--"
"sorry the price is the same... ._."
"._."
phillipdogyface 6 months ago 2
Comment removed
phillipdogyface 6 months ago
I live in Brazil, so I know the fact that we are in the last 3 years aprox, living a fuel crisis. The price of the sugar cane went skyhigh, and so did the gasoline, as we still import a lot of petrol from other countries. Brazil is still a very dependent country and very "Plantation" country like, we only export basic things like minerals and plants/food. This is what makes me mad about this country, we have all the Nature's support, but we don't create nothing, we just sell to someone else.
Draxis32 6 months ago
God bless the professor
NathnaelShenkute 6 months ago 38
@NathnaelShenkute
Was that an insult?
Certainly it was an insult to his intellect.
d3st88 6 months ago
@d3st88 why would I insult such a wise man, I would never do that
NathnaelShenkute 6 months ago
@NathnaelShenkute
Maybe you mistook this channel for "Periodic stone tablet of alchemy videos" or something.
d3st88 6 months ago
@NathnaelShenkute thats like saying "Imaginary friend for adults" bless the professor , why u gotta insult him with this religious bullshit
omfglol99n00b 6 months ago
@omfglol99n00b be open minded, everything what people say is not necessarily negative
NathnaelShenkute 6 months ago
@NathnaelShenkute ... God?
redsoxfan713 6 months ago
@redsoxfan713 if you don't know what God means, it means the creator of everything the alpha and the omega
NathnaelShenkute 6 months ago
@NathnaelShenkute I guess I was just a little presumptuous about the viewers of these videos. I figured most of them would disregard religion... but maybe not.
redsoxfan713 6 months ago
The big problem with a lot of biofuel (both bioethanol and biodiesel) comes from crops grown on cleared rain forest. This is bad, really bad, and means it is actually more environmetnally friendly to burn fossil fuels! For this reason I believe the UK government effectively banned the import of biofuels produced from cleared rainforests. Biofuels from other sustainable sources that don't involve forest clearance are welcomed and even encouraged.
marklandynut 6 months ago
Let's say someone thinks global warming is a myth. SO WHAT??!?! you're missing the point; we DO know that oil will run out some day, and we WILL eventually have to do something about it. why not start now? and saving energy is saving money.
japanesepoptart 6 months ago
This sounds less scientific and more political. None the less the videos are still great.
catsfromhell1 6 months ago
I've heard there is enough natural gas for a 100 years of use!
pagani8 6 months ago
I love how everyone on YouTube automatically becomes a scientist.
exion3560 6 months ago 54
@exion3560 Well it matches them becoming diplomats, linguists, doctors and lawyers... right?
disorganizedorg 6 months ago
@exion3560 Hey, I got my degree from Youtube. Now time to make cats play the piano.
Futurama~ "I have a degree in homeopathic medicine." "You got a degree in baloney. "
Aramakie98 6 months ago
@Aramakie98 What is baloney? Do you mean bologna?
swedishgorilla1 6 months ago
@swedishgorilla1 baloney- slang for foolishness (Yeah, I think this spelling makes more sense for both , too).
While bologna- um, er, Jim Gaffigan please help a brother out " If your eating steak it must be something special. If your eating bologna you're special." Also, Carl's Jr. now has fried bologna sandwiches. Great I can have cat butt breath all day, lol.
Aramakie98 6 months ago
@exion3560 some of us actually are scientists
endospores 6 months ago
@exion3560 I think that alot of people that view these videos are scientists or studying science including myself
jonnois 6 months ago
@exion3560 professor IS a scientist with or without Youtube
mvszao 6 months ago
@mvszao He is talking about the comments not the Professor bloody hell wake up.
UKNMajor 6 months ago
@exion3560 what does science mean to you?
milerguan 6 months ago
ethanol is a scam to "create" jobs funded by government subsidies. no independent companies produce ethanol because incredibly inefficient
zanariot 6 months ago
@zanariot All energy forms started out as inefficient industries funded by the government. It is incredibly expensive to set up and operate any kind of power production facility and almost no private industry could afford to champion a new system which might take 20 to 40 years to become profitable. Instant gratification fails completely in the energy sector and if we want long term supplies of renewable industry we may need to sacrifice in the near term to benefit in the long run.
cidvisions 6 months ago
There is one fundamental problem with biofuels: you need to grow plants. And to replace conventional fuels you need a LOT of plants. To grow a lot of plants you need a lot of fertile soil. And THAT IS LIMITED! Even if we started growing biofuel plants everywhere we grow food, even then it wouldnt be enough. If you use fertilizers, pesticides, etc. to increase yield, you will increase the energy cost of growing. Bottom line: its impossible to make enough and we gain little net enegy.
