[xcamel]

ethanol is nearly as big a hoax as global warming

[redgolum]

For later

[RegulatorCountry]

Are they referring to the Fischer-Tropsch method here?

[dangerdoc]

Gassification is proven technology.

Once syngas is made, it can be turned into anything that the current petrochemical industry produces using off the shelf petrochemical technology.

I would hate to see them waste the gas making ethanol when they can make a superior product, diesel!"

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"For corn-based ethanol plants, the process of producing ethanol is as simple as brewing beer...."

Brewing beer or wine might be simple -- brewing drinkable beer or wine is not.

[BlueOneGolf]

The term"syngas" caught my eye. I read an article in Popular Science about a technology called "Plasma Converters" that was fed with ordinary garbage. It actually breaks down garbage into elemental forms with electrical plasma. The byproducts are hydrogen and carbon monoxide...syngas. The thing is, once it starts it's self sustaining as long as you keep feeding it garbage because the heat from the process is routed to exchangers that heats steam to power turbine generators

The Prophet of Garbage:
Joseph Longo's Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash
into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill

[bert]

We've had a DOE gassification pilot operation in Kingsport for a long time.

The Eastman technology is already a mature technology and has been for 25 years.