Has anyone worked out the math regarding cellulose-derived ethanol?
Big Business and government can't even get corn-based ethanol processed in a common-sense way, and they're already doing that!
I do have some concerns about the assumption that "agricultural waste" is a massive resource, freely available to be tapped, and of no other value.
That attitude is certifiably insane. I don't know anything about cellulose-derived alcohol, but the waste from crop-type plants is just as valuable as the sugar/starch-based alcohol that comes from it.
In a common-sense society, a crop like fodder beets could be grown on decent soil. The crop could be taken to a nearby distillery and the sugars and starch removed to make alcohol. The sugars and starches in the plants come from sunlight/photosynthesis, which is free. The 'waste product' left behind is all the protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, silica, sulfur, sodium, micro-nutrients and trace minerals that were absorbed from the soil during growth.
This 'waste' can either be fed to pastured livestock and returned to the soil as manure, or returned directly to the soil and spread as fertilizer. Sending it to the landfill is just plain stupid and wasteful.
Sue
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