Madarpok 6 months ago
@Madarpok That is the reason that I like nuclear energy. No problem at all with this kind of stuff.
b1912313 6 months ago
@Madarpok Actually if we could find an efficient way to convert cellulose into biofuel then we wouldn't have that problem. Look up "Switchgrass." The stuff grows EVERYWHERE with no cultivation at a fast rate. You could literally harvest it off the side of a highway. Problem is the current methods of breaking down the cellulose involve chemicals like sulfuric acid and other efficiency issues.
cidvisions 6 months ago
@cidvisions If we can find a way to grow plants like swithchgrass on areas not previously usable(a transgenic switchgrass with nitrogen fixating capabilities would be AWESOME) and convert the cellulose it could be a viable source of fuel for vehicles. But fueling vehicles is only part of the problem. Fossil fuels are the major source of electric power, and it will be very hard to replace with renewable sources.
Madarpok 6 months ago
I'm actually happy the Professor refrained from global warming claptrap. We can all agree that fossil fuels will eventually run dry (once again, the urgency of the matter is debated), and that by using food staples as fuel, you are creating an even greater problem when typical foods inflate in price. Perhaps once we get our priorities in order (as individuals, not as a government-subsidized project), the rest may fall into place.
Zaddtheman 6 months ago
biodiesel is becoming a big thing here in this little part of canada, made with all the old cooking oil from restaraunt deep fryers...also in the southern climes theyre using pure coconut oil in place of diesel, but that only works in warmer climes since it congeals at lower temps
zythepsarian 6 months ago
Many companies are looking at bacteria to create Ethanol now. But one of the big companies here in the U.S. based in San Francisco, CA was purchased by Chevron. One of the major Oil companies. I hope they don't slow research in that company...
SealTeam1 6 months ago
I live in Brazil, and I'm actually proud for having professor Poliakoff here.
b1912313 6 months ago
I love the Professor, but, I will bet that he would be unable to speak if you tied his hands down. I have a cousin like this. We used to tease her and tell her to sit on her hands while she spoke. But, every time, within a few seconds her hands were free and she went on as ever.
bigjohn756 6 months ago
Or...we could start to grow up as a race and put money aside.
However its most unlikely that that will happen anytime soon.
~Jkun~
Jkun 6 months ago
Is a good idea to start to think about water supplies...because irrigation will be necessary if the oil runs out...
FelipeZucchetti 6 months ago
The professor is right with everything he said. People are going to use gasoline as long as it's cheaper. But as gas continues to rise in price eventually they will all switch. It's good that Brazil has ethanol stations NOW as apposed to later to make the transition smooth
Sharkness77 6 months ago
Can you do a short video on the band of anti-matter discovered around the Earth? Or is that more SixtySymbols? (And if it is, will they be doing a video?)
twilightknight123 6 months ago
I've often thought couldn't you use seaweed to make biofule. Wouldn't take away from the land growing crops to feed people and it would provide a good environment for fish to live increasing their population too. Just a thought
Bluebuthappy182 6 months ago
That was an amazing video!
258bman 6 months ago
There is also the issue of agricultural area for large scale production.
And afaik there simply is not enough agricultural area to support production in the quantities needed for current consumption of cars.
Even if you include areas not usable for foods but from cellulose.
peope1976 6 months ago
Can we genetically engineer plants to make for better fuels?
FHomeBrew 6 months ago
Nice to know there is enough food for the world's population that arable land can be used for bioethanol production.
gigantibyte 6 months ago
The eye-opener for me is that Brazil is using ethanol. I didn't know that! That's terrific, other issues aside.
P00P0STER0US 6 months ago
the future is alcohol ! ah-men to that *burp*
sausage4mash 6 months ago
Carbon is the past. The person who will get the trophy will find a way to economically isolate hydrogen from compounds.
thequeenofspades 6 months ago
@thequeenofspades I think the bigger problem with hydrogen is the efficient and safe storage of it. But when they make that work, it will be the future.
TheDoubleBee 6 months ago
The problem with fermentation is the massive release of carbon dioxide during the fermentation. Your car may not be putting it out, but the brewery IS. I KNOW, I brew my own, often.
bamboo4tameshigiri 6 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri Its a step forward, but its not the true future.
bamboo4tameshigiri 6 months ago
@fredb3 why are you saying this? Are you trying to state that the earth's climate (assuming it's what you meant when saying the earth is heating up) is not warming/not warming as a result of man? Please clarify.
ConnorXV 6 months ago
@ConnorXV
I want to find out if
1) the earth is indeed heating up in the grand scheme of things which has been answered here:
wattsupwiththat.{}/2010/12/28/2010—where-does-it-fit-in-the-warmest-year-list/
{}=com
2)If gases have a direct effect which has been proven with the correlation of the moon.
universetoday.{}/19623/temperature-of-the-moon/
{}=com
3) Man is to blame or a contributing factor - this is yet to be established beyond a reasonable doubt because I need references.
fredb3 6 months ago
What does the professor think about electric p