Cellulosic Ethanol

[Avalon]

I am curious to know if anyone has heard about cellulosic ethanol made from rice stalks.
From what I've been told it does not take food off of anyones plate. It only uses the stalks from rice and other stalky plants such as oat and wheat stalks. The snake oild salesman told me that it is much more efficient than corn ethanol and that there is no waste. Sad to say I can not find much information on it other than the comapny he is representing. Dont know that I would invest in it even if it was viable. But I am curious to see if anyone knows much about it...

 

[dun]

This is all I've heard and read about it. This is just a segment of the attached link:
However, it is only recently that cost-effective technologies for producing ethanol-from-cellulose (EFC) in the US have started to emerge. That in theory has been the drawback up until now (and probably the forseeable future).

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-017.html

 

[TexasBred]

Not all that much info available other than several universities are doing research on it. Some work was done on using "switch grass" and I understand sugar cane produces much more ethanol per ton than corn. Probably will take several years of gov't funded research and expensive corn before we get an answer.

 

[john250]

It seems to me the huge volume of crop residue needed is a big stumbling block, but I hope the research efforts continue.

 

[TexasBred]

It seems to me the huge volume of crop residue needed is a big stumbling block, but I hope the research efforts continue.

In the meantime we use "corn". May corn closed today at $5.665

 

[john250]

It seems to me the huge volume of crop residue needed is a big stumbling block, but I hope the research efforts continue.

In the meantime we use "corn". May corn closed today at $5.665

Yep. Several local farmers are posting armed guards around the grain bins. Or will be.

 

[BusterBrown]

Yep. Several local farmers are posting armed guards around the grain bins. Or will be.

Good Night Nurse.

I think the beginning of the end has come and gone. :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

I am not an ethanol advocate but here is my opinion on the topic.
Cellulosic ethanol is still a few years away from being able to even operate on a pilot-plant scale.
There are many firms trying switchgrass, algae, corn stover, rice hulls, sorghum, etc. but noone has the technology to make a good run at it...yet. There is a lot of money being thrown at this field- mostly wealthy -environmentally conscious venture capitalists from California.
Corn ethanol is most popular in the US because corn used to be $2.00 bushel and it makes us feel good inside to say we are growing our own fuel. Let's see how much longer this can go on.
About once a week someone tells me how Brazil is making ethanol from sugarcane and almost providing all of their country's energy needs. They tell me this as though they are the only person that has heard that Brazil makes ehtanol from sugarcane and as soon as word gets out in the US we will convert cane to ethanol and make unheard of fortunes. Ethanol from sugarcane works in Brazil- but they operate on a different sugarcane growing model than in the U.S.

40 Years from now we will look back at the history books and wonder why on Earth we were burning our food in gas tanks!!!

 

[EAT BEEF]

I am not an ethanol advocate but here is my opinion on the topic.
Cellulosic ethanol is still a few years away from being able to even operate on a pilot-plant scale.
There are many firms trying switchgrass, algae, corn stover, rice hulls, sorghum, etc. but noone has the technology to make a good run at it...yet. There is a lot of money being thrown at this field- mostly wealthy -environmentally conscious venture capitalists from California.
Corn ethanol is most popular in the US because corn used to be $2.00 bushel and it makes us feel good inside to say we are growing our own fuel. Let's see how much longer this can go on.
About once a week someone tells me how Brazil is making ethanol from sugarcane and almost providing all of their country's energy needs. They tell me this as though they are the only person that has heard that Brazil makes ehtanol from sugarcane and as soon as word gets out in the US we will convert cane to ethanol and make unheard of fortunes. Ethanol from sugarcane works in Brazil- but they operate on a different sugarcane growing model than in the U.S.

40 Years from now we will look back at the history books and wonder why on Earth we were burning our food in gas tanks!!!

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[pdfangus]

I continue to argue that ethanol is getting an unfair bad rap for grain prices.

Yes Ethanol plants do use corn.

But..... ethanol plants wer built on a model of cheap corn and gas had to be near three dollars a gallon for the ethanol plants to be competitive.

Lots of Ethanol plants that were under construction are now just sitting partially built because the economics are not right.

World demand is what is driving grain prices. actually wheat prices were the first of the grains to see dramatic increases. Wheat is still at all time highs and it is not used in ethanol and is not a good replacement or corn for livestock feed. Similar situation for soy beans.

The economies of china and India are booming and they have money to spend which is a relatively new phenomenon in world events. People with money are demanding a better life style and they want fuel and food. Look at the grain exporting reports. Look at meat exporting reports. In a strange turn of events we have gone form the manufacturing and technology center of the universe back to being the agrarian exporter while the manufacturing and exporting jobs have moved overseas.

The drought experienced in the southeast last year is not without impact as well.

Biomass ethanol would be a beneficial product. So would hydrogen fuel cells. But we do not have the technology yet for either.

Ethanol has gone form the status of potential savior to the red headed step child in terms of public perception, faster than anything I have ever seen. In reality it deserves neither the glory nor the blame that it is getting.