Posted on 07/12/2008 6:39:49 AM PDT by decimon
Could an annoying plant hold the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil?
A Cleveland, Tennessee man who knows how to make ethanol out of kudzu may soon bring his refining process to market.
This time next year, the gas you fill-up with in Chattanooga may be cheaper than other parts of the country. Tom Monahan with Agro*Gas says Chattanooga will be number one and then it will spread out from there.
In the basement of a Cleveland, Tennessee home, Doug Mizell's experiment in energy appears to be taking off. He's found a way to turn kudzu into fuel. Mizell says "if it blows a good blue flame like that, that means there's purity there."
Mizell's spent the last decade perfecting a process to refine kudzu into commercially viable ethanol. Monahan says "cellulosic which is the way we're going, is from plant refuge, we basically can use anything that grew and convert it into ethanol."
And since this ethanol isn't corn or soy based, it won't impact food prices. It takes 10 to 15 pounds of plant material to make a gallon of fuel, at a cost of about $1.30.
Next step, producing this product for market. Monahan says "we're looking for funding to build our first small plant, what you'd call a demonstration plant to help prove to our major investors that it works."
Monahan says a major fuel distributor wants to purchase two-thirds of their first year's production to cut into gas sold throughout the Tennessee Valley. "The distributor we're talking to just wants to get it out there at 10% in all gas.
Mizell "wants that savings reflected at the pump too so that the consumer gets the benefit of that."
He says if that initial refinery plant proves successful, he'll build additional plants across the southeast every six-months. "My goal is to make East TN the cellulosic valley of the entire industry."
Kudzu. God’s own curse on the south.
Your strength becomes your weakness, your weakness your strength. And that is my profundity for the year. ;-)
To be commercially harvestible, it will have to take up land now used for food. We have a lot of kudzu in the south but it grows in ravines and on hillsides.Quit screwing around with ethanol and start drilling more oil
If kudzuhol is viable then there's no need to choose between it and oil. If, as per the report, kudzuhol can be produced for about $1.30 per gallon then it should retail for less than $2.00 per gallon. That's pretty good.
Another good thing about kudzu is that you can't kill the stuff. Cut it down and it just grows back for you.
Driving engineering types from up north into a southern nuclear plant......the road winds through a wooded area that has been taken over by kudzu. Its climbing the trees, spread like a blanket over everything...happy kudzu, big leaves, vibrtant green. The engineering types are looking and looking and looking and finally one of them says “do plants grow like this because of the radiation????”
ping
“Cut it down and it just grows back for you.”
Same with bamboo.
I’ve actually wondered if either of those dratted plants would work for fuel. Glad somebody’s trying.
I'm glad someone's trying and I hope someone succeeds. And if it works here then it will work where these plants came from; just where fuel demand is growing the greatest. What would that do to the price of oil?
That would be good. I absolutely hate kudzu! It is growing behind the fence on state property behind my house. We battle it everyday. It just won’t go away. It is very fast growing and kills everything in its path. Horrible stuff.
God didn’t bring kudzu to the South, man did in his ignorance. Credit where credit is due.
I believe it was the Japanese to be specific. They brought it here durring one of the Worlds Fairs. It has a natural enemy in Japan but none here. The only thing that will eat it is goats.
God created the man and the ignorance. The buck stops there.
Yabut, will the total mass of Kudzu in the South be reduced or will the increased CO2 just fertilize it?
If there comes to be a market for it then you can become a kudzu poacher. ;-)
That’s the scariest thing I’ve heard in a long time.
Not that “radiation did it” but that an engineer could be so stupid.
Guess the Kudzu Kingdom South better get to raising goats then. Whole new industry available, goat milk and meat, goat skin leather, why I foresee “get your goat” as a regional term of pride. But then again, maybe not...sigh...
I question bamboo’s utility as a fuel feedstock (honestly I just don’t know) but it DOES make a swell building material.
If it becomes fuel then who will care?
No, but that's why all the fish have three eyes. (/rimshot)
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