[Digestion] Cattails

[Harmon Seaver]

   One of the speakers at the MREA energy fair spoke at length on using
cattails as feedstock for ethanol. Since they can be used just as well,
or even better, for methane digestion, here's what I found out.
     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 -- or methane. Likewise all those
cow and pig feedlots with their immense sewage problem.
    He also said that the spent mash from ethanol distillation still has
plenty of potential for digestion and that some ethanol plants are
already installing those.
    Another suggestion he had for feedstock was kelp, in particular
situating rafts of kelp farms at the mouth of the Mississippi to absorb
all the nutrients coming downstream. Has anyone here tried digesting kelp?



-- 
Harmon Seaver