• @AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.mlM
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    2 years ago

    An even cooler thing that China (and other countries) are actively exploring is not making biodiesel using plant oils, but making essentially actual diesel and gasoline by gasification of biomass and/or trash (plastic). That way, instead of using the soybeans that could have been fed to humans (most biodiesel is from virgin plant oils, waste cooking oil and fat are only a small portion of global biodiesel production). You can feed the oily and edible parts of your crops to humans, and use the stalks, shells, and other waste parts of the plants to make fuel. If you use ultra fast growing plants like hemp or bamboo, you can make a lot of carbon neutral biofuel very quickly.