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Major advances in renewable fuels technology seen Tuesday, September 26, 2006
LANESBORO, Minn. -- Major advances in renewable fuels technology were outlined in a recent program at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning center near Lanesboro.
They included a new fuel called butanol, made from various biomass materials, and cellulosic ethanol, which is produced from a number of plant materials other than corn.
The meeting was sponsored by the Southwest Minnesota Clean Energy Resource team.
Butanol's advantages include:
It can be used to power any automobile in the same way as gasoline. Butanol at 85 percent strength can be used in cars without any change to the engine.
It produces more power than ethanol and almost as much power as gasoline.
It can be made from a great variety of plant materials, from pulp waste from paper mills and from whey, a waste product from the cheese-making process.
Norm Erickson of Rochester, who has done research on butanol, siad it was developed by David Ramey, owner of Environmental Energy, Inc. of Blacklick, Ohio.
Butanol is made through a fermentation process that involves bacteria. Hydrogen also is produced as a byproduct of butanol and it can be used to create electricity to power the production process.
Erickson said Ramey's plant makes 100 to 200 gallons of butanol per week and has plans for eventually producing it on a large scale commercially.
Erickson began working for IBM in 1961 and has served mainly as an educator and in other capacities. He also has taught classes at Winona State University, served as president of the Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching and has made presentations on energy efficiency, energy use, climate change and peak oil and natural gas.
The other newly developed energy source is cellulosic ethanol, which can be made from many kinds of plant materials, including switchgrass and other perennial crops and from wood and forest residues. Corn stalks and other crop reisdues also can be used.
Jim Kleinschmidt, who spoke on cellulosic ethanol, is the director of the Rural Communities program for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. He said one advantage of cellulosic ethanol is that it can be made from plant materials that are available all over the United States.
Kleinschmidt said additional research is needed on cellulosic ethanol, including research by farmers who want to produce the crop. Other questions concern how farmers and local communities can share in the ownershop of plants producing this kind of ethanol.
He said that present indications are that cellulosic ethanol can be produced more cheaply than ethanol made from corn, because the source materials will cost less. If that is the case, it will give producers of cellulosic ethanol an economic advantage.
Mark Lindquist, who spoke on traditional ethanol, said that it can have a major effect on energy policy and agricultural policy. He said if it becomes widely used, it could have an impact on the U.S. trade deficit, which results in part from our oil imports which exceed the value of all U.S. agricultural products. |
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