Jim Stillman
NevarAn alternative source for ethanol or bio-fuels.
July 27th 2007 11:51
On February 20th and on July 21st, Populist Conservative, under the blog, Angry Electorate, posted two thoughtful essays on the need for non-petroleum sources for fuel, the possibility of wide-spread utilization of ethanol, now primarily created out of corn. The utilization of corn, while it reduces the need for oil and dependence on basically unfriendly foreign regimes, unfortunately, it has consequences that are not socially or economically acceptable.
We have a serious energy/foreign policy crisis in this country. Even our President, an "oil man" with an oil background and friends, acknowledges that we have an addiction to oil. In many and obvious ways, our foreign policy in the Middle East has been dictated by our use of petroleum products. We in the United States use almost one-quarter of the petroleum available worldwide each year. The oil producing countries manipulate the production of oil to further their political aims and to keep the prices high and, as a bonus, to bring discomfort to the Western countries. Oil refiners and distributors are recording obscene profits by keeping the amount of refined fuels low, the American people are burdened with high gasoline prices at the pump.
But that is only part of the problem and consequences of our "addiction"; nearly all food products, clothing, machinery and the like are brought to retail stores by truck. When fuel costs increase, the cost of the things we buy also increase.
We are all agreed that dependence on petroleum to fuel our automobiles, trucks and trains cannot continue unabated. Other nations around the globe have been inventive and creative, devoting resources to research and develop alternative fuel sources, including harnessing the wind and ocean currents, nuclear power sources and others. One possible answer utilized in this country is the manufacture of bio-fuels, commonly Ethanol created by the use of corn. Such production is being undertaken at this time. The fuel that results is gasoline diluted with ethanol.
Unfortunately, the diversion of corn from the food chain has an adverse effect on the cost and availability of beef and pork for human consumption. A multitude of other products are similarly affected, prices increase, and production is disrupted in a variety of industries and with regard to a multiplicity of products. Perhaps far worse, when disadvantages of ethanol are made evident, the oil producers act to encourage the rape of the environment in this country or off our coasts.
Individuals have proceeded where industry and governments have not acted. Our neighbor has a Recreational Vehicle used for trips throughout the southeastern United States. At a cost of under $3,000., he has converted the RV’s diesel engine to run on used grease from fast food restaurants he passes along the way. It is a win-win situation; restaurants pay haulers to remove drums of the used grease and are thrilled to have someone pick it up at no cost to them. Our friend, on the other hand, has free fuel – although he acknowledges that, when stopped at a traffic light, there wafts an odor of French fries!
What is needed is a renewable vegetable source, using a plant that has no other practical use, is readily available and grows quickly with little or no energy involved it its production. One of the major disadvantages of many substitute fuels is that the cost of production often exceeds the resultant energy. Research and prototype programs in Brazil, Alberta Canada and in the United States have not proven to be very efficient in this regard.
There is, in fact, a plant that is available for the production of bio-fuels, readily available, renewable, of no alternative use. Moreover, there is no energy expended in its growth.
Many years ago, driving along the west coast of Florida, to Tallahassee, taking children to college if it matters, we came upon a strange sight, worthy of a Twilight Zone plot. A vine had covered entire fields, grown over small abandoned buildings and farm equipment, up and over trees and telephone poles; it was everywhere.
Recent news events reminded me of this vine, called Kudzu.
Kudzu was brought to the United States in 1876 where it was strongly promoted by the Federal government as a way to combat erosion and as a forage crop. During the years after its coming to the United States, and through the years preceding World War II, it was planted throughout areas of the United States, primarily in the south. To say that it thrived is an understatement. It grew and spread and spread and spread, earning the nickname, the Weed that Ate the South! It is now classified as a nuisance plant, in spite of some useful attributes of the vine.
There has been an increased interest in non-fossil fuels, bio-fuels as ethanol. In this country, as a result of strenuous lobbying by farm interests, led by giant Archer-Daniels-Midland, the primary source of ethanol has been corn. The Law of Unforeseen Consequences came into play a while ago and as pointed out by my friend, Political Conservative, when it was reported that, with vast amounts of corn being diverted to ethanol production, there was insufficient quantities for feed lots. As a result, the price of beef and pork and chicken was expected to increase.
Ethanol could be made from any plant apparently, including sugar cane, of which there is abundance in Florida. It won't happen because of tariff and import restrictions designed to keep the large sugar mega-corporations enjoying record profits (while poisoning the Everglades - at least that part that developers haven't already destroyed.)
