[Stoves] Cellulosic Ethanol a dead end

[Jeff Davis]

Dear A.D. and Tom,

I've been working on a project called the Thermo Biopile. It converts
straw and woodchips to heat. When the bugs are done I end up with compost.

An outdated picture and some links can be found below.
http://www.puffergas.com/pile/pile.html

I've made an interesting observation; you will see a white pipe almost at
the top. I call this pipe the nose of the Thermo Biopile. Here I have a
transmitter sending temp and humidity information to the inside of my lab.
During the day the temp drops and when it gets colder at night the temp
increases (or it seems). My theory is that it is breathing. The center of
the pile is hot so it draws in cold air and vents it out the white pipe.
What you can not see, because this is an outdated picture is that most of
the Pile is covered from the top and part of the bottom is open. .


Not the voice of sanity,

Jeff



> Dear Tom,
> good to hear the voice of sanity again. Whenever I voice the same views
> here
> in India, I am always told of a new process having been developed by
> somebody or other for making ethanol from cellulose. Cellulose is the most
> abundantly available natural organic substance in the world, so it is very
> tempting if it can be converted into ethanol.  I had known about the
> difficulties in producing ethanol from cellulose since long ago, namely
> that
> cellulolytic microbes do not produce free glucose for other microbes to
> use.
> I therefore advocate that ligno-cellulose should either be burned to
> produce
> heat or be used for producing methane instead. We are working on a biogas
> plant that produces methane from green leaves. As raw material we want to
> use green leafy biomass generated daily by urban vegetable markets.
> Alternatively, one can use dedicated fields that produce the necessary
> leafy
> biomass. We are also trying to develop a biogas plant for producing
> methane
> from dry agricultural waste, like straw of wheat or rice, sugarcane
> leaves,
> etc.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve

>
> Dear All:
>
> If you think converting the 70% starch in corn into sugar and then into
> ethanol is inefficient, (MAYBE 35% more energy out than in) just try
> stripping the lignin out of cellulosic materials as a hurdle.  Dozens of
> companies (since the first in 1918) have claimed to have the process
> "now commercial", sold stock, then quietly tiptoed away.  Mother Nature
> designed starch to be converted to sugar.  She designed cellulose NOT to
> be converted into sugar.  Given enough subsidies it can be commercial
> today, but so could many other processes with higher payback.
>
> TOM REED        BEF
>


-- 
Jeff Davis

Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA