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RE: Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for February 3, 2020
Thank you very much for including my post among your curation of excellent articles. I am honored by your selection and fascinated by the material you have advertised.
You're welcome. And thank you for your post. I enjoyed reading it and appreciated the balanced treatment that you gave the topic, pointing out both positive aspects and challenges that are associated with the form of energy.
It's a little different, but I have been a fan of biomass energy production ever since a 2003 article in Discover Magazine, Anything into oil, though it seems that technology eventually did not work out. As I recall, they ran into issues with the community due to an unpleasant smell that was emitted from their plant.
I agree with you that razing forests for biomass energy is not a great idea, and I also don't think it's a good idea to use crops that could otherwise be used to feed people, but I think it seems very promising with various forms of waste as a feedstock.
@remlaps-lite
You are indeed correct regarding the use of biomass power and crops. It isn't a good idea. My take on that notion is that IF a region has just one person starving, then they should focus on feeding their people.
Using crops is a bad prospect as the almighty currencies will have a say in how the crops get disseminated. People in ivory tours can't, or won't, see the problems at ground-level.
Biomass is a robust technology when applied correctly. If possible, I prefer testing the technology at smaller scales before building commercially. It helps to solve lots of problems and would save in the long run. Nothing says failure like a vast fortune spent creating something that fails when you try to start it up.
I am also a fan of waste recycling and biomass power generation. If we can recycle waste in space, then we can certainly make an aggressive goal to put our wastes to good use.
@scholaris