The Flaw in the Ethanol Slaw
If we plan on a national level in terms of 100 million acres of switchgrass, or perhaps grasses with even higher yields of fiber, such as Miscanthus x gigantus [industrial hemp?] , we should design for the greatest amount of useable energy produced per acre. Anything else reduces the chances of our achieving true energy independence.
Solid switchgrass biofuel pellets have 8X more useable energy, net energy, than ethanol! So let’s get the biggest bang for our buck! To invest in ethanol is to throw away our money on an investment with 1/8th the return we could realize if we focused on converting switchgrass into engineered, solid, biofuel pellets made from a blend that includes other fibers from the recycling bin: news papers, waxed cardboard, telephone books, trimmings from making disposable diapers, etc.
By the way, we and others have successfully made pellets from all of the above materials!
Other considerations:
1] ethanol production degrades gallons of water per gallon made;
2] ethanol production is a big industrial 20th century model that locks out the little guy.
On the other hand, making pellet fuel from switchgrass does NOT pollute water and it can be done on the farm. Going to the next step, switchgrass pellets made on the farm can be used to nurture a Community Supported Energy solution just as CSA now supports vegetable farmers. This is what I call the local, local, local approach: Grow it locally; Make it locally; Burn it locally. This distributed model is very similar to a 21st century internet model of a far flung network made up of many small distributed nodes.
So are we going to invest backwards into 20th century industrialism, or are we going to leap forward into the 21st century’s networked world?
-- JockGill
