Ethanol , other biomass products will reward a pioneering attitude

[Bdog]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/541/4797330.html
For many years I labored under the impression -- correct, in part -- that the economics of the ethanol industry simply didn't work. I was compelled by the reasoning that it takes as much energy to make ethanol as it ends up producing. So what if it's renewable? With a background in business development and investment banking, I should have had a greater appreciation for the infancy of the industry and the time required to build a rational business model around it.

It's clear now that the ethanol industry is coming into its own. New technologies that add valuable products to the ethanol production process need not be dependant on subsidies. And because of that, the ethanol industry - offering more than just fuel - is beginning to make a lot more sense economically.

With gasoline prices above $2 a gallon, this is none too soon. New dynamics are influencing the industry with better engine technology and ethanol production facilities, and co-products that add considerable value to the ethanol production process have made the industry viable and deserving. It is time to stop complaining and start acknowledging the facts.

Back in the early 1970s, Brazil embraced ethanol to the point that 94 percent of the nation's automobiles were running on it. Brazil was and still is ahead of the curve. The unfortunate problem in the '70s was that automobile technology was not in sync with ethanol, and eventually that country went back almost entirely to gasoline. In the past decade, with engine technology having addressed early combustion problems, more than 40 percent of the cars in Brazil are running on ethanol; moreover, Brazil is exporting ethanol to 17 other countries.

About 80 production facilities in the United States produce nearly 3 billion gallons of ethanol annually. The early plants were built to produce 5 million to 20 million gallons a year. Plants built today can produce more than 100 million gallons each a year. We once estimated that the United States would reach 5 billion gallons by 2012; it's conceivable we'll reach that goal within three years, given the fact that an additional 25 to 30 plants are being built or being planned. A recent study published by the Renewable Fuels Association found that increasing ethanol production to 5 billion gallons annually will create 214,000 jobs, $5.3 billion in new investment in renewable-fuel production facilities, and increases in household income of $51.7 billion. And it will replace 200 million barrels of imported oil.

But the news here is that ethanol is only one of many renewable products available from biomass, such as corn, soybeans, wheat and barley. These products are slowly invading our food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and multiple other industries. Renewable resources are a key component of America's future and ability to compete.

[DEMVET-USMC]

1. Hi Bdog, Some of the Co.s using windhexe tech. are producing ethanol

and other fuels from scrap organic mass so to speak. This website mentions it as one of the products they are currently producing with this technology.I`ll give you the website: < http://vortexdehydration.com/id28.htm >. you have to scroll down a good bit to"2002 YEAR OF TRANSITION ...",and it is only mentioned as one of the products they are producing along with" fuels ". They aren`t discussing it in any detail, but I think you will be hearing more about it as in the near future. I`d say a year or two. ...Oscar

[midnight armadillo]

2. Switchgrass

The gain in energy from corn to ethanol is 24% in the best case, according to Iowa State researchers. Generating ethanol from prairie switchgrass gives an energy yield of 343%.

We just need cellulose->ethanol processes to be a little cheaper for it to be worthwhile.

[Dissenting_Prole]

3. There are still two problems

1. There isn't nearly enough land to grow the crops necessary to replace oil on the scale we're using it now. Would you rather drive or eat?

2. The fossil fuels that are used to make fertilizer and pesticides are going to be more scarce, thus an acre of land will yield less feedstock, making the whole process less efficient.

http://endofsuburbia.com

[Massacure]

4. Well

1) Thats where conservation comes in.
2) Is it really going to be so inefficient that switch grass looses its 300% efficiency rateing?

[Bdog]

6. Grain, cattle & water goes into the factory

...meat, ethanol, and organic fertilizer come out

http://www.montanagreenpower.com/harvestingcleanenergy/lusk.html
Phil Lusk of PRIME Technologies believes he’s found an environmentally friendly way to produce ethanol, feed cattle and keep South Dakota ranchers in business at the same time.

