China Builds Tung Tree Oil Biodiesel Plants
Industrialinfo.com [sub] reports that China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved three biodiesel plants to convert tung tree nuts into fuel. For those in love with Google Earth, the plants will open in Nanchong (Sichuan province), Guizhou province and Beijing (Hainan province). The "demonstration projects" are set to yield just 50 – 60k tons of fuel per year apiece. To put that into perspective… "As a large diesel consumer, China's annual diesel consumption is about 70 million metric tons per year. Of this, about one-third of the consumption is from import. Based on the estimate of the International Energy Agency, China is the second largest petroleum consumer in the world and has a growing reliance on imported petroleum." Tung tree oil is a beloved sealant amongst kitchen remodelers and woodworkers. But don't get to thinking the U.S. could go cuckoo for tung nuts. Florida's experiment with the plants didn't pan out; vernicia fordii is now considered an invasive species. Oh, and even the smell of tung oil is enough to give nut-aversive people a severe reaction. The stuff we learn on your behalf…
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It's beyond me how the Right Wingnuts are so are so offended by Stalin and Mao, but funny how they never mention Hitler.
Sadly, it's not a 'lefties' vs 'righties' issue - it's about the rule of law and what really constitutes "national security". The Chinese, for all of their political flaws, appear to understand that national security includes a combination of a strong military, realistic energy policy and a healthy manufacturing base for all kinds of products, all of whom operate with the national interest at heart. We seem to have gotten to a point where decisions regarding the military, energy and manufacturing are made solely on the basis of what produces the highest profits for a relative few. The apparent terminal disease at GM, Ford and Chrysler has been to maximize short term profits at the expense of strategic positioning in the marketplace. We may be just as satisfied that the finest products in the world are not being produced in the U.S., but it seems sad that we are no longer creating the best engineers and scientists in the world. Enrollment at virtually all of our hard science and engineering universities is overwhelmingly warped toward Asian and Indian students while ours plot new ways to manipulate money to short term advantage. It is an issue which involves cars, as our country will be a poorer place when we have only Asian and European makes from which to choose. Companies from both cultures have made good long term choices about their product mix and are today reaping the benefits.
Depending oil from foreign country wasnt bad enuf we need to depend our Air force tanker on foreign country, what if them Frogs didnt agree with what our guns are pointing at then we could have no air tankers at all. Here we have more Lawyers, accountants, MBAs here. But very few Engineers our design pretty soon will be very much behind too.
Due to mounting pressure, the Air Force is reconsidering the air tanker project; Airbus might be out of the picture...