• Watermelon Juice May Be Next "Green" Fuel
    47 replies, posted
There are approximately 140,000 acres of watermelon farms in the United States. Based on the laboratory yield (likely to be far greater than in the field) of 23 gallons per acre, that is approximately 3.2 million gallons of ethanol. I'm not sure how many times you can grow watermelons a year, but for simplicity' sake, we'll assume one. 3.2 million gallons, or 76,000 barrels, absolutely pales in comparison to the 3,300,000,000 barrels of crude oil imported by the US in 2010. Saviour of the world, this is not.
How is it that people are just finding out about all this shit this year...
They should stop pissing about with stuff like this and concentrate on thorium reactors.
[QUOTE=Contag;32499974]There are approximately 140,000 acres of watermelon farms in the United States. Based on the laboratory yield (likely to be far greater than in the field) of 23 gallons per acre, that is approximately 3.2 million gallons of ethanol. I'm not sure how many times you can grow watermelons a year, but for simplicity' sake, we'll assume one. 3.2 million gallons, or 76,000 barrels, absolutely pales in comparison to the 3,300,000,000 barrels of crude oil imported by the US in 2010. Saviour of the world, this is not.[/QUOTE] What if we combined all the sources of alternate fuel into one? If a small portion of multiple crops was made into ethanol, wouldn't it have less of an impact on the food industry and more of an impact on oil consumption than if we made ethanol from only 1 crop?
And we never hear of this again.
I could see biofuel being some sort of emergency alternative, if it can be easily integrated into normal cars. Say you get stuck miles away from a gas station, you can just toss some nearby plants into the tank so you can make it to a gas station rather than having to walk there and back. Although, if you're stuck in a desert you're probably fucked.
Solution, Nuclear batteries. Not the super radioactive kind, just market it under a new name and whala! new solution to energy crisis. Seriously.
[QUOTE=Memobot;32494592]Right. Biofuels again, which failed because you're using A LOT of farmland to produce it. This won't work. Also Ganerumo, have you heard about hydrogen fuel cells yet?[/QUOTE]lol hydrogen fuel cells don't just get water poured in them, it's science, not magic
23 gallons from an acre worth? That's ludicrous, sorry. Not only that, I don't think you can grow the same crop year after year after year after year in the same spot
[QUOTE=GunFox;32494810]Aye. Farmland is needed for food production. Biofuels are not a viable alternative.[/QUOTE] Then what happens to the food production when the oil runs out? It's long gone organisms in a form of oil we are burning for our well-being and stuff. But I agree we gotta spend the last drop of the stuff to make the best out of it, like we always do.
Oh god fuck watermelon is so tasty.
I want a watermelon car.
Considering what ethanol did to corn prices and food prices in general, I'm hoping this isn't the case. I always find it amusing to think about the millions of people that starve to death every year while the US has so much food we're trying to RUN OUR CARS WITH IT.
[QUOTE=TheDestroyerOfall;32501414]Solution, Nuclear batteries. Not the super radioactive kind, just market it under a new name and whala! new solution to energy crisis. Seriously.[/QUOTE] Yeah until someone makes a dirty bomb out of it.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;32521336]Yeah until someone makes a dirty bomb out of it.[/QUOTE] I wonder if it's possible to make a bomb out of watermelons...? Only one way to find out!
[QUOTE=Wiggles;32494572]Reminds me of the Coke powered mobile phone. They're great ideas in theory but the chances of us really using them as a day to day fuel is pretty slim.[/QUOTE] Thinking about that made me imagine somebody shoving a watermelon onto the antennae of a mobile phone. Also, where did you read that?
Isn't ethanol actually really shitty for most engines anyway? I know the newer ones are being designed with ethanol in mind up to a certain percentage, but most cars on the road actually suffer from it's addition I've heard. [editline]28th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;32521129]Considering what ethanol did to corn prices and food prices in general, I'm hoping this isn't the case. I always find it amusing to think about the millions of people that starve to death every year while the US has so much food we're trying to RUN OUR CARS WITH IT.[/QUOTE] Or fire it out of cannons and shit.
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