Xringer
10-18-2009, 11:22 AM
Is this for real? Or, is it another stock scam?
http://www.reuters.com/article/mnGreenInvesting/idUS64277652420090923
http://joulebio.com/
Seems too good to be true.. What do you guys think?
http://joulebio.com/sites/all/themes/joule/images/joule-final.jpg
brick
10-18-2009, 12:14 PM
I can't tell you if it's for real, but I did some quick math and found the numbers to be remotely plausible. Basically you idealize the bejeezus out of the problem and calculate the energy that the sun might provide to an acre of land. (I get something in the range of 6x10^13 J annually, which again involves a lot of assumptions. The real value for most of the US is probably lower but on the same order of magnitude.) Then you figure out the energy content of 20,000gal of ethanol plus 13,000gal of biodiesel. My number is about 3.5x10^12 J. That's roughly 1/20 of our idealized net solar insolation, which means that it is mathematically plausible that one **could** invent a process that would produce the stated amount of biofuel annually. Whether or not they **have** is another matter. It took me all of five minutes to look up some numbers and unit conversions to make that calculation and just about anyone could do the same before writing up a press release.
