[Gasification] Pyrolysing compost to make fuel

[Roger Samson]

Neal 
The point really is that if the US is serious about energy security they
would be better to go into biogas using combinations of feedstocks including
corn silage, energy grasses and manure rather than corn ethanol from the
grain and using the corn stalks for pyrolysis. The liquid fuel routes will
produce less net energy gain per acre and be harder on soils. Biogas is a
serious energy option for the US and the technology is developed. Cellulosic
ethanol is going to take much more time to develop and pyrolysis is even
further away from being commercial with farm derived feedstocks. I doubt if
pyrolysis technologies will ever be able to pay farmers a living wage for
their biomass production.  Biogas and Bioheat conversion pathways will be
able to pay farmers more for their raw materials and ultimately that will be
the deciding factor in how the bioenergy industry evolves. 

Roger
 

-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of CAVM at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 9:41 AM
To: GASIFICATION at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Pyrolysing compost to make fuel

 
Roger, the underlying issue is to make fuel from cellulose material.   
Neither standard fermentation to alcohol nor methane production via
anaerobic  
digestion work well with high solids and high cellulose materials.  Or am I
wrong?
 
Neal
 
In a message dated 8/3/2006 8:34:55 AM Central Daylight Time,  
rsamson at reap-canada.com writes:

They  would be wiser to make biogas out of farm derived material and
recovering  the lignin fraction as a stable organic matter soil amendment.
Biogas is a  cheaper and more sustainable option. Mining soils to produce
sustainable  energy is a pretty poor trade off.

Germany now has 2700 biogas systems  running on manure and energy crops. I
don't understand how the US is so  backwards to keep putting all their eggs
in the liquid fuels from biomass  basket. It creates the worst fuel cycles
and needs the most subsidies.  

Here is a presentation on the german biogas systems that was given  recently
in Canada: 

>  http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/bg_pres4.pdf


 
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