Things are looking optimistic for a few "disruptive" forms of alternative
energy, but prior to major announcements, we will still need many years - at
least a decade of renewable alternatives to fossil fuel - just to keep
afloat. Even with drastic efforts at conservation, increased use of solar,
wind, and hybrid autos - the Big-Oil plus OPEC (BOO) price-gouging Cartel
will try to squeeze every last dollar from consumers.
"Corn cobs" are a waste product which could possibly be available in equal
tonnage to corn . once useful for only a few non-hygienic applications .
err. like MacArthur's pipe. but - hello - this waste is now becoming the
feedstock of choice for cellulosic ethanol.
POET has become the largest ethanol producer in the world, producing more
than 1.5 billion gallons annually from 26 US production facilities. They are
also a Ag-Tech leader in cellulosic output, and greener-than-green in
everything else.
http://www.poet.com <http://www.poet.com/>
Yet they are only one of dozens of players in biofuel, including many
sponsored by BOO (they know a good thing when they see it).
Biofuel skeptics once falsely claimed that the production of ethanol
required large inputs of fossil fuels, but Poet proved them wrong in 2007 by
going entirely green, replacing natural gas with renewables. In Brazil this
was already being done routinely by utilizing waste biomass "bagasse" as the
primary energy source for distillation. Poet had to secure waste wood
(sawdust) to do it; but as it turns out, sawdust does not make a good
cellulosic feedstock anyway, due to tannin, although some companies are
using it.
Poet is also making use of cogeneration to produce heat and grid power. One
ethanol plant in rural Minn. produces over 50 million gallons of ethanol and
a few MW of electricity for the local grid - a natural synergy especially in
rural areas where the big utilities are not efficient for that low level of
demand (few hundred homes).
Poet developed a cellulosic ethanol tech which uses corn cobs as feedstock -
and their 25 million gallons-per-year plant is being co-located with a
current grain ethanol plant - another natural fit. They have a pilot-scale
plant that is already producing non-grain ethanol at a rate of 20,000
gallons per year, so this is not a leap of faith.
With price controls and proper incentives, the US could, and probably will,
double ethanol output in three years - 2012 - without adversely affecting
food supplies. In fact the net effect of this will be positive for
non-starch food - plus few experts would be surprised if production were not
more than doubled.
Nearly all of the protein which was in the corn to begin with, survives the
process and is now sold as brewer's yeast. Added to that the cellulosic
feedstock (initially with only a fraction of the protein) will actually add
to the food tonnage which is available, since fermentation adds new protein.
Thus the net food resource will be more, not less, in terms of non-starchy
food (available in the form of yeast protein) deriving from a much larger
biofuel industry that includes cellulose.
http://www.reuters.com/article/smallBusinessNews/idUSTRE50869B20090109
Can you buy into this "growth industry"? Biofuels are not easy to invest in.
Most of the big players like Poet are privately owned, or owned by
conglomerates. The Spanish company mentioned below, Abengoa BioEnergy, could
be interesting.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/159588-how-to-invest-in-cellulosic-ethanol
We (USA) might just get out of this energy crisis in a couple of years,
fully intact as a healthy economy - thanks (as always) to the productivity
and ingenuity of the American farmer.
