[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

Biodiesel is the biggest crock out there, in terms of alternative fuels. It merely is a well disguised government subsidy for farmers. It provides another market for their product, thus increasing the price.

As this link shows http://www.dieselnet.com/news/2007/07ca.php the government is giving approximately 170 million dollars a year across the country in biodiesel subsidies, for an industry that produces 400 million litres a year of biodiesel. The yearly production right now is about 0.66% of the domestic fuel needs of the country of Canada. The national goal in 9 years is to get to 3.65% of 2006 levels, if one assumes that Canada has an increase in consumption between 2007 and 2016 that number likely lowers to around 2.5% at best.

This refinery is producing 1,140,000 litres a year?? Alberta Oil demand is about 220,000 barrels of oil a day. A barrel of oil can produce 75 litres of gasoline a day http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question417.htm

Which basically means that you can divide 1,140,000 by 75 and then by 365 to get the daily barrels of oil produced by this biodiesel plant. This amounts to 41.64 barrels of oil a day or approximatly 0.019% of daily fuel needs in the province of Alberta.

Both on a national scale and a provincial scale, biodiesel is far from the solution to the oil problem.

Okay, that's a nice rant, but your math and a few of your assumptions are way off.

Firstly 114 million !=1,140000
Think about it, do you actually think anyone is dumb enought to build a plant that will produce 3000l of diesel per day?

114million = 310 000 l/d of diesel (a volume that is actualy worth producing)

Secondly, converting it to oil based on how much gasoline comes from a barrel of oil is a little problematic considering Gasoline and Diesel are not the same thing.

Do I believe that using food sources as an energy source is a good idea?
Of course not, but I also believe that before someone goes off about how stupid of a solution it is they should at least make sure their numbers and facts are straight.