Earthrace: Challenging the World Record with Renewable Bio-Fuel Powerboat

  • Thread starter Ivan Seeking
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In summary, Earthrace is a biofuel powered boat project set to tackle a world navigation and challenge the existing record held by the British boat Cable & Wireless Adventurer. The boat is to be fuelled with 100% biodiesel, a fuel made from renewable sources such as canola and rape and will attempt to set the world record for circumnavigating the globe, to prove to the world that renewable fuels are synonymous with power and performance. Seattle is one of the Earthrace's stops on a five-month promotional tour that includes the West and East coasts. At the various stops, he and the four crew members stay with volunteers who have heard about the boat. For $5, today and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 6 p
  • #36
Ivan Seeking said:
Biofuels are carbon neutral; or nearly so anyway.
I was wondering about this comment (sorry, just seeing this thread for the 1st time now). Is it nearly neutral because, if you didn't burn the biomass as fuel then it would still decay and release nearly the same amount of CO2?
 
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  • #37
Redbelly98 said:
I was wondering about this comment (sorry, just seeing this thread for the 1st time now). Is it nearly neutral because, if you didn't burn the biomass as fuel then it would still decay and release nearly the same amount of CO2?

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is consumed by the plant used [rape seed, soybean, cotton, palm... or best of all, algae], order to grow, and then released again when the oil from the plant is burned as a fuel. So there is no net contribution. We only get as much out as went in.

With petroleum products, we are releasing carbon that was sequestered millions of years ago - technically carbon neutral, but not so for our purposes because that carbon was safely locked away.

Oh, if you meant why NEARLY so and not completely, IIRC, there is a slight amount that is released from the soil as a function of farming practices. We also have to consider how the fuel was processed. Electrical energy was probably used to power the processing of the fuel, and petrodiesel may have been used at various times to run farming equipment.
 
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  • #38
I was wondering about both, but mostly why it is neutral rather than why not exactly neutral. Thank you.
 

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