Everyone, save the oil producers and refiners, agrees that we must find and develop alternative, non-petroleum sources of energy. A number of organizations are promoting wind power, hydro-electric sources and bio-fuels. As I and others have noted, removing food products from food chain has dire consequences both here and abroad. The answer would be a source for the production of ethanol or other fuels from a non-food source, one that is fast growing, readily available and constantly renewable.
Kudzu seems to fit the bill.
The primary problem with Kudzu is that it grows to well, is darn impossible to eradicate and grows at a prodigious rate. The vine will grow from spring to frost at a rate of a foot per day, or about sixty feet pet season. In its spread, it will cover small buildings, abandoned machinery, climb trees and telephone poles alike. In the United States, it has taken over fields from southern Florida and the Florida Keys to Pennsylvania. There have been reports of invading Kudzu covering fields in Australia. Pictures of Kudzu infested fields are like a science fiction motion picture! One unhappy result of the rapid growth of the plant and the apparent inability to control it is that native crops are forced out.
Does it have any uses? Inventive folks in the south have developed a cottage industry in using Kudzu for jellies and other edibles. Other people have fashioned baskets out of the vine. In Georgia, especially, the vine is used for foraging for goats and other livestock.
In China and Japan, Kudzu is used in folk medicine and, in fact, researchers have worked for years to develop attributes of Kudzu that seem to have an effect on alcoholism. Research is continuing to explore various medicinal uses for the "weed".
Researchers are just now working on the use of Kudzu to produce cellulosic ethanol. In correspondence with researchers at the University of Alabama, I was advised that a possible break through is close. It is ironic that a noxious weed, one that has had numerous studies on how to eradicate it could be a way to get rid of energy dependence on OPEC and nations that are certainly not our friends.
It is time that the Federal government put in the time, money and resources to develop Kudzu as a renewable bio-fuel source. The present focus on rewarding the oil companies with drilling rights in wilderness areas, off the coast and elsewhere in environmentally fragile landscapes may be a fine way to reward campaign contributors but it’s a lousy way to look to the future.
We have a serious energy/foreign policy crisis in this country. Even our President, an "oil man" with an oil background and friends, acknowledges that we have an addiction to oil. In many and obvious ways, our foreign policy in the Middle East has been dictated by our use of petroleum products. We in the United States use almost one-quarter of the petroleum available worldwide each year. The oil producing countries manipulate the production of oil to further their political aims and to keep the prices high and, as a bonus, to bring discomfort to the Western countries. Oil refiners and distributors are recording obscene profits by keeping the amount of refined fuels low, the American people are burdened with high gasoline prices at the pump.
But that is only part of the problem and consequences of our "addiction"; nearly all food products, clothing, machinery and the like are brought to retail stores by truck. When fuel costs increase, the cost of the things we buy also increase.
We are all agreed that dependence on petroleum to fuel our automobiles, trucks and trains cannot continue unabated. Other nations around the globe have been inventive and creative, devoting resources to research and develop alternative fuel sources, including harnessing the wind and ocean currents, nuclear power sources and others. One possible answer utilized in this country is the manufacture of bio-fuels, commonly Ethanol created by the use of corn. Such production is being undertaken at this time. The fuel that results is gasoline diluted with ethanol.
Unfortunately, the diversion of corn from the food chain has an adverse effect on the cost and availability of beef and pork for human consumption. A multitude of other products are similarly affected, prices increase, and production is disrupted in a variety of industries and with regard to a multiplicity of products. Perhaps far worse, when disadvantages of ethanol are made evident, the oil producers act to encourage the rape of the environment in this country or off our coasts.
Individuals have proceeded where industry and governments have not acted. Our neighbor has a Recreational Vehicle used for trips throughout the southeastern United States. At a cost of under $3,000., he has converted the RV’s diesel engine to run on used grease from fast food restaurants he passes along the way. It is a win-win situation; restaurants pay haulers to remove drums of the used grease and are thrilled to have someone pick it up at no cost to them. Our friend, on the other hand, has free fuel – although he acknowledges that, when stopped at a traffic light, there wafts an odor of French fries!
What is needed is a renewable vegetable source, using a plant that has no other practical use, is readily available and grows quickly with little or no energy involved it its production. One of the major disadvantages of many substitute fuels is that the cost of production often exceeds the resultant energy. Research and prototype programs in Brazil, Alberta Canada and in the United States have not proven to be very efficient in this regard.
There is, in fact, a plant that is available for the production of bio-fuels, readily available, renewable, of no alternative use. Moreover, there is no energy expended in its growth.
Many years ago, driving along the west coast of Florida, to Tallahassee, taking children to college if it matters, we came upon a strange sight, worthy of a Twilight Zone plot. A vine had covered entire fields, grown over small abandoned buildings and farm equipment, up and over trees and telephone poles; it was everywhere.
