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<$Project P.E.A.C.E. -- Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics$>
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"Hemp as Biomass for Energy"
by Tim Castleman
© Fuel and Fiber Company, 2001
The following information is from
Hemp Cellulose for Ethanol
http://www.fuelandfiber.com/Hemp4NRG/Hemp4NRG.htm#_Toc518830639
Another approach will involve conversion of cellulose to ethanol, which can be done in several ways including gasification, acid hydrolysis and a technology utilizing engineered enzymes to convert cellulose to glucose, which is then fermented to make alcohol. Still another approach using enzymes will convert cellulose directly to alcohol, which leads to substantial process cost savings.
Current costs associated with these conversion processes are about $1.37 per gallon of fuel produced, plus the cost of the feedstock. Of this $1.37, enzyme costs are about $0.50 per gallon; current research efforts are directed toward reduction of this amount to $0.05 per gallon. There is a Federal tax credit of $0.54 per gallon and a number of other various incentives available. Conversion rates range from a low of 25-30 gallons per ton of biomass to 100 gallons per ton using the latest technology.
In 1998 the total California gasoline demand was 14 billion gallons. When ethanol is used to replace MTBE as an oxygenate, this will create California demand in excess of 700 million gallons per year. MTBE is to be phased out of use by 2003 according to State law.
Conversion of cellulose to alcohol:
* Hydrolysis (Enzymatic & Acid)
Conversion of cellulose to fermentable glucose holds the greatest promise from both a production and feedstock supply standpoint. DOE (NREL) and a number of Universities and private enterprise have been developing this technology and achieved a number of milestones. Production estimates of 100 gallons per ton of biomass make this technology a major part of the focus of this paper.
* Anaerobic digester
Anaerobic digestion is used to capture methane from green waste material. It is confirmed technology under commercialization utilizing landfill gases, wastewater treatment system gases, agricultural wastes from several other sources. Methanol is highly toxic and corrosive to more materials than ethanol. It is well suited for distributed power generation when co-located with electrical generation equipment. For example, Corporation for Future Resources and Minusa Coffee Company, Ltda., located near Itaipé, Minas Gerais, Brazil, have teamed to construct an anaerobic fermentation digestion facility at Minusa's coffee operation. The 600 cubic meter digester is designed to continuously produce methane rich gas, to be used for coffee drying and electric power production, as well as nitrogen-rich anaerobic organic fertilizer
CFR/Minusa Anaerobic digester in Brazil.
The digester is constructed from native granite
blocks quarried at the Minusa site.
This technology may be attractive in some cases when co-located with a hemp fiber processing facility or in remote locations to provide local power generation.
About Hemp
Industrial hemp can be grown in most climates and on marginal soils. It requires little or no herbicide and no pesticide, and uses less water than cotton. Measurements at Ridgetown College indicate the crop needs 300-400 mm (10-13 in.) of rainfall equivalent. Yields will vary according to local conditions and will range from 1.5 to 6 bone dry tons of biomass per acre. California's rich croplands and growing environment are expected to increase yields by 20% over Canadian results, which will average at least 3.9 bone dry tons per acre.
posted by projectpeace @
12:23 PM
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Saturday, June 05, 2004  |
Here are several websites that describe progress in using ethanol as aviation fuel ("avgas"). Currently avgas is the only fuel which still has lead in it because of high octane requirements. It is my intention that by making this information available the value of Cannabis as an industrial feedstock for production of ethanol and biodiesel fuels, food, medicines, paper, etc. will take logical presedence over the counter-productive prohibition of 'marijuana.'
"FAA CERTIFIES ETHANOL-BASED AVIATION FUEL"
http://www.ethanolRFA.org/EReports/er120299.html?NS-search-set=\40c14\s68.c14da7&NS-doc-offset=1&
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently certified an ethanol-based, lead-free fuel for piston-engine aircraft. The fuel, which is about 85 percent ethanol and contains a high-octane petroleum product and biodiesel for lubrication, is known as AGE85.
AGE85 was developed during a three-year research project funded by the South Dakota Corn
Utilization Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The National Alternative Fuels Laboratory (NAFL) formulated the fuel at the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC).
Currently, aviation gasoline (avgas) for piston-engine aircraft contains four times more lead than was used in leaded automotive gasolines before it was banned in 1973. Because the lead additive has been the most economical method for achieving 100-octane fuel, leaded avgas has remained the standard for high-performance piston-engine planes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to permit the use of leaded avgas until an economic alternative was developed.
That time has come, according to Ted Aulich, the EERC Research Manager in charge of the NAFL. "Based on a current price of pure ethanol at 95 cents a gallon, AGE85 is expected to sell at the pump for about $1.10 per gallon, compared to the current avgas price of $2," Aulich said. The current avgas market in the U.S. is approximately 600-700 million gallons per year.
