Pipe dreamsJones, do not discount BLP. They appear to be on target but will not invite publicity unitl they are good and ready. They are very well financed and far from stupid.
Mike Carrell ----- Original Message ----- From: Jones Beene To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2009 1:03 PM Subject: [Vo]:Pipe dreams 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 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. ________________________________________________________________________ This Email has been scanned for all viruses by Medford Leas I.T. Department.
