Energy Economics have been looking at Resource Pricing and peak-energy Output per Input yields only until today. So over the last 50 years Carbon consumption has 11-folded unnoticed to grand public and surpassed our planet’s self-replenishment capabilities. Nature can reproduce Carbohydrates containing Carbon [C], Hydrogen [H], and Oxygen [O], mostly in a ratio of CnH2nOn to store bio- energy and genetic information controlling the flow of chemical energy through its limited metabolism. End of lifecycle, if isolated from fresh Oxygen Carbohydrates lose their Oxygen atoms partly to Carbon, forming CO2 and to Hydrogen Molecules to water so that the remaining CxHy compounds become pure Hydrocarbons.
To understand Carbon Efficiency we need to look at that y : x (Hydrogen : Carbon) ratio of carbonaceous energy carriers mindlessly burned today, disposing its Carbon backbone as if it were a one-way package:
Actually from a Carbon Efficiency point of view we should not burn any H2 : C < 1 : 1 but refine it to a higher Hydrogen potency (without using Carbon in the Hydrogen production). And, YES, burning biomass does not contribute to sustainability, having the worse Carbon Efficiency! It should be refined into Substitute Natural Gas or other fossil commodity substitutes instead!
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