[Bioconversion] Ethanol, E85, Cattails, and the MREA Fair.

[Harmon Seaver]

   Well, the MREA energy fair was a great experience as usual. The
absolute greatest thing for me was a forum I went to put on by David
Blum, who used to work for Mother Earth News back in the '70's and did
most of the alcohol fuel stuff for them and has been continuing to work
with that ever since. He's also very much into permaculture. Has a great
book coming out next month on alcohol fuels -- all aspects of it called
"Alcohol Can Be A Gas"

http://alcoholcanbeagas.org/site/book_menu/360

   Anyway -- he asked the crowd if anybody knew of any good feedstocks
for alcohol other than corn, and, of course, I piped up with my cattail
rant. He started laughing -- that was his next topic. And they've been
doing a lot more work with cattails that I've never heard about, it's
far, far better than I thought. You don't have to dig up the roots, the
bottom 3 feet of the tops are just as good. And -- you can get much
higher yields both of starch content (up to 70%) and tonnage, they've
gotten 70 tons per acre. He proposes changing all sewage treatment
plants to growing cattails for ethanol.
   And making ethanol out of it is just as easy as any other starch.
Blum says it's by far the best crop for ethanol where you can't grow
sugarcane, and maybe even for there too. Totally sustainable,
permaculture, etc. What he was also big on was returning the spent mash
to the fields, even with corn -- in fact has been issued a patent on
using the spent corn mash as both a herbicide and fertilizer -- natural
"weed and feed". He patented it just so Monsanto, et al, couldn't, and
gives permission for farmers to use it for payment of $1 and an written
agreement they won't buy any Monsanto products.
    Also -- he says absolutely no problem with running ethanol in cars
produced post '83 or so, as they all went to alcohol proof seals when
ethanol started replacing mtbe. And all the early injection systems (up
to about '96) run E85 just fine because the injector - O2 sensor
relationship just keeps enrichening the mix. The later cars with smarter
computers (after about '96) need either the computer reprogrammed or a
small cheap module placed between the computer and the injectors -- but,
you can run E50 or so in those with no problem and no modification.
   Also, not only is the E85 so much cheaper, but you get a minimum of
$0.61 federal tax credit for each gallon you buy, and some states also
have tax credits. You also can get a $1500 fed tax credit for converting
your car to ethanol. Also can get a $100,000 tax credit for installing a
E85 filling station.
    Way, way more E85 stations around the midwest than I thought too.
I'm thinking pretty seriously of milling the head on my '91 Toyota to
13:1 CR (it's 9.5:1 stock) because right now I can drive anywhere I want
in WI and MN and not have any real problem getting E85.
    Also -- no problem running it in chansaws and other two-strokes,
there are alcohol 2-stroke mixes. He also said they have been running
ethanol ( 99% ethanol - 1% biodiesel for lubing the injector pump) in
many of the lower compression diesels. Forgot to ask if you didn't take
a power hit with that.
    Can't wait to get the book. I sent him these list addresses, I'm
hoping he will join the discussion.



-- 
Harmon Seaver