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Ethanol Plant "Brews" Grass Into Gas(Great News!)
National Geographic News ^ | May 16, 2006 | Taylor Kennedy

Posted on 05/16/2006 8:36:11 PM PDT by kellynla

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Hosein Shapouri of the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that such factories wouldn't need energy from fossil fuels to run the plant.

"[They] can even produce extra electricity that can be sent to the public power grid," Shapouri said. "These plants will be self-sufficient."

1 posted on 05/16/2006 8:36:12 PM PDT by kellynla
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To: kellynla
These plants will be self-sufficient.

The corn plants?

:-)

2 posted on 05/16/2006 8:38:29 PM PDT by CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC
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To: kellynla

Dude, Grass?


3 posted on 05/16/2006 8:43:22 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Proud soldier in the American Army of Occupation..)
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To: kellynla
They did a 5 minute "in depth" story on Iogen (Carl Sagan would have pronounced it "ee-o-jen") this morning on NPR.

In spite of NPR's fawning over them, I'm still very impressed with their results and can't wait to see this type of technology really used on a large scale. Farming fast growing plants like grass and fermenting it into alcohol to be burned for energy for human use is how solar power SHOULD be done and I hope Iogen reaps the rewards for the decades of research they've done, particularly on the enzymes used to break down the cellulose before fermentation.
4 posted on 05/16/2006 8:47:01 PM PDT by spinestein (The Democratic Party is the reason I vote for Republicans.)
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To: Mike Darancette

"Dude, Grass?"

LOL! Sorry man you're going to have to be a juicer again.


5 posted on 05/16/2006 8:47:44 PM PDT by EEDUDE (A penny saved is......a penny Congress overlooked.)
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To: Mike Darancette

Geesh, if they just smoked it they could take a trip and never even leave the farm. Save a lot on gas that way!


6 posted on 05/16/2006 8:48:05 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: spinestein

well anything that can get us off the foreign oil addiction,
I am for!


7 posted on 05/16/2006 8:51:08 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: spinestein

I've been following this research for some time.

They are using the enzymes produced by bacteria in the stomachs of termites.

If it works out this will be an answer to a prayer.

Maybe we can tell the Arabs to go p!ss up a rope.


8 posted on 05/16/2006 8:54:08 PM PDT by EEDUDE (A penny saved is......a penny Congress overlooked.)
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To: Mike Darancette
Dude, Grass?

Didn't read the article did you, they are talking about grass as in animal feed, actually the most efficient type of grass to use is saw grass, not hemp.

9 posted on 05/16/2006 8:54:40 PM PDT by org.whodat (Never let the facts get in the way of a good assumption.)
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To: Alas Babylon!

I wish they'd take all the "dude grass" and brew it into gas so's all these impulsive/compulsive "medical marijuana" knot heads that are movin into my community, bringin in the Hells Angels, etc. would be phased right outa business!!! Phoey on 'em!!! And the mob-ocracy initiatives they rode in on!!!


10 posted on 05/16/2006 8:55:02 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Without consistent core conservatives in charge, the GOP is fast becoming the Gelded Old Party!!!)
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To: kellynla

ANYTHING???


11 posted on 05/16/2006 8:55:42 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Without consistent core conservatives in charge, the GOP is fast becoming the Gelded Old Party!!!)
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To: spinestein

In the long run...it can't be corn as the top ingredient for Ethanol. It'll have to be sugar cane...and in this case...there will be limits where you can grow huge amounts of the stuff. It takes too much energy to convert corn...alot less for sugar cane.


12 posted on 05/16/2006 8:58:43 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: kellynla

Ass, gas, or grass.

Nobody rides for free...


13 posted on 05/16/2006 8:58:48 PM PDT by null and void (Islam wasn't hijacked on 9/11. It was exposed.)
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To: org.whodat
Didn't read the article did you

Of course I read the article but it is more fun to respond to the stupid headlines.

14 posted on 05/16/2006 9:13:00 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Proud soldier in the American Army of Occupation..)
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To: Mike Darancette
Didn't read the article did you

Of course I read the article but it is more fun to respond to the stupid headlines.

So true, so true!

15 posted on 05/16/2006 9:18:30 PM PDT by org.whodat (Never let the facts get in the way of a good assumption.)
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To: kellynla
well anything that can get us off the foreign oil addiction,

Jimmy Carter couldn't have said it any better.

16 posted on 05/16/2006 9:22:48 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: Moonman62

"Jimmy Carter couldn't have said it any better."

You win my tagline award! LMAO


17 posted on 05/16/2006 9:26:34 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla
Right now, the race is on to find ways to drastically increase the production of ethanol.

There are several companies looking at turning plant cellulose into ethanol, most already reaching the point of building a pilot plant to test scaling up the technology. Because plant cellulose is far more common than corn, wheat and sugar beet production combined, this could open the way to make ethanol on a scale that makes the Brazilian ethanol program seem like a minor event in comparison.

And this is only the beginning: the use of special oil-laden algae "fed" by smokestack emissions could make it possible grow enough algae to produce hundreds of millions of gallons of biologically-based diesel fuel/heating oil per year just in the USA alone by retrofitting current coal-fired and natural gas-fired powerplants, with the "waste" from the processing of the algae capable of being processed further into ethanol rather easily.

In short, technology outruns the naysayers again.

18 posted on 05/16/2006 9:27:35 PM PDT by RayChuang88
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To: pepsionice
Specifically, it will have to be either bagasse, the sugar cane waste left over from processing, or else high-cellulose grasses of whichever type grow fastest. Back to simple, independently duplicable chemistry everyone, please.

Ethanol can be a useful solution, but corn-based (indeed, any high-starch based) ethanol not only cannot be part of the solution, but will be, now and forevermore, only implemented by very high levels of taxpayer (NOT gov't!) subsidy, no matter how often ADM and that crowd say otherwise.

19 posted on 05/16/2006 11:45:31 PM PDT by SAJ (b)
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To: RayChuang88

"Special oil laden algae."

Can you give us some links on this whole algae business. I have a friend who is very enthusiastic as well. My biggest question is where will they grow this algae? Will it require the construction of vast water tanks, or the digging of multitudes of ponds?


20 posted on 05/16/2006 11:47:37 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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