収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

The thermal conversion stuff is the same as the chicken guts to fuel oil process, as it works on any hydrocarbon feed stock. it creates more fuel per acre than the new and improved ethanol process and bootstraps its energy needs with only a small percent of the stream. The newer ethanol process is more energy efficent too than the older processes that often had a no net gain in energy.

On E85 distribution, the issue was that of simple egg or chicken, was there the "critical mass" of vehicles that would make E85 outlets practical or would there need to be pre-existing outlets to attract E85 vehicle ownership and operation.

Oil shales can be run through the same thermal conversion technology, with the benefit of full extraction of the hydrocarbon from the matrix (though needs more handling, it would have to be dug up) and removal of unwanted elements (especially sulfur). The one major down side would be the need to strip mine the stuff.