National Geographic Story

Update: This was a story originally posted in August of 2006 (Wow, that’s been the fastest year of my life), but E3 Biofuels has come up in discussion quite a few times lately. I am going to be traveling over the next 5 days with intermittent Internet access, so I thought I would bump this up top. Note that this story was prior to their plant startup.

Ah, and that solves a long-term mystery for me. I wondered why some people refer to me as an “oil industry analyst.” This must have been where that originated.

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Last night I noticed some traffic being directed here from National Geographic. Being a curious sort, of course I followed the link back and found this story:

New Ethanol Plants to Be Fueled by Cow Manure

The story talks about the E3 Biofuels process that I blogged on previously.

This blog is mentioned in the article, and is listed under โ€œSOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITESโ€. The Oil Drum is also mentioned in the article, as well as Vinod Khosla. Some relevant quotes from the article:

…With gas prices high and the future of world oil production uncertain, interest in alternative fuels is surging.

But ethanol, a fuel now widely used in Brazil, has been the subject of an often polarized debate in the U.S.

The controversy has been playing out recently both in science journals and on energy blog sites such as The Oil Drum.

Proponents like Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla argue that ethanol can replace gasoline, while opponents counter that not enough agricultural land exists to meet more than a fraction of the country’s energy needs.

…But another outspoken ethanol critic, oil industry analyst and blogger Robert Rapier, has endorsed the E3 Biofuels approach, calling it “responsible ethanol.”

National Geographic. How flippinโ€™ sweet is that? Maybe CNN will come calling next. ๐Ÿ™‚

8 thoughts on “National Geographic Story”

  1. Well you are far more informative reading than anything I’ve seen in the mainstream news with respect to alternative energy. My hat is off to you Robert. You deserve all the attention you get….. times 10.

  2. Congrats, Robert. I find it kind of funny how credible (and potentially influential) blogs/bloggers have become lately. That being said, you’ve certainly earned the attention with frequent and thoughtful analysis. Keep up the good work.

  3. That webmaster really sucks.

    I wish people would auto-forward old links when they break them. It’s fixed now. I am sure I have a bunch of dead links floating around here. Which means I also need to go back to the initial article and fix it.

  4. This is “teh internets”. There should be a robot that does that. Maybe when Google “goes singularity” we’ll have no more broken links that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

  5. Here is an interesting stat: Production of corn, the feedstock used to produce ethanol in the U.S., is expected to increase to 13.054 billion bushels in 2007. This is well above the 10.535 billion produced in 2006 as farmers responded to surging demand from the ethanol industry and increased corn acreage to its highest level in 60 years.

    Mercy! Our farmers can do anything. That’s a 25 percent increase in acreage. Yields are probably up 2 percent or so to.

    We can argue about EROEI, but don’t tell me farmers can’t do it.

  6. India’s Petroleum Ministry estimates that by 2009 India will have around 3.1 million hectares (7.7 million acres) of jatropha plantations, and will have identified another 40 million hectares (98.8 million acres) of wasteland to grow the plant. The ministry also aims to plant around 7.5 million jatropha saplings on vacant land along the country’s extensive railroad tracks.

    My guess is that at 40 million heactares, India will import less oil in the future, not more.

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