Then what will we do?
Been doing some study on biofuels lately, and stumbled across an old speculation, which has not been much in the spotlight recently.
It's Alfalfa, and the angle on how growing Nitrogen binding plants saves energy because of just that, as well as producing a lot of biomass.
Here is a bit:
"In UK, the best options for annual energy plantation crops would probably involve the use of grasses, lucerne, clover, or forage cereals. With total cultivation and harvesting costs at $700/ha/yr and fresh weight yield of 70 MT/ha/yr, the DM yield would be 15.75 MT/ha/yr and the output of gross energy 275 GJ/ha/yr. ($2.55 per GJ gross energy before transportation and storage and a minimum biogas cost of $8.75/GJ.) (Palz and Chartier, 1980). Shortly after the US energy crisis of 1973, Jim and Peggy Duke (1975) offered one simplistic scenario: What if, instead of making auto fuel from the fossilized remains of plants (oil and coal), we made it from fresh plant tissue? High-quality, low-pollution fuel is as available from fresh plants as gasoline is from oil. We contend that by growing plants with conversion to fuel in mind, America could become self-sufficient in energy, utilize some of its organic wastes to build soils, and achieve many other benefits. Assume we have 62.5 million acres of unused and marginal land available for energy farming. Now let us develop a concept we inherited from the American Indians—the intercropping of a legume like alfalfa with a cereal like corn, adding some organic matter like sewage sludge. Alfalfa, like most legumes, takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and puts it in the soil—nearly 200 pounds per acre. It would take nearly a barrel of oil to manufacture that much inorganic nitrogen fertilizer. Alfalfa grows well in the cool months, producing enough vegetation to yield the energy equivalent of 2 to 7 barrels of oil per acre. Basing estimates on average alfalfa hay yields, participants at the Fourth Annual Alfalfa Symposium concluded that we could get nearly a ton of leaf protein per acre from alfalfa. This would mean 55 million tons of protein from 62.5 million acres—about 10 times what Americans need in their diet. Residues remaining after protein extraction would yield the equivalent of 250 million barrels of oil in residues. This alone could cut gasoline imports significantly. If we fertilized with sewage sludge, our 62.5 million acres of alfalfa could probably meet President Ford's target import reduction of one million barrels a day, but also provide protein for the US with plenty for export. Duke (1981a) reports DM yields of 0–37 MT/ha/yr (24 in Bolivia, 11 in Czechoslovakia, 10–11 in Cyprus, 11 in Egypt, 7 in France, 6–9 in Germany, 8–11 in Hungary, 3–21 in Italy, 0–24 in New Zealand, 10–13 in Romania, 29 in Turkistan, 7–37 in USA, 2–21 in USSR, and 8–12 in Yugoslavia."
Interesting.
Anyone well informed on Alfalfa? I am planning to grow some this spring (Thereby being the first in the country), so all info is well received.
