Comments about ‘Mormon church partners with local agencies on biofuel project’

Yeah!

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I'm all for alternative fuel sources but it appears this project could easily be worked out with a sharp pencil.........The E 85 for example only works with subsidies.........Fuzzy feel goods should not be the goal....If we start converting our highway traffic over to natural gas it will go a long way towards our energy independence.......

is sharp but it doesn't add up. Once we shift to CNG the price of CNG will sky rocket the same way diesel did when it was 35cent a gallon. Now it costs more than traditional fuel. In addition we can then look forward for it costing more to heat our homes, cook and dry our clothes. Histroy repeats itself.
Hey if they want to make the bog look a little better and at the same time make a little bio-diesel GREAT!
Also, CNG does not work well in cold climates. Just ask the airport authority who fuel their buses with it. Maintainance is much higher with CNG.

All or nothing thinking is a receipe for disaster.
Like putting all your eggs in one basket.

Alternarative Energy means just that - developing ALTERNATIVES.

As many as possible.
The sooner the better.

Alternatives...... Yes!......Also practicality a must, O.K. let me throw this one at you, did you realize that the technology exists right now to convert coal into diesel or gasoline.......We have an abundance of coal also.......I'm sure you can guess what the hold up is on that one.....Yup you guessed it CO2.........All eggs in one basket excludes the obvious........All the greens want to head for something magical, it doesn't exist....Yet, Maybe we should concentrate on living until the fuel cell comes along and saves us..... all........

Here's another waste of time and money! This stuff doesn't work! Before it even gets started they'll be wanting grant money and anything else they can get their hands on trying to get it to work. Then they'll tear it down or walk away from it. Just watch. This not the answer!

I am from Florida first off. Are they really that bored in Utah. Don't they have better thing's to do such helping out the homeless, the elderly, the unemployed, the sick, the poor, the disabled, all Veteran's, then Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City Public Utilities, the South Davis Sewer District, Utah State University and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all are lending a hand for a pilot project to showcase the use of this publicly owned land to grow the feedstock for biodiesel fuel. Seeing Utah County will host its third annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day, why don't clean the garbage out of your own house, such as Republican's, soda-pop, diaper's, fast food and junk food wrapers etc, evergy drinks, beer, wine and booze, coffee and tea, antifreeze, glues, adhesives, pesticides that you sniff for a buzz, your home grown pot plants, the doog poop in your garage, your bicycles, and skate boards?. Just to name a few thing's. Your mind's are a receipe for disaster. If your looking for attention look in a mirror. I'm NOT for for alternative fuel sources.

The whole point of biodiesle is that it can be used in any viehcle with a diesle engine. It is not like e-85 where you need a new distribution system, special engines and such.
Another benefit to biodiesle is show by this case. saffron is not a food product, unlike corn, and here they are using marginal land and dry farming, so it is land that has limited uses, little water, and such.
I would say bio-diesle is one of the most likely to succeed renewalble sources of energy. Whether it can be produced on a large enough scale to fuel even most trucks I do not know, but it has a large potential.
For one thing it may help people to realize that people are resources. The indivudal works on coconut groves in places like Tonga can do a lot ofwork extracting coconut oil. This would be great especially since that country has been suffering since the coconut market crashed became glutted in the 1970s.

50 gallons per acre isn't much when you calculate the cost to make it. Perhaps biodiesel from algae will be better? Look at the fuel cost to plant and harvest, not to mention other costs. If it looks cool now that might be something, we could use more tourism dollars :)

Lambert, it is safflower, not saffron. Saffron is a flavoring for food. Speaking of food, wouldn't it be a whole lot more productive to plant food products to feed the masses than waste it on CO2 gasses? There is a need for more food crops more than fuel to waste on driving your fuel guzzling SUV's to the store to get a 6 pack.

How many gallons of diesel are consumed to grow this crop and convert it to fuel. I am guessing 60 gallons per acre.

Oh my gosh, where’s a conservative when you need him. This sure sounds like Socialism to me, with Religion on top.

Actually it sounds like a scam to rob the taxpayer.

Why not let private enterprise do this. I would think that the governments involved would RENT the equipment to the business until the business could buy their own.

We need to let business succeed or fail on their own, don’t make taxpayers pay for business folly.

And how do members of the LDS church feel about their contributions being use to gambol on a business venture?

The LDS (and USU) for many decades have been helping out with farming and water sources in countries where there is little benefit for a very long time because it takes so long for the users to change to better ways. But eventually the benefit comes. And often the side benefits are larger than the original project.

Why do you bother to publish anything positive the LDS do?
And why enable the Anonymous to spew their usual bashing of anything Utahn or LDS?
You know the trolls live to bash, and usually claim (unproven) expertise.
They will find fault, real or imagined, with Anything that even MIGHT be good.

By the time that large truck goes over that ground 3 times and then the crop is planted, fertilized, sprayed for weeds, then harvested the vehicles will have used more fuel than it will grow.

Keep looking.

Natural gas is cleaner than coal or diesel. If the US does not drill another gas well we have enough reserves to last 44 years. However more fields and reserves are being found continually, in the last 2 years those reserves have increased by 10 years. The price is more or less set, plus US has contracts setup with overseas suppliers for CNG for the next 5 years with zero price increases.

Seems to me a natural fit.

There is only cost for seeds, some driving & fuel for this little experiment. On a larger scale it will cost more if they get serious about it. The big cost is because you have to pay the profit of everyone to do this. You really can simply press & filter the oil to run in the engines if you do it right.

Maybe Chuck could go back to Florida and spout of his endless supply of nothingness.

Read the article carefully and you will discover:

1) Fertilization is already done with "biosolids" from wastewater treatment, using a vehicle capable of slinging the material efficiently.

2) There won't be any spraying for weeds, or even any irrigation. Safflower is being used because of it's drought tolerance, so the plan is to plant it and forget it until harvest time.

3) This isn't a business venture. Various public and private entities are partnering on this.

As a side note, safflower produces about 4.5 more oil per acre than corn does, and without the need for expensive fertilizers and irrigation. Like all other biofuel production, it is carbon-neutral. The plants remove carbon from the atmosphere to grow.

Obviously, this is just a pilot project. Let's hold back on criticism until we see what comes of it.

re: Lamp Lighter | 2:34 p.m. March 15, 2010

For the record, I habe no problem w/ cellulosic ethanol or any other biofuel.

I wonder why stop @ Natural Gas?

Hydrogen IMO is the way to go and NG is probably the best transition to Hydrogen. I know there are some negative nancies out there who will whine about the infastructre not being in place.

Its foolish to expect an immeadiate transition. Remember Rome wasn't built in day.

So, by the time, the infastructre is in place we will have the technology to get hydrogen economically & efficiently from NG & Algae.

LDS Church is being progressive and I love their initiative in developing biofuels from biosolids.

Thank you, I agree, why can't we allow them to work on possible alternatives, first you have to experiment before you come up with a finished product. Maybe it's not perfect, but it is worth a try!