Re: salvation from tar pits?

I had asked:

>>> Does 400 NNP of biomass translate
>>> to 0.22 NNP in the conversion of biomass to fossil fuels (in
>>> place of direct use)?

Glenn replied:

> As I interpret this article, it will take .22 NNP to build the
> infrastructure for a new energy source. I might be wrong but that is
> the way I interpret it.

It seems my first inclination was pretty much on target. Here's a quotation
from the conclusion of the original article:

> Ancient organic matter generated fossil fuels through inefficient processes.
> Calculations in this paper suggest that the formation of coal from plants is
> less than 10% efficient, and the formation of oil and gas from phytoplankton
> is less than 0.01% efficient.

Note that 0.22 / 400 = 0.055%

Howard
Received on Mon Jun 28 20:26:57 2004