Thread by @AukeHoekstra

Did you know that the oil we consume in the EU contains 20 times more energy than what we eat?

In the US it's even 40 times more.

A short thread to follow along for those thinking biofuels are the answer to our oil addiction. They are not.

An average healthy person eats about 8.7 MJ (million Joule) per day. betterhealth.vic.gov.au/tools/energy-n…

That's the energy in our food. We'll come back to later.

Our oil use is 20 million barrels of oil per day in the US and 15 million per day in the EU.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c…

A barrel of oil is 159 liters.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_(u…

So the US uses 3.12 billion liters of oil per day and the EU 2.39 billion liters per day.

There are 330 million people in the US and 513 million people in the EU.
census.gov/popclock/
europa.eu/european-union…

If we divide liters by people we get 10 liters per person per day in the US and 5 liters per person per day in the EU.

Every liter of crude oil contains 37 MJ (million Joule).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_de…

So if we multiply liters by 37 MJ we get 370 MJ per person per day in the US and 185 MJ per person in the EU.

Dividing our energy use from oil by our energy used from food (8.7 MJ) we get about 40 times more in the US and 20 times more in the US. And that's just from oil!

Can you imagine getting 20 to 40 times more energy from agriculture? Would any forest or natural habitat survive?

Now don't get me wrong: biofuel from waste is great, some double cropping schemes are ingenious and residue that can't be used to enrich the soil, feed animals or as feedstock in industry (e.g. bioplastics) is helpful. Especially for hard to solve challenges like flying.

But the idea that we can replace a meaningful part of our oil use by biofuels is a dangerous fantasy. Our agriculture puts enough pressure on the planet as it is.

That's of course 40 times more in the US en 20 times more in the EU. So the second time I mention US it should have been EU. ht @alevin