Microsoft was just buing the Borland people in order to stop them working for Borland. Microsoft did not need those people and they could afford to let their hires not to do any competing work until their non-compete clauses expired.
The nominal canola oil harvest is 2045 kg/hectare. That is in Finland, about the same latitude as Anchorage. With 45% oil content (and density of 860 grams per liter), that makes 1070 liters of oil per hectare per year, or 114 gallons per acre, if you prefer.
The US motor gas consumption was 1570 liters per year per capita (in 1997). Producing 1570 liters of biodiesel requires 1.47 hectares, or 3.62 acres per person. There are some 3.20 hectares (7.90 acres) of land per capita in US. (Actually, there is only 0.65 hectares cropland per capita in US.)
In UK, the motor gas consumption was 500.9 liters per year per capita. Now, that requires 0.468 hectares, but there are only 0.415 available, Ben Nevis included. 0.100 hectares are currently croplands per capita in UK.
What about the input required? The nominal usage of fertilizer is 120 kg/hectare. That is the most energy intensive input I think, 10 kilograms of fertilizer requires roughly 1 kilogram of natural gas to produce.
The price of fertilizer is 0.99 euro/kg. The cost of pesticides etc. is in range of 40..100 euro/hectare. That is 57 - 88 eurocents per gallon, plus labor and land and cost of machinery, plus that famous 41 US cents for refining the oil.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft was just buing the Borland people in order to stop them working for Borland. Microsoft did not need those people and they could afford to let their hires not to do any competing work until their non-compete clauses expired.
The nominal canola oil harvest is 2045 kg/hectare. That is in Finland, about the same latitude as Anchorage. With 45% oil content (and density of 860 grams per liter), that makes 1070 liters of oil per hectare per year, or 114 gallons per acre, if you prefer. The US motor gas consumption was 1570 liters per year per capita (in 1997). Producing 1570 liters of biodiesel requires 1.47 hectares, or 3.62 acres per person. There are some 3.20 hectares (7.90 acres) of land per capita in US. (Actually, there is only 0.65 hectares cropland per capita in US.) In UK, the motor gas consumption was 500.9 liters per year per capita. Now, that requires 0.468 hectares, but there are only 0.415 available, Ben Nevis included. 0.100 hectares are currently croplands per capita in UK. What about the input required? The nominal usage of fertilizer is 120 kg/hectare. That is the most energy intensive input I think, 10 kilograms of fertilizer requires roughly 1 kilogram of natural gas to produce. The price of fertilizer is 0.99 euro/kg. The cost of pesticides etc. is in range of 40..100 euro/hectare. That is 57 - 88 eurocents per gallon, plus labor and land and cost of machinery, plus that famous 41 US cents for refining the oil.