TigerHawk

TigerHawk (ti*ger*hawk): n. 1. The title of this blog and the nom de plume of its founding blogger; 2. A deep bow to the Princeton Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes; 3. The nickname for Iowa's Hawkeye logo. Posts include thoughts of the day on international affairs, politics, things that strike us as hilarious and personal observations. The opinions we express are our own, and not those of each other, our employers, our relatives, our dead ancestors, or unrelated people of similar ethnicity.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Peak Oil? Pish Posh!

By Charlottesvillain at 12/06/2006 12:49:00 PM

As Tigerhawk has argued several times, high oil prices make alternative fuels economical and create incentives for innovation. But even the most optimistic among us did not count on such genius as this:

Lauri Venøy wants to use the product created from liposuction to develop bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel can be produced from plant oils and/or animal fat, and the Norwegian sees the scheme as a renewable energy source, newspaper Dagens Nærinsgliv reports.

More than sixty percent of Americans are overweight and the Norwegian's firm in Miami, Florida is in the process of signing an agreement with US hospital giant Jackson Memorial. This deal would give Venøy & Co. around 11,500 liters of human fat a week from liposuction operations, which is enough to produce about 10,000 liters of bio-diesel.

I have to wonder if Lou Dobbs, or anyone else, would complain about the outsourcing of labor in this particular processing plant.

(hat tip: Lucianne)

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12 Comments:

By Fabio, at Wed Dec 06, 04:01:00 PM:

Very pulp... echoes of Fight Club...

But the scale of this project is utterly insignificant. 10 000 liters/week of gas oil are a drop in the Great Lakes.

By Assistant Village Idiot, at Wed Dec 06, 07:22:00 PM:

But it's renewable! I'm renewing every year, myself.

It gives a new meaning to the term "fat farm."

By Anonymous, at Wed Dec 06, 08:34:00 PM:

And here I was intending to donate my body to the state Anatomy Board.

Perhaps my estate could sell it to the highest bidder in the energy sector.

By Anonymous, at Wed Dec 06, 08:47:00 PM:

And yet you aren't allowed to sell a Kidney to someone who would otherwise die?

By Anonymous, at Wed Dec 06, 08:58:00 PM:

Perhaps this presents a potential business opportunity for the TigerLoad program

By Purple Avenger, at Wed Dec 06, 09:17:00 PM:

The money being spent on this boondoggle would be better spent buying some Compact Fluorescent light bulbs.

By Gordon Smith, at Thu Dec 07, 08:27:00 AM:

Why didn't I think of that?!?

It's too perfect. Fat Americans shedding pounds and saving energy.

By Fabio, at Thu Dec 07, 09:41:00 AM:

It ain't gonna make any real difference.

By Anonymous, at Thu Dec 07, 10:58:00 AM:

The renewability of human fat as a source of biofuel relies on an ongoing surplus in the food supply. Since the world food supply currently is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and petrochemicals...well, let's just say that at least fewer calories and more walking will do wonders to ameliorate the nation's obesity problem.

By Charlottesvillain, at Thu Dec 07, 11:56:00 AM:

For the humor impaired, I guess I must clarify that I don't really believe this is the solution to oil dependence. I mean, come on!

By Captain Nerd, at Thu Dec 07, 03:02:00 PM:

It's a real green solution. A Soylent Green solution, even...

By Anonymous, at Fri Dec 08, 10:20:00 AM:

How about refinng HORSEREDISH thats stuff is potent and would make a powerful fuel