Recent news events reminded me of this vine, called Kudzu.
Kudzu was brought to the United States in 1876 where it was strongly promoted by the Federal government as a way to combat erosion and as a forage crop. During the years after its coming to the United States, and through the years preceding World War II, it was planted throughout areas of the United States, primarily in the south. To say that it thrived is an understatement. It grew and spread and spread and spread, earning the nickname, the Weed that Ate the South! It is now classified as a nuisance plant, in spite of some useful attributes of the vine.
There has been an increased interest in non-fossil fuels, bio-fuels as ethanol. In this country, as a result of strenuous lobbying by farm interests, led by giant Archer-Daniels-Midland, the primary source of ethanol has been corn. The Law of Unforeseen Consequences came into play a while ago and as pointed out by my friend, Political Conservative, when it was reported that, with vast amounts of corn being diverted to ethanol production, there was insufficient quantities for feed lots. As a result, the price of beef and pork and chicken was expected to increase.
Ethanol could be made from any plant apparently, including sugar cane, of which there is abundance in Florida. It won't happen because of tariff and import restrictions designed to keep the large sugar mega-corporations enjoying record profits (while poisoning the Everglades - at least that part that developers haven't already destroyed.)
Everyone, save the oil producers and refiners, agrees that we must find and develop alternative, non-petroleum sources of energy. A number of organizations are promoting wind power, hydro-electric sources and bio-fuels. As I and others have noted, removing food products from food chain has dire consequences both here and abroad. The answer would be a source for the production of ethanol or other fuels from a non-food source, one that is fast growing, readily available and constantly renewable.
Kudzu seems to fit the bill.
The primary problem with Kudzu is that it grows to well, is darn impossible to eradicate and grows at a prodigious rate. The vine will grow from spring to frost at a rate of a foot per day, or about sixty feet pet season. In its spread, it will cover small buildings, abandoned machinery, climb trees and telephone poles alike. In the United States, it has taken over fields from southern Florida and the Florida Keys to Pennsylvania. There have been reports of invading Kudzu covering fields in Australia. Pictures of Kudzu infested fields are like a science fiction motion picture! One unhappy result of the rapid growth of the plant and the apparent inability to control it is that native crops are forced out.
Does it have any uses? Inventive folks in the south have developed a cottage industry in using Kudzu for jellies and other edibles. Other people have fashioned baskets out of the vine. In Georgia, especially, the vine is used for foraging for goats and other livestock.
In China and Japan, Kudzu is used in folk medicine and, in fact, researchers have worked for years to develop attributes of Kudzu that seem to have an effect on alcoholism. Research is continuing to explore various medicinal uses for the "weed".
Researchers are just now working on the use of Kudzu to produce cellulosic ethanol. In correspondence with researchers at the University of Alabama, I was advised that a possible break through is close. It is ironic that a noxious weed, one that has had numerous studies on how to eradicate it could be a way to get rid of energy dependence on OPEC and nations that are certainly not our friends.
It is time that the Federal government put in the time, money and resources to develop Kudzu as a renewable bio-fuel source. The present focus on rewarding the oil companies with drilling rights in wilderness areas, off the coast and elsewhere in environmentally fragile landscapes may be a fine way to reward campaign contributors but it’s a lousy way to look to the future.
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Comment by PopulistConservative
Angry Electorate
I always wished that folks could find a use for the useless (like fingernail clippings or cut hair). And I had hoped by now that we would have a trash-powered flying automobile (a la the scene in Back to the Future). A use for kudzu as fuel sounds like a great idea, though. Maybe they could eventually make home conversion equipment and folks could grow their own "fuel".
As with all of these "breakthroughs", though, I remain a skeptic until we actually see something concrete in the marketplace. Our presidents have been talking about the need to reduce our dependence on oil for 30 years. It's proving time.
Comment by Elroy
Elroy's Orble Warble!™
I have never heard of Kudzu, although according to you it is rife down here in Australia, but it doesn’t sound like the perfect solution to me.
It sounds like it runs absolutely riot and is uncontrollable; if grown if the quantities required, it will be everywhere.
There is another crop far more suited to the task. It grows anywhere, will not compete with food supplies, can be grown on marginal land anywhere in the world, needs no pesticides and little water, and has tens of thousands of uses from paper to medicine to cloth to building products and, of course, is by far the most efficient for making fuel.
It is called Hemp, and it could save the world if only we can get the political chumps that ban it for no rational reason to wake up and smell the burning oil.
http://www.hemp4fuel.com/
Cheers
Elroy