Working with the newly formed Dakota Value Capture Cooperative, Lusk says PRIME Technologies will build a "closed loop" facility in Sully County, South Dakota, consisting of an ethanol plant capable of producing 20 million gallons of ethanol annually and a climate-controlled feedlot capable of finishing 65,000 head of cattle a year.

Lusk explained the project at the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference October 9-11 in Great Falls.

The plant and feedlot will be connected by a state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion system that will capture odor and manure at the feedlot and convert it into methane, which will be burned at the ethanol plant. In addition, wet distillers grain, a byproduct of ethanol production, will be fed to cattle in the feedlot, thereby eliminating drying and transportation costs. This strategy will enable South Dakota producers and others to feed South Dakota corn and milo to beef cattle and "capture" value that has previously been exported to other states.

The Sully County facility will owned by the DVCC and will be built and managed on behalf of the coop by PRIME Technologies, LLC, which is also located in Pierre. This is the first facility of the kind a recent study conducted by the University of South Dakota said could create more than $500 million in new wealth annually in the state as well as 10,000 new jobs in rural communities. The study, commissioned by the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, said that this economic growth could be achieved by building large feedlots and dairies next to ethanol plants.

The coop board is made up of farmers and ranchers from across the state who want to capture profits lost to out-of-state feeders and processors. Contact Phil Lusk for more information.

[NNadir]

7. Does anyone know how many kilos of oil it takes to grow a kilo of beef?

Agricultural "pioneers" have, and always have had a rather deletorious effect on the environment. No let's not use the word "deletorious," let's use the word "catastrophic."

If there is anything at all that will lead more quickly to desertification, it is the absurd practice of raising agricultural animals as practiced in the United States.

Feed lots (as opposed to grazing grasslands) is one of the most environmentally unsustainable practices in American history. (They are also among the most cruel.) It might be fun and it also may seem politically palatable to noncritical thinkers, but driving trucks around to deliver mechanically harvested and chemically fertilized animal feed processed through immobilized animals to make (truckable) ethanol is hardly likely to have a positive mass/energy balance. This one is even more absurd than usual: It's climate controlled.

I would guess that if the entire United States population were to switch to vegetarianism, the price of oil would fall by half over night.

[Bdog]

12. ethanol has a net energy gain and cattle are herbivores not oilvores

http://www.abc.net.au/northqld/news/200406/s1124311.htm
"If you've got a company like General Motors and another one like Volkswagen producing cars that use ethanol, then clearly it's not a problem," he said.

"That's what we've got to highlight to people. We've got to put the lies and the nonsense aside and then we can develop our own ethanol industry and get rid of some of those people with a self interest who don't want to see ethanol produced into the market."

[NickB79]

19. Cattle USED to be herbivores

Today, though, is a very different matter. The use of feedlots to fatten up cattle before slaughter demands cheap, plentiful grain supplies for the foodlots to be viable. In order to provide this, large amounts of oil must be used to produce the diesel fuel, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers needed to grow the crops at a high enough yield. You could grow the crops without all of the above oil imputs (except the diesel fuel, unless you go back to horses), but your yield drops significantly and prices for grain soar, putting feedlots out of business. So yes, indirectly cattle have become "oilvores" as you put it. If it weren't for cheap oil and the resultant plentiful grain crops, cattle populations would be half what they are today, if that.

[Bdog]

20. I believe this is what you are describing...

Koyaanisqatsi
ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.

http://mcnet.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecosystem.html
A final problem associated with agroecosystems is the problem of inorganic nutrient recycling. In a natural ecosystem, when a plant dies it fall to the ground and rots, and its inorganic nutrients are returned to the soil from which they were taken. In human agriculture, however, we harvest the crop, truck it away, and flush it down the toilet to be run off in the rivers to the ocean. Aside from the water pollution problems this causes, it should be obvious to you that the nutrients are not returned to the fields. They have to be replaced with chemical fertilizers, and that means mining, transportation, electricity, etc. Also, the chemical fertilizers tend to run off the fields (along with soil disrupted by cultivation) and further pollute the water.

and this is one of the consequences of the current agroecosystem

http://www.smm.org/deadzone/causes/top.html
The The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone is a large region of water that is very low in oxygen, and therefore can't support life.
Dead Zones like this occur along many of the world's coastlines.

