humus wrote:As usual, it did derive from the initial subject but it is related
Hello,
the title should have been in my opinion, "Can we still save algae-type energy crops", let me explain.
Wanting to produce Mtoe for Europe, or even billions of toe for use on a worldwide scale, comes up against a limiting factor that is often ignored which concerns all energy crops: Phosphorus, whose mining extraction is doomed. to exhaustion in the next 30 years (this only for current food crops, to which is added corn, especially in the USA to make ethanol, ...).
Indeed, wanting to produce at a rate of tens of toe / ha is impossible without a massive contribution of NPK, even if part of these can be recycled. Only tropical energy crops (miscanthus, sorghum, etc.) can do without it, but with yields 10 X lower.
It is for this reason that the "artificial solutions" of the synthetic fuel type using solar energy which make it possible to be freed from this type of limiting factors are much more likely to succeed.
The basic equation for diesel / kerosene is: 400 kg H
2 + 3 kg CO
2 yields one ton of non-fossil FT synthetic fuel.
All this is now possible at reasonable costs recently thanks to the feasibility studies proposed by the small Finnish Technical University of Lappaarenta as part of its apparently counter-intuitive project of "Neo Carbon Economy".
Thus, one million km2 in the semi-desert zone will make it possible to produce 5 Mtoe of liquid and gaseous fuels, i.e. a little less than the 000 Mtoe currently consumed, or currently around 8 kg / inhabitant / year (000 kg for OECD countries, 1 for inhabitants of the rest of the world). It would therefore be necessary to distribute around 000 kg / inhabitant / year for 2 billion inhabitants (beyond 000) for essential uses, in addition to everything that will be electrified.
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