How will Saudi Arabia look at alternatives to petrol?

[Dinner]

Say, can muslims use cleaning agents that contain alcohol? Or alcohol-sterilized surgery equipment?

My understanding is the Koran actually only tells Muslims not to drink alcohol not that it can't be used at all. Extremist purists are the ones who demand nothing with alcohol in it ever be used.

[Zkribbler]

While it is self-serving on his part, Chavez is correct. As soon as the U.S. began subsidizing corn to ethanol, world food prices shot up. There were food riots in Haiti as a direct consequence of this policy.

Not only that. Mexican farmers started tearing out their cactus fields and planting corn. As a result, the price of tequila shot up.

We need switchgrass:

Switchgrass is often considered a good candidate for biofuel — especially ethanol fuel — production due to its hardiness in poor soil and climate conditions, rapid growth and low fertilization and herbicide requirements. Switchgrass is also perennial, unlike corn, and has a large biomass output (the raw plant material used to make biofuel) of 6-10 tons per acre.[15][2] U.S. President George W. Bush proposed the usage of switchgrass in his 2006 State of the Union address [16] [17][18]; since then, over $100 million has been invested into researching switchgrass as a potential biofuel source[19].

Switchgrass has the potential for enough biomass to produce up to 100 gallons (380 liters) of ethanol per metric ton harvested.[20] This gives switchgrass the potential to produce 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre, compared to 665 gallons per acre of sugarcane and 400 gallons per acre of corn.[21]

[Japher]

What about subsidies?

Cellulosic Ethanol technology will use almost anything made of wood to turn into ethanol. Hugo Chavez is an idiot. I would, however, like to see more control on what crops are grown and where. Since it does matter for energy efficiency that the crops be grown near the plant and not transported over long distances. Additionally, corn-to-ethanol waste is a livestock feed (DDGS), drying it takes a lot of energy; so it would be nice to have livestock around that could consume the waste. It's really more of an infrastructure issue than a increase costs of food issue.

Corn strains are being genetically modified to increase starch content, more efficient enzymes are being created to increase the conversion, not to mention alternative sources like begass, beats, wheat, and grains I've never heard of.

If we would all switch over to diesel we'd be much better of, IMO. Biodeisel is much more efficient. That, or if someone can find a cheap non-patentable way to make butanol.

[MOBIUS]

The Saudis will easily be able to set up a bunch of CSP stations to become 100% self-sufficient in electricity. At the same time they can change all their vehicles for EVs.

Sorted.