[Gasification] [Terrapreta] [Mechabolic] new studies on GHG footprint of biofuels darkens the picture

[MMBTUPR at aol.com]

          from    Lewis

Please break up your e-mails into short paragraphs which treat a single 
subject. At my age, I have difficulty in following the thread of your thought.

Your comments about heavy machinery brings to mind the following   >>>

[1]     A seldom discussed problem with mechanized agriculture is the 
compacting of soil, due to the repeated passage of heavy machinery over the fields. 
Consider for example, a Klass harvester   big enough to harvest whole a double 
row of "energy cane" in which each row averages 67 oven-dry tons of millable 
cane !   

[ Such machines have been on the market for many years. ]

One obvious remedy is to pass a subsoiler over the field before replanting. 
Needless to say, this is a capital- and energy-intensive operation.

However, an ex-coworker of mine came up with an invention designed to 
minimize compacting. If you give me a safe postal address, I will try to find his 
paper on this and send you a copy.

[2]     I understand that many parts of Brazil are mechanizing rapidly. This 
will reduce environmental damage from burning cane before the harvest and also 
provides a new market for biodiesel. However, it also creates a huge 
socio-economic problem and a huge education-and-training problem, because of the need 
to absorb cane cutters into the rest of the economy.

Cordially.    ###


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