Nitrogen and phosphorus-nutrients that encourage plants to grow-wash into rivers and streams from sources such as farm fields, feed lots...



Bio-mass reduces the use of man made fertilizers and runoff. It closes the nutrient cycle and carbon cycle. It actually reduces our dependence on oil, natural gas, and coal.

It would also eliminate the dead zones and restore fisheries...

Bats as Natural Crop Dusters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x10130

[Bdog]

13. three megawatts of electricity – enough to power three towns

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/12/manure031112
Alberta ranchers explore 'manure power'
Last Updated Wed, 12 Nov 2003 19:57:16

VEGREVILLE, ALTA. - Next summer, cattle in Alberta could become another source of fuel for the province.

The Kotelko family near Vegreville has raised cattle for 20 years. Their feedlot is home to 36,000 head, producing 36 million kilograms of manure every year.

The Ketelkos are pioneering the use of manure for a new technology. The plan is to take the waste and turn it into three megawatts of electricity – enough to power three towns of more than 7,000 people.

Bio mass is solar power. It called the carbon cycle. Plants are natures solar panels.

Three megawats from 36,000 head...or five megawats from 60,000 head...and don't forget that a plant with its own power source can provide its own therma heat loads at no additional energy costs.

American ethanol already has an net energy gain of 1.2 now it can have even a better net energy gain.

[wuushew]

8. food vs. fuel is a myth

according to this site

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html

[Bdog]

16. It is called the carbon cycle

It is called the carbon cycle.

Where do you think all of the fossil fuels came from.

Plants are natures solar cells. All they need is CO2, H2O, and sunlight. Fertilizers just give the necessary nutrients to sustain the process. All of the energy needed to grow things comes from the sun. Plant tissue and materials are stored solar energy.

Plants don't use oil or natural gas as a power source.

If there were no net energy gain from biomass we would have all starved to death by now.
http://mcnet.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecosystem.html



The diagram above shows how both energy and inorganic nutrients flow through the ecosystem. We need to define some terminology first. Energy "flows" through the ecosystem in the form of carbon-carbon bonds. When respiration occurs, the carbon-carbon bonds are broken and the carbon is combined with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. This process releases the energy, which is either used by the organism (to move its muscles, digest food, excrete wastes, think, etc.) or the energy may be lost as heat. The dark arrows represent the movement of this energy. Note that all energy comes from the sun, and that the ultimate fate of all energy in ecosystems is to be lost as heat. Energy does not recycle!!

To summarize: In the flow of energy and inorganic nutrients through the ecosystem, a few generalizations can be made:

1 The ultimate source of energy (for most ecosystems) is the sun
2 The ultimate fate of energy in ecosystems is for it to be lost as heat.
3 Energy and nutrients are passed from organism to organism through the food chain as one organism eats another.
4 Decomposers remove the last energy from the remains of organisms.
5 Inorganic nutrients are cycled, energy is not.

[Bdog]

5. Brazil Petrobras Unit To Invest $200M In Ethanol Projects

http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/040603/15/3ktes.html
SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Brazil's oil group Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), through its logistics unit Transpetro, is planning to invest $200 million over the next four years to expand pipelines that transport ethanol.

A spokeswoman at Transpetro said Thursday the investment has been earmarked to build about 790 kilometers of pipelines and build the necessary infrastructure to take ethanol from a refinery in Sao Paulo state to Petrobras terminals on the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

[NNadir]

9. 5 billion gallons (the goal) is 4 days of US energy supply.

