6 ms·

This is true of corn but I'm not so sure on soybeans. Do you have a source on the total conversion rate for soy? According to the source below, the partial con

This is true of corn but I'm not so sure on soybeans. Do you have a source on the total conversion rate for soy? According to the source below, the partial conversion rate is about 57 gallons per acre (at 39 bushels/acre). It takes WAY less than 57 gallons of biodiesel to farm one acre of soy. Modern practices are really only going to have 3-4 passes (no till plant, early spray, maybe a later spray and harvest). After that is is mostly bulk trucking which shouldn't be much per acre. Remember that unlike corn, soy requires very little/no fertilizer due to it being able to fix its own nitrogen. It is mostly the fertilizer the kills corn. Source: https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/FSA-1050.pdf https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/FSA-1050.pdf

nate_meurer 9y ago
Googling for the EROI and NEB of soy biofuel, numbers appear to be significantly better than for corn, but still no better than low single digits. Also, soy uses a lot more water than corn, which imposes another host of considerations, including higher transportation cost due to regional growing restrictions. Cane ethanol seems to do better than soy fuel. I'm also aware that new biofuel "generations" have the potentional for much higher returns, but these things are either still emerging technologies (e.g., cellulosic and algae) or horrifically damaging to the environment (e.g., palm oil biofuel).