Bio Fuels

[Chris Byrne]

Some see BioDiesel, Ethanol, and other "green" fuels as a promising transition from a fossil-fuel dependent infrastructure. Others are beginning to question factors such as competition for arable land leading to higher food costs, feedstock from clear-cutting for palm-oil plantations being marketed as "environmentally friendly", and the "EROI" (energy return on investment) of BioFuel production as questionable.

So, what do you think: BioFuels, the answer to our energy and climate woes, or not?

[Roland Cheesepod]

I agree that there are problems and costs associated with BioFuels that we are just beginning to come to grips with. To my mind one of the major problems we are dealing with and that influences our thinking about these issues is scale - one or two universally applied solutions on an industrial scale is the way we tend to think. Of course we will need large scale solutions, but I think one of the major paradigm shifts we are dealing with has to do with looking not to large systems, but to the local, small scale, grass roots, from the bottom up sort of solution. If we wish to take back our lives from corporate hegemony, we will need to find ways to provide for our needs locally, sustainably, on a small scale suited to our particular environment and community.
This is why I like projects such as one I read about recently involving some folks from western Sonoma Co. in CA. They are experimenting with Jerusalem Artichokes (a low maintenance plant that grows well on marginal soil) as a source for ethanol, and a simple and inexpensive distiller to produce the fuel. Their notion is to create a local, small scale and inexpensive method for growing and distilling fuel that could be used by local farmers (and others) to provide for their fuel needs. While this approach won't solve all of our energy problems, it points the way to the sort of small scale, local, community based solution that not only addresses the need for alternative sources of energy that can avoid some of the problems you mentioned, but also provides a way out of our dependence on the corporate capitalist model.
I know there must be many individuals and small groups scattered around the country and the world that are striving on their own to come up with energy solutions that are based on the small scale, local, sustainable, community model. It is my hope that EQ.tv can become a forum and gathering place for the exchange of ideas and solutions for these scattered projects, an updated, Internet-based version of The Whole Earth Catalogue. We need to be able to connect, to share what works and what doesn't, to inspire each other, in short, to create a new kind of community.

[Todd DiRoberto]

I agree with you and this article is really nice..
Todd DiRoberto
http://www.newsguide.us/art-entertainment/movies/Todd-DiRoberto-of-...

[Chris Byrne]

@ jimmau: (Sorry about letting this comment slip.)

I was in the Plenary audience @ Bioneers for the Mycohol announcement. VERY exciting, and I am surprised that we have yet to hear more yet (I suspect it was a concept at the time of the announcement, supported by the rough visual he used in an otherwise polished presentation). It is this type of regional processing that I think will be one ingredient (along with redesigning our consumption needs) of our energy future.

For those who did not see it, in brief (as I understand it): The challenge with making biofuels from wood is that the carbohydrate is not easily accessible as it is in other plant matter (corn, sugar beets, etc.). So, ethanol is distilled by letting the yeast work their magic on the carbs (sugars) made available by plant sugars. Methanol is Wood Alcohol, and in order to make these carbs available, there has to be a process to break down the cell wall (I guess) and free all those carbs to let the yeast have at it. To lengthy a process to realize on any significant scale.

Staments calls Fungi "the interface between life and death". Think about it, a tree falls in the woods and the mushrooms move in to turn that death into new soil, decomposing the wood. Staments suggested (among a whirlwind of other mushroom applications, including myco-remediation: using mushrooms to clean up toxic sites; and Myco-pesticides, yikes!) using the mycohol process to produce Methanol.

So, where is it? I appreciate that Staments protects his "intellectual property" so that nobody can corrupt it, but I wonder if this doesn't also influence the adoption curve as well... ah, but that is fodder for another thread.

Oh, one more thing: My Permaculture mentor Tom Ward has suggested that chipping is not enough for decomposing old wood (fast enough to use it to build soil on site) and that it needs to be shredded (I think b/c of the greater exposed surface area). Either way, this is another mechanical process that needs to be incorporated in the EROI.

[EQTV]

Hydrogen from Algae

Genetically modified algae could be efficient producers of hydrogen and biofuels.

Read this article:

[Chris Byrne]

Jim- I agree, all around!

I appreciate the value of science and technology, but my inner precautionary principle alarm goes off when (for example) i see ants blown open from within by a spore that they were tricked into eating by crafty humans who often rush "innovation" adoption without considering all of the implications. My next thought is: ok, as long as it doesn't get out of hand and make mushrooms out of ALL the ants on earth... talk about Pandora's Raid can! I haven't seen anything that says it would, but the YIKES flag still goes up.

Back to the point of this thread, this also comes up for me with the genetech work around algae and celluose digester bugs. If you haven't already, check out the latest issue of WIRED. The article on Switch-grass mentions some of the 'creative enhancement' schemes that scientists have in mind for microbes in order to produce our fuel. Inspiring and Scary... And, when you consider that we are exploring sites like Chernobyl for mutations to propagate in labs... well it's all just a wild ride, isn't it?

The big thing for me about Bio-Fuels is this: I think they give a false sense of hope as a Green magic elixir to a culture that should be considering them as a COMPONENT of the solution. However, Bio-Diesel and other Bio-Fuels could actually be the reinforcing feedback loop that pushes the environmental crisis over the edge as we plant the last of the praires, just as humans once felled the last of their surrounding forests for charcoal.

That said, the promise of an energy economy that is aware and sensitive to the solar income, rather than liquidating the fossil trust fund is a promising step for humanity as we enter the age of sustainability. Where then is the healthy balance?

[Chris Byrne]

WISDOM is exactly the point. And no, we don't have it (yet).

Concentrated and available as it may be compared to alternatives, I think the present energy situation is a bit of a silver lining, as it will force us to come to grips with the bounds of the material plane upon which our evolution is precariously perched. As you say, to develop a human ability "to understand the uniqueness of itself and its ability to make or break its own destiny".

This is why the position of Integral Institute is that the Ecological Crisis is actually a crisis of consciousness. The science we can figure out, but where that science is directed is a product of our intention.

I pray we figure out "the interiors" (our intentions) before someone figures out 'Zero Point' in the exterior, as we may then be up to our necks in iPods in less than a week. Carbon scarcity--at the source and sink--is forcing us to grow up as a species. Simply replacing the object (fuel source) without examining the greater systemic influences (e.g. a perpetual growth economy tied to physical goods) is an immature arrogance we do not have the luxury to entertain.

[Chris Byrne]

So, on to solutions. One of the visionaries in our Bio-Region (the Rogue Valley, Oregon) is looking into converting a distillery to produce Ethanol. I imagine this could provide a fair amount of fuel for mechanical (mostly farm) work, but certainly will not sustain a car culture.

What are some of the existing (or realistically promising) small to regional scale, climatically appropriate solutions that we as a group are aware of? What are the feedstock sources? (Hawaii would be easy, as there is a Palm Oil guild (co-planting group) that could produce 900gal/acre annually, sustainably). What is the time to yield ratio ("power" in physics is energy with a time component)?

[Les]

I think if we concentrate the effort in the Waste to fuel direction we could positively effect our current pollution problems in a huge way.

Your thoughts?