Article

2008-01-26 Science & Technology

Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn

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Posted by 3dc 2008-01-26 13:37|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 It looks promising, and is an interesting combination of gassification and bacteriological process (producing bacteria pi$$, or ethanol). I would withhold judgment until some serious scale-up is done, as there can be serious problems to overcome in scaling up the process.

Though, over it does look promising.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2008-01-26 14:04|| 2008-01-26 14:04|| Front Page Top

#2 over, meaning overall. PIMF

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2008-01-26 14:04|| 2008-01-26 14:04|| Front Page Top

#3 My pickup will run fine on alcohol, put me down for 50 gallons a month.(16 gallon tank X 3 fillups, about average) Heck I'll even go 1.50 a gallon.

The hell with the muddle east.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-01-26 16:06|| 2008-01-26 16:06|| Front Page Top

#4 The heck with the pickup, I run just fine on PGA at a buck a gallon.

Posted by BrerRabbit 2008-01-26 16:27|| 2008-01-26 16:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Note that the pilot plant that will make roughly 100 gallons a day is a year away. I'm thinking that this is a strangely slow pace for something that sounds so good. Stock buyers: beware.

Posted by Darrell 2008-01-26 17:04|| 2008-01-26 17:04|| Front Page Top

#6 If your car will get 20MPG on gas, it will probably get about 6MPG running on alcohol after seriou$ mechanical alterations to allow it to burn the boose. Alcohol has much less energy by volume. A 15% mixture is about the most alcohol that can be used without incurring higher overall operating expenses.

Posted by usmc6743 2008-01-26 17:15|| 2008-01-26 17:15|| Front Page Top

#7 The bottom line to both ethanol and biodiesel is raw materials. Any raw material that can be limited or restricted will in the long run prove to be unsatisfactory.

This leaves microorganisms. Specifically algae. As long as you have a container, water and sunlight, they will grow. If you pump waste CO2 and NOx gases through them, they will grow much faster.

Unlike corn, that has perhaps 3, 90-day crops a year, in most of the US, algae could be in continual production for 10 months of the year. It has no contaminants, heavy metals, or toxins to worry about. It produces zero pollution, in fact it consumes pollutants.

Almost 50% of the weight of some algae, with minimum processing, is vegetable oil, easily converted to biodiesel. Perhaps a few percent is ethanol.

Algae production can be centralized or decentralized. The market cannot be cornered, and even refinement cannot be controlled by a cartel. Even a farming co-op may be large enough to afford production and refinement for their own needs.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-01-26 17:26|| 2008-01-26 17:26|| Front Page Top

#8 "This leaves microorganisms. Specifically algae."
PETA will be all over this.

Posted by Large Glinetch9544 2008-01-26 18:40|| 2008-01-26 18:40|| Front Page Top

#9 I'm sure the Goracle will claim it'll cause GloBull Worming.

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-01-26 18:51|| 2008-01-26 18:51|| Front Page Top

#10 Actually, ethanol has approximately 70% the energy density of 87 octane gasoline. However, alcohols need to be run in either supergcharged or turbocharge engines to yield the full capacity of the fuel. We commonly run our supercharged Chrysler Hemi at 32 Pounds boost on methanol and have no detonation. Methanol has slightly lees energy than ethanol. However, the real fuel for autos will be butanol, a 4 carbon alcohol which has approximately 88-90% energy density compared to 87 octane. This can be produced using algae/bacteria also. This research is being funded primarily by Shell oil. They have produced small lab quantities already. This could be exciting. If we utilize the new coal gasification whereby carbon monoxide is separated before burning, this could be used as feedstock for fuels, plastics, etc. F**k the camel lovers. Hugo, when we get up & running, we gonna piss in your shoe too.

Posted by Woozle Elmeter 2907 2008-01-26 18:58|| 2008-01-26 18:58|| Front Page Top

#11 We commonly run our supercharged Chrysler Hemi at 32 Pounds boost on methanol and have no detonation
:(

You not married are you?

Posted by Thomas Woof 2008-01-26 19:23|| http://www.cybernations.net]">[http://www.cybernations.net] 2008-01-26 19:23|| Front Page Top

#12 produced using algae

No Chloroplasts For Oil!

Posted by SteveS 2008-01-26 22:50|| 2008-01-26 22:50|| Front Page Top

#13 We run the piss out of methanol in our naturally aspirated 400 chev. Dirt tracks all over the country are running multiple classes on methanol with no boost. Runs just fine as long as the compression is high enough. Won't run worth a damn below 12.5-1. At 14.5 it runs very well.

Ethanol is burned all day every day with no boost. However, boost would be better. Automobile manufacturers could do themselves some great favors in terms pf gas mileage if they used smaller motors with turbos, or superchargers.

Or Hemis with 8-71's. Cuz thems just cooooool.

Posted by Mike N. 2008-01-26 22:59|| 2008-01-26 22:59|| Front Page Top

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