Burger King dumps Indonesian palm oil company

[UtahBill]

So you tell me. Is palm oil conversion to biodiesel energy positive?

From Wikipedia....
In tropical regions, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, oil palm is being planted at a rapid pace to supply growing biodiesel demand in Europe and other markets. It has been estimated in Germany that palm oil biodiesel has less than one third of the production costs of rapeseed biodiesel.[67] The direct source of the energy content of biodiesel is solar energy captured by plants during photosynthesis. Regarding the positive energy balance of biodiesel[citation needed]:

When straw was left in the field, biodiesel production was strongly energy positive, yielding 1 GJ biodiesel for every 0.561 GJ of energy input (a yield/cost ratio of 1.78).
When straw was burned as fuel and oilseed rapemeal was used as a fertilizer, the yield/cost ratio for biodiesel production was even better (3.71). In other words, for every unit of energy input to produce biodiesel, the output was 3.71 units (the difference of 2.71 units would be from solar energy).

 

[UtahBill]

Yield in gallons per acre, gpa...source is http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Biodiesel-Fuel

Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a significant percentage of national or world vehicles. Some typical yields in US gallons of biodiesel per acre are:

•Algae: 1800 gpa or more (est.- see soy figures and DOE quote below)
•Palm oil: 508 gpa
•Coconut: 230 gpa
•Rapeseed: 102 gpa
•Soy: 59.2-98.6 gpa in Indiana(Soy is used in 80% of USA biodiesel)
•Peanut: 90 gpa
•Sunflower: 82 gpa
Algae fuel yields have not yet been accurately determined, but DOE is reported as saying that algae yield 30 times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans. and some estimate even higher yields up to 15000 gpa .

 

[danarhea]

Are you kidding? Anti-whaling laws were the WORST thing to happen to wales. We assed ourselves out of all sorts of great products from food oils to medicinal items by banning whaling. Hopefully we'll wise up and support sustainable whale farming.

Yea, let's keep whaling until we run out of whales. That's really smart.

 

[Deuce]

Yield in gallons per acre, gpa...source is How to Make Biodiesel Fuel

Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a significant percentage of national or world vehicles. Some typical yields in US gallons of biodiesel per acre are:

•Algae: 1800 gpa or more (est.- see soy figures and DOE quote below)
•Palm oil: 508 gpa
•Coconut: 230 gpa
•Rapeseed: 102 gpa
•Soy: 59.2-98.6 gpa in Indiana(Soy is used in 80% of USA biodiesel)
•Peanut: 90 gpa
•Sunflower: 82 gpa
Algae fuel yields have not yet been accurately determined, but DOE is reported as saying that algae yield 30 times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans. and some estimate even higher yields up to 15000 gpa .

So quite a bit better than ethanol then. Sweet!