Re: Alternative Fuel for Rail?

["Al" <alpout@optusnet.com.au>]

> The problem with biofuels is that they often consume a lot of energy to
> manufacture, are expensive, and anyway, there ain't enough. Converting the
> entire australian wheat crop to ethanol would only substitute 15% of crude
> oil
> consumption.

And isn't that ignoring the energy used for crude oil production, refinement,
transport and retailing?  True, more needs to be done on finding alternatives
for bio-oil production (such as the algae mentioned in my other post), and
secondly, investigate ways to use energy more efficiently.

> In the long run the only way is conservation of remaining oil and gas
> supplies
> until hydrogen becomes viable.

In the long run, hydrogen fuel cells would be the way to go.  However, that's
still a fair way off (GM has 2 research centres for fuel cells for cars, and
they reckon they're at least 15 years off, IIRC from my time at Holden).  In
the meantime, at least biodiesel can provide some redundancy to fossil based
fuels.

The conversion from the energy sources used over the last 250-odd years (since
the industrial revolution) to renewable (or non-greenhouse contributing)
sources is going to take some changes in mindset.  This is going to impact in
all areas of society, from household electrical usage, to transport fueling.

Al