The US consumes almost 19 million barrels, each with 42 gallons, of oil a day. That's about 800 million gallons a day. Three billion gallons of ethanol is rather an insignificant quantity of energy. cut US energy consumption in half, we would have to scale this environmentally dubious scheme up by a factor of 40 from the 2012 figure.

For this, we trash the continent with toxicity of industrial agriculture? For six days of driving around feeling holy?

[Bdog]

10. without ethanol gasoline would cost an additional 30 cents per gallon

http://www.e85fuel.com/front_page/Kaptur_biofuels060404.htm
Some of the highlights from Urbanchuk's report are:

* Without ethanol, gas prices would increase 14.6 percent, or 30.2 cents per gallon in the short term (including the entire summer driving season).
* Without ethanol, gas prices would increase 3.7 percent, or 7.6 cents per gallon, in the long term once refiners build new capacity or secure alternative sources of supply.
* More than 30 percent of all U.S. gasoline is blended with ethanol.
* Without ethanol, refiners would be forced to import about 217,000 barrels per day of high-octane, gasoline blending components.

[Bdog]

11. favorable price has helped ethanol blends gain a 68.3 percent market share

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1839&dept_id=110408&newsid=11835473&PAG=461&rfi=9
The average price for regular unleaded gasoline containing ethanol was $1.94 a gallon. Part of the cost savings is in taxes, which are slightly lower on ethanol blends
The favorable price has helped ethanol blends gain a 68.3 percent market share, a record high for a monthly market share.

[NNadir]

14. Really? The United States stopped importing oil? I didn't know.

Or you just talking about a little part of Iowa? I will concede that there may be a few locations in the middle of corn fields where ethanol can be competitive with gasoline hauled halfway across the planet.

I assume that you are NOT responding to my comments about the energy demand of the rest of the United States, which still, this huge economic success in North Scott, Iowa aside, would burn all of the ethanol produced in 2012 in just four days, assuming of course that Greenhouse effect related droughts and other forms of resultant climatic instability don't shut down the ethanol industry entirely.

[Bdog]

17. why should I care what you think n/t

[NNadir]

18. You definitely don't think about what I think which is why I think you

don't think. I think that I think about what you think, well because what you think has a certain je n'en sais quoi...

I'm confortable in making that very egotistical statement in the present company.

Why don't you provide us with an internet link on dams built out of sticks and a wide-eyed celebration why this dangerous practice is esteemable and environmentally sustainable? How about a treatise on air compressors and how they are a solution to the world's pollution needs? No wait, how about deep wells for CO2 attached to all the world's tailpipes? Some of these arguments are the reification of what I've been fighting for decades and if they are anything, they are fun.

Personally I am very fond of your posts and wish you posted more frequently, my dear Simplicio. They are exemplars of a certain mindset that certainly needs the light of critical thinking.

[Bdog]

15. Purdue Yeast Makes Ethanol from Agricultural Waste More Effectively

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/energy_engineering/report-30711.html

A strain of yeast developed at Purdue University more effectively makes ethanol from agricultural residues that would otherwise be discarded or used as animal feed, and the first license for the yeast has been issued to the biotechnology company Iogen Corp.

Purdue’s genetically altered yeast allows about 40 percent more ethanol to be made from sugars derived from agricultural residues, such as corn stalks and wheat straw, compared with "wild-type" yeasts that occur in nature.

The agricultural residues are primarily made up of cellulose and "hemicellulose," which are known as cellulosic materials. Unlike traditional ethanol feedstocks, such as corn kernels, the cellulosic materials contain two major sugars, glucose and xylose, which cannot both be fermented into ethanol by natural Saccharomyces yeast, the microorganism used by industry to produce ethanol, said Nancy Ho, a senior research scientist and leader of the molecular genetics group in Purdue’s Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering, or LORRE. Iogen specializes in producing ethanol from cellulosic material.

A team led by Ho developed the more efficient yeast during the 1980s and 1990s. Conventional yeast can ferment glucose to ethanol, but it cannot ferment xylose. Xylose makes up about 30 percent of t