In flight tests and engine teardown inspections conducted over the last year, AGE85 was
demonstrated to meet or exceed FAA performance, materials compatibility and engine component wear specifications. It was approved for use in several different models of Cessna aircraft equipped with Continental engines, and plans include certifying at least 50 percent of the current aircraft fleet within the next one to two years.
ward to North Dakota for Ethanol Aviation Fuel Study
http://www.ethanol-gec.org/jan2002/jan06.html
The University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center has been awarded a $765,000 contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to optimize and develop the
specifications for aviation-grade ethanol fuel. This fuel can be utilized in Piper, Cirrus and Cessna aircraft. "We burn 532,000 gallons of aviation gas annually," said Bruce Smith, Dean, John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. "With estimates showing that this fuel can be as much as 50 cents less per gallon than our current aviation gas, switching to aviation ethanol will create important savings."
Potential benefits of aviation ethanol include the fact that it is lead-free, its high octane content provides more power than standard aviation gasoline and it causes less engine wear than aviation gas, allowing longer time between engine overhauls.
"Research That's Making a Difference - Ethanol Aviation Fuel"
http://www.baylortv.com/video.php?id=000237
March 18, 2003
(News and Events)
Dr. Max Shauck, professor of aviation sciences and director of Baylor University's newly
established Institute for Air Science, has been recognized for his research and development of a renewable clean-burning aviation fuel.
"Ethanol as an Aviation Fuel"
http://www.eere.energy.gov/power/tech_access/docs/51_ethanol_as_aviation_fuel.cfm
* Summary
* Project Background
* The Project
* Performance Data
* Economic Data
* Contact
Summary
"Aviation gasoline (avgas), the only leaded fuel remaining in the United States' transportation fuel market, is to be phased out by mandate of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has set out to demonstrate that pure denatured ethanol represents a viable, highoctane alternative fuel in the field of aviation.
Baylor's Renewable Aviation Fuels Development Center (RAFDC) participates in airshows in the United States and abroad to promote the fuel's superior power delivery, clean burning properties, octane levels, costs and reliability. Ethanol is usually produced from corn; however, at some of the air shows, ethanol has been sourced from manufacturers who produce it from other renewable biomass resources such as orange waste or sugar beets (see Table 1)."
This is the website for the
Congressional Biofuels Caucuses
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/leg_cauc_fuels.shtml
Please check to see if your elected Representatives support this important work, then point out to them the significance of Cannabis is a primary sustainable, organic feedstock for the biofuels industry.
posted by projectpeace @
11:25 AM
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'Marijuana' prohibition is also "hemp prohibition." Taken all together you can call it "Cannabis prohibition," which essentially eliminates the "free market" economy. Because Cannabis is the most useful plant on Earth, if it were allowed to compete in a truly "free market," then such toxic, unevenly distributed and expensive resources (such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy) would not be able to dominate human economics.
The same company (Pfizer Pharmaceutical) that donates so much money to Bush's campaign, owns Monsanto, which deals agricultural toxins. Monsanto controls 80 % of the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) market. Soy beans are the primary crop being GM'd, with Monsanto's "Round Up-Ready" Soybeans cornering the lucrative chemically-dependent agricultural market in a crop that has replaced hemp for production of protein, only because Cannabis is prohibited.
As the biodiesel market takes off with America's push to develop alternative fuels, GMO soybeans will fill the void left by the induced scarcity of organic, sustainable hemp. The economics of punishment (i.e. prisons, inflated police budgets, inflated govt bureaucracy) and the economics of chemicals (i.e. toxic energy, ag & industrial chemicals) are the economic forces that have been successful in keeping 'marijuana' prohibition in place, regardless of the rational, science-based reasoning, endless social studies and reports and public support for an end to prohibition.
We're obviously being shamelessly economically manipulated by a dominant paradigm, pure & simple. The products of that paradigm are toxic,expensive, unevenly distributed fuels, chemicals for medicine and to spray on food crops, wars to keep everybody scared and basically strung-out on TV and sports and tranquilizers, or busy, marginalized & burned-out, protesting the craziness in every way.
The good news is in the past twenty years, humankind has developed the ability to communicate electronically, globally, instantaneously, so we do have the potential to coordinate the public will. We just all need to realize what is happening and exercise our new ability in a coordinated, peaceful, time-efficient way. That's why I talk about a global "Town Hall Meeting" going from continent to continent, to achieve global consensus on ending prohibition of the world's most useful plant.
Once that's done, the economics of what works will be allowed to function as it should have been doing for the past three generations. Toxics will be devalued and organic, rotational cultivation of hemp will play its proper role in the global energy & food production equation. The limiting factor in that equation is time.
That's why it's so important to communicate between groups of people concerned with related subjects, that up to this point have missed the connection with hemp for food, fuel, medicine, paper, building materials, plastics, etc...
Happy Earth Environment Day to all from Project P.E.A.C.E.
Paul
Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/
posted by projectpeace @
11:23 AM
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