Ethanol Plant "Brews" Grass Into Gas(Great News!)

National Geographic News ^ | May 16, 2006 | Taylor Kennedy

[American_Centurion]

It will right before our domestic production of energy, be it oil, ethanol, nuke, or coal, becomes a threat to the ME import cartel. As long as they have oil they WILL use price manipulation to make as much money as possible. They will do whatever it takes to ensure a continuous flow of money to themselves and killing the profit potential of our domestic energy production will be their first shot at it.

Of course if I knew WHEN that was going to happen, I would become a very very rich man in a short period of time. : )

[whd23]

Secrets of Building an Alcohol Producing Still

Keep in mind that it's listed under their "Self Destruction" book section! :)

[TKDietz]

I don't know. Demand for fuel is on the rise, especially with the Chinese and Indians generating better incomes and wanting to live more like we live. The demand for oil will continue to rise. And while there still may be a lot of oil under the ground, it's getting harder and more costly to find it, get it out of the ground, and get it refined. The good pure stuff that is relatively easy to get at is becoming much harder to find. Offshore rigs are having to move farther and farther out to sea. Countries are increasingly resorting to things like extracting oil from tar sands and oil shale, difficult and expensive processes that are harmful to the environment. Production costs and demand are going up at the same time. It follows that oil prices will also go up.

All I can say is that I will never never buy a car again that cannot burn at least E85, if not pure ethanol like most cars sold in Brazil today that can burn 100% ethanol, 100% gasoline, or any combination of the two. That way I'll be safe in case oil prices go up too much, provided we see a significant ramping up of ethanol production or if I can find someone to go in on a still with me.

[knews_hound]

Thats what spooks me, it is after all, a fuel air bomb you are making.

The stills I have seen were, to say the least, kind of scary.

My neighbor works in a distillery and has cautioned me that this is a very risky venture.

On the other hand, visions of 190 proof keep dancing in my head.

Cheers,

knewshound

Brew Your Own

[neverdem]

bfl, thanx

[whd23]

For the small quantity that the book at the link provided would produce (and the manner in which it produces the alcohol), I wouldn't worry about it going "boom." The design uses an electric heater element to heat a water bath that then is used to warm the mash. Not much in the way of sparks there. I'd worry more about that design being in any way cost effective since it uses electricity.

[gleeaikin]

"At least until oil drops below $30 bbl."

It is entirely possible that we will never see $30 oil again. Two weeks ago I had an exhibit at a really scary conference regarding the future after "peak oil". The US reached peak oil several decades ago. The rest of the world seems to be at that point now. The availability of oil will continue to trend downward, while China and India especially, will cause consumption and prices to increase.

I was only able to leave my exhibit intermittently to listen to the 11 speakers, but the impression I had was that in 5 to 10 years we could see $7/gal. gas and $200/bbl. oil. This of course would make alternative fuels very popular as well as causing a lot of problems in daily living. Anyone wishing to check out this subject can look at www.petrocollapse.org, and Google "Lundberg Letter, oil industry."

[SierraWasp]

Yes... I suppose you're right... We're kinda in the corner pocket of the county and it takes a deputy 20 minutes to get here goin "code 3"!!!

Of course, it isn't just the medi-maryjane bunch. Even the equestrians like to put bricks in the hay bales in their horse trailers, too!!!

[Mike-o-Matic]

  Ass, gas, or grass.
Nobody rides for free...

An ideal situation in which to use barter, perhaps? Consider the following example.

Let's say I just mowed, so I have a surplus, ready-to-use supply of (c). Maybe I can get some (a) by trading some (b) that I produced from (c).

Sounds like a deal to me! :-D

(I can't believe I just typed this out loud).

[Toby06]

This would be good news if ethanol was as good a motorfuel as gasoline.

Drill ANWAR, California, New Jersey, and the gulf!

[null and void]

Barter works...

[TKDietz]

"It is entirely possible that we will never see $30 oil again."

snip

"...in 5 to 10 years we could see $7/gal. gas and $200/bbl. oil."

This scares me. Fuel prices will fluctuate, but overall they are going to go up. We really need to start ramping up the process with alternative fuels. Even at current prices, ethanol is becoming a viable option for at least a pretty good chunk of our automotive fuel needs. New technology is making it such that it will soon be cheaper than gasoline without any subsidies. It's already cheaper in Brazil where they have all the sugar cane. As fuel prices go up, ethanol will in the near future be cheaper than gasoline in this country without any subsidies, especially with new technology coming on line that maximizes production from feedstock like corn and that makes it possible to use low maintenance fast growing crops like switchgrass. Brazil started getting into the ethanol game thirty years ago and today ethanol provides better than 40% of their automotive fuel. That percentage is increasing every year. They had a lot of subsidies at first but have weaned the ethanol industry off of subsidies, although there are still some tax breaks which in a 'round about way act as subsidies. How they did was start requiring that all gasoline sold have at least 15% ethanol content, and then they kept increasing the ethanol content requirement on up to about 25%. Most all new cars will handle this. About three quarters of all new cars in Brazil though will run on even 100% ethanol, and a lot of people are using that now because it is even cheaper than using a combination of ethanol and gasoline there.

Brazilians now have the choice of using whichever fuel is cheaper in their cars. If ethanol prices go up, they can burn gasoline (which of course is still 25% ethanol there). If gasoline prices are high, they can use pure ethanol. They have a choice and they have more stability in fuel prices. We're pretty much stuck with gasoline. If gasoline prices do soar to $7.00 per gallon we're screwed. In Brazil they'll pay more at the pump because even they won't be able to produce enough ethanol to cover all their fuel needs, but those with cars that will burn ethanol would not feel the same pain at the pump we feel because the lower ethanol prices will counteract a good bit of the effect of higher gasoline prices. People won't only feel that pumping fuel into their cars, they'll feel the effects every time they make any sort pf purchase because higher fuel costs make everything more expensive. It just makes sense to diversify into ethanol instead of having all our eggs in one basket with gasoline.

I am normally for free market capitalism all the way. Let the markets determine what we produce. But on this one issue at least I think the government needs to step in. It's a matter of national security. What happens if we see massive war in the Middle East? What happens if we see nuclear war in the Middle East with substantial portions of the oil fields turned into glass? What happens if a category five hurricane hits Houston and takes out a huge percentage of our oil refining capabilities? What if both happen? We'd be in a world of hurt. We'll never be able to produce enough ethanol to cover all our energy needs, or even half our energy needs probably, but we could produce enough to handle a substantial portion of our energy needs which would help us get by in the event of such a catastrophe. If anything it could help stabilize fuel prices. As it is all it seems just about all our eggs are in one basket when it comes to fuel necessary for transporting people and goods in the country, and that's not safe for us. That's not a good position for us to be in. Hydrogen fuel is a long way off in the future. Ethanol is here and now. We should be developing our ethanol and biodiesel industries now to stabilize fuel prices and provide us some protection in the event of a major catastrophe that causes oil prices to go through the roof overnight.