[Gasification] [Bioenergy] Conserve -- In Producing Ethanol, Some Cornstalks Should be Left in the Field

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Dick:

You are right on for corn ethanol, but we will need LIQUID fuels.  My 
specialty is gasification to CO-H2, catalyst to alcohol fuels (for spark 
engines or FT diesel for diesels). 

Methane is an excellent fuel if yo can generate it on site or are 
attached to a $10M/mile pipeline.  Otherwise, forget it, because it is 
too hard to store and transport.

Propane is the best of both worlds - stored under very modest pressure, 
burned as a clean gas.  There is another fuel, di-methyl ether (DME) 
which is the twin of propane and can be made from syn-gas.

We need to follow real solutions, not partial red herrings.

Yours truly,

TOM REED      BEF
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dick Glick wrote:
> Hello --
>  
> Just another reason for rejecting ethanol -- even if an economically 
> satisfactory method is found for converting cornstalks to -- cellulose 
> -- and then to ethanol -- see below.
>  
> CFR's methanogenic anaerobic fermentation technology -- without heat 
> as is usually necessary to remove ethanol from its watery environment 
> -- produces a universally useful renewable natural gas -- and equally 
> importantly -- an excellent soil amendment that can be tailored to 
> particular crops.
>  
> What a fraud is ethanol -- but those same Iowa and the like farmers 
> could even benefit -- to a greater extent than is now possible from 
> renewable natural gas and by-products!
>  
> More later -- conserve -- quit the Ethanol fraud -- stop driving -- 
> carpool -- remote education and office, etc., etc. -- start really 
> reducing CO2 -- this with conservation and CFR's renewable natural 
> gas -- maybe only the starting points -- and remember the renewable 
> problems:
>
> The State of Florida announced in summer 2003 a Governor's initiated 
> program....... ".... to develop a Statewide Energy Plan: Energy 
> Planning for Florida's Future".  The report (now removed from the 
> internet -- but I have a copy) contained this admonition:
>
> "The prime source of funds to support advances in energy efficiency 
> and renewable energy resources in Florida is controlled by private 
> utilities, whose business objective is to maximize profits rather than 
> to conserve scarce energy resources."
>
> And the Administration and their EPA and the Utilities and the 
> Automobile industry and the Ethanol Guys and the Coal Guys and the 
> Petroleum Guys and the Local Governments  ...  and so on and so on!  
> Their position: "You can't conserve as well as depend on renewable 
> energy, etc., or it will ruin the American economy."  Nonsense!  
> That's not the innovative America I grew up in!
>
> Best, Dick
>
> Dick  Glick, PhD
> President
> Corporation For Future Resources
> 1909 Chowkeebin Court
> Tallahassee, Florida 32301
> Phone: 850-942-2022
>
> Fax: 850-942-1967
> Email: _dglickd at pipeline.com_
> URL: _http://www.CorpFutRes.com_
> http://wire0.ises.org/entry.nsf/E?Open&project&00031306 
> <http://wire0.ises.org/entry.nsf/E?Open&project&00031306> 
>
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  
>  
> In Producing Ethanol, Some Cornstalks Should be Left in the Field
>  
> By Don Comis <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/contacts.htm#Don>
> April 25, 2007
> If conservation of soil organic matter is taken into account, the 
> United States at best has to cut in half the amount of cornstalks that 
> can be harvested to produce ethanol, according to an Agricultural 
> Research Service (ARS <http://www.ars.usda.gov/>) study.
> Jane Johnson 
> <http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=21266>, a 
> soil scientist with the ARS North Central Soil Conservation Research 
> Laboratory 
> <http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=36-45-00-00> in 
> Morris, Minn., found that twice as many cornstalks have to be left in 
> the field to maintain soil organic matter levels, compared to the 
> amount of stalks needed only to prevent erosion.
>  
> This doesn't mean harvesting cornstalks for cellulosic ethanol isn't 
> feasible?just that when you add soil organic matter concerns to 
> erosion concerns, it slashes the amount of cornstalks available for 
> conversion to ethanol. For example, 213-bushel-per-acre corn yields 
> leave farmers an average four tons per acre of cornstalks after 
> harvest. Farmers could then harvest about two tons of cornstalks per 
> acre for conversion to ethanol?but only from land with low erosion 
> risks, using little or no tillage.
>  
> If the same farmers rotate with soybeans as recommended, they can only 
> remove half again as much biomass for ethanol production, or just one 
> ton per acre, to compensate for the lower biomass left by soybeans.
>  
> Johnson's estimates are part of the Renewable Energy Assessment 
> Project (REAP), formally created in 2006, although she and a core 
> group of colleagues have worked on these measurements for several 
> years prior.
>  
> REAP was formed to ensure that cellulosic ethanol programs will be 
> sustainable. Most participants work with corn, but others work on 
> switchgrass for cellulosic ethanol. When cellulosic ethanol is made 
> from corn, it uses cornstalks as well as grain.
>  
> There are nine ARS locations participating in REAP in eight states, 
> from Alabama to Indiana to Oregon.
>  
> The new program also aims to compare the economic value of biomass for 
> bioenergy versus its value for storing soil carbon. REAP will provide 
> guidelines on harvesting biomass to corn farmers, land managers, the 
> biomass industry and action agencies.
>  
> Johnson also explored the use of a byproduct of ethanol fermentation 
> as an organic additive to soils. This is an example of the innovations 
> needed to support residue removal.
>  
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture <http://www.usda.gov/>'s 
> chief in-house scientific research agency.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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