So one of the more popular renewable energy sources that I did not mention in my last blog that needs mentioning is Biomass fuel. There are five main types of biomass;
-Wood
-Crops
-Alcohol Fuels
-Garbage
-Landfill gas
Wood was the most widely used up until the 1800s, and had been for thousands of years. Crops is a very promising renewable energy source. I have a friend who is working with wild grasses that don't need any kind of crop rotation, replanting and can be used for a fuel source. Alcohol fuels almost falls under the Crops too, but there is a much more extensive refining process to get a usable fuel. The last two, are closely related and might be the most available, Garbage and a Landfill gas. Garbage is something that just about everybody creates a bunch of everyday. Garbage seems to me to be one area that has the most to be discovered with more Research and Development. Finding new ways to use our garbage, besides just burying it, that is an exiting idea. If we could come up with a way to power our houses with our own garbage, that would be a great step towards self-sufficiency.
I am going to continue my research and who knows, maybe I will be able to make some kind of contribution to coming up with a new or better renewable energy source.
2 comments:
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the crops for fuel idea. We already import too much of our food at the expense of the rest of the world (there are some countries where the government is so busy exporting their crops to us that their people feel the loss).
The grasses one is very interesting. But we can't have big incentive programs that end up incenting all the farmers to grow grass vs. food crops.
Oh, here is an article related to this: http://www.comcast.net/news/articles/general/2008/04/11/NEWS-FOOD-FAO-DC/
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