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The Sugar Beet era comes to an end... ethanol to the rescue?

  • 16-03-2006 9:24pm
    #1
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,972 ✭✭✭✭


    With the closure of Greencores final sugar plant in Mallow announced, could the farmers and the plant be kept in buisness by switching to production of ethanol? It would seem like something worth looking into, though I bet no government adviser/minister has even given it a thought.

    Mike.


Comments

  • #2
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,567 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Would be good for the petrol heads. I'm not sure about the economics of it without government grants. Though the Koyoto carbon tax we face works out at about 25c a litre. So its a political thing. Still reckon coppicing should be looked into.

    If everyone in EU went to Diesel , say by decreasing tax / VRT on Diesel and especially Bio-Diesel and increasing it drastically on Petrol we could save about 1/4 of the fuel used in the EU. Most people don't need the zippyness of petrol expecially in Dublin commute :rolleyes: Bio-Diesel is more efficient to produce than Bio-Petrol/Ethanol when you do the sums on the overall energy input vs. output.

    Actually a hybrid Diesel/electic could be be the best option. Diesel and generators both work best at constant speed and you have the electric to give you the acceleration the diesel doesn't. Petrol hybrids aren't that much more effiecient than a diesel and I don't know how you could justify the extra price and resources used above a diesel.

    I'm still pimping the use of alkaline digestors for waste to produce oils and gases. (pressure cooker filled with sodium hydroxide at 350c - don't try at home as aluminium pressure cookers dissolve in the hydroxide and release hydrogen so it could probably explode from the pressure buildup even if no combustion)

    The killer technology IHMO is fuel cells based on methanol/methane/ethanol/similar . They'd combine high efficiency ~ 60% ( compared to petrol engine ~25%) with an easy to transport and store fuel ( which is hdrogen's main problem ) You could then do interesting things like put an electric motor on each wheel, ABS,low centrer of gravity , 4x4 and all that other good stuff. The only problem with electric motors is the weight of the energy store. http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/rec-train.html
    Pimp up a production train a bit and you can hit 515.3 Km/hr ( 320.3 mph ) and it still had carraiges on it, and they put back in normal service afterwards.
    OT Dublin to Belfast in 20 minutes ! ;)
    OOT you could buy Anglesey, build the rail tunnel and sell house as being "20 minutes from Dublin City centre" :D


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