Money does grow on trees
Image from Flickr by heritagefutures
Farmers in North Queensland, Australia have recently bought 20,000 diesel-producing trees in an experiment to see if they can self-sustain their agricultural production.
Australian farmers are attempting to essentially become self-sustainable by relying on special diesel-producing trees called Copaifera langsdorfii.
However..
Michael d’Estries , a regular contributer to Groovy Green says: “As with anything almost too good to be true, there is one catch.
“100 trees will only produce about 25 barrels of diesel fuel annually. Additionally, that fuel will only last a couple months in terms of keep.”
That said, Australian farmers are hoping the trees will provide a consistent and cheap source of fuel for their machinery.
According to d’Estries, the trees are expected to continue producing fuel for about 10 years.
Eco-friendly
Steve N Lee commented on Warren McLaren‘s article, ‘The Diesel Tree: Grow Your Own Oil,’ on Treehugger sounding surprised but pleased by the news: “I still find this hard to believe. Not just for the fuel production, but for the fact that we don’t need to harvest the plant, i.e. kill it, to get what we want from it, but simply to encourage it’s long term growth.
“The tapping of the fuel will also be vastly more eco-friendly than traditional oil drilling.”
In about 15 years time, we should be able to see just how well the investment has paid off for Australian farmers.
Sources: Groovy Green and Treehugger
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