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Originally Posted by Schwa
But again, no mention of how they came to this conclusion. Are they including the energy involved in making fertilizer from natural gas and perticides and herbicides from oil (plus all the energy used to extract and protect that oil), and the additional oil energy consumed to plant and harvest? Or are they just calculating the energy needed to process the soy into bio-diesel, as the statement seems to infer?
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That is the point ... they only looked at using the "whole" plant and "Lone" fuel product from the plant including all the energy consumed in farming and processing.
Point is that the oil used in Biodiesel specifically IS the by-product and being utilized in either the virgin oil fashion for cooking/food/etc OR by a processor in making biodiesel. No including the meal product that is a very profitable commodity is wrong ... not to mention that there is a huge business of converting used oils to fuel that requires even less energy to recycle for fuel.
If we were to seriously look at the energy consumed in the petroleum markets, I don't know how we would calculate ALL that goes into extracting, refilling wells, transporting, refining, PROTECTING, etc ... but I would venture to guess that isn't as efficient as some calculations subscribe too. Besides ... what is the net life cycle and environmental reality of renewable, cleaner biofuels to refining and burning petroleums?
Again ... not bashing or suggesting we eliminate using petroleum, just that we use it wisely (like most here adopting hybrid technology), suppliment with renewable, domestic, clean biofuels and continue to advance even better energy options that are yet to be available today. Biodiesel, ethanol, EVs, and hybrids are available now and are things we can to do.