asking Al Gore to run in 2008!
Looking forward to the 18th century
Posted March 2nd, 2007 by dbciii
OK, the title doesn't tell you much. But I thought it creative.
The actual subject is biofuel.
The ethanol-from-corn "movement" is off base. If it were not subsidized, there is no way it would be economical unless/until fossil fuel costs went up severalfold.
Ethanol from renewable biomass, however, is a viable prospective energy source. It turns out that the best source is sugarcane. The second best is switchgrass.
http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org/enews/enews_0505/enews_0505_Cellulosic...
Sugarcane grows in subtropical climates. There is less land in cane sugar now than there was a few decades ago. In some areas sugarcane plantations have been converted to more lucrative food crops like macadamia nuts.
Switchgrass is a native American prarie grass. It will grow prolifically in more northern climes than sugarcane. I have a stand of it in my front yard in Northern Illinois.
Switchgrass is a perennial grass; it puts roots down several feet, and once mature (takes 2-3 years) sends up shoots as high as eight feet, with "stalks" about the diameter of a #2 pencil, maybe a little larger. It grows densely, spreads both by seed and via rhizomes. It will choke out competition, needs no herbicides/pesticides to thrive in N America (unlike corn). With its deep root system it is very drought tolerant.
http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/commodity/biomass/switchgrass/
There is raging debate over whether it is acceptable to divert corn from food to fuel production; also whether diverting land from corn to nonfood production is a good thing. That will eventually be resolved, and the bigots will get out of the way and let logic prevail. Switchgrass will grow in areas that corn won't It will grow on what is now "range and pasture". The profit from the switchgrass per acre will exceed that of meat production. So when the world figures that out and the naysayers get out of the way, this is an industry that is going to explode.
In the meantime, time's a-wastin.
If we were to decide to gear up and produce large quantities of ethanol from switchgrass, we would need, obviously, processing facilities, transportation methods/infrastructure, and large quantities of the biomass.
The research and development into processing is happening (it should be accelerated) and the transport issue is not too complicated. Grain cars won't work, but the harvesting equipment that is used to make those big rolls of hay can be used, and the rolls themselves loaded on pulpwood cars, or even in rotary-dump coal cars. the low density would call for a long-term shift to very high volume cars for efficiency, but we could at least get started.
But go back to what I said about the time for the stuff to mature. Several years, assuming it is planted densely. The development of large acreage of the stuff will require vast amounts of seed and then a long wait until it is productive. It could be harvested in the first year - won't hurt it any - but the low volume probably would not justify operating the machinery. Better to leave it and let it reseed itself. To kick-start the process one could take "plugs" from a mature stand of the stuff and scatter them across many acres, then let them spread.
We have some 40 million acres of "idled" cropland - that means the govt is paying people to not grow anything. That land should be put into switchgrass - now!
Two benefits:
The stuff will grow and spread untended, taking carbon from the atmosphere and putting it into those roots and stalks.
There will be, when the time comes, a vast reservoir of seed crop and available "plugs" to ramp up production in other land.
There is no downside to this. If we don't ramp up biofuel in the next decade (and most of us believe we must) the stuff will just continue to extract carbon, provide beautiful grasslands, habitat for wildlife.
We need to get the USDA behind this. It's not complicated. Just pay people an extra couple of bucks to sow switchgrass vs. nothing. The USDA can "own" the crop, since they paid for it, and if we as a nation need it, we have it. Just like the "oil reserve".
And back to my title: we'll have vast acreage of 18th century American prarieland again!
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biofuels
Are you really sure sugarcane and switchgrass are the best sources for biofuels?
www.hemp4fuel.com/
you did see my signature, didn't you??
:)
"Grass" - a means of escape from reality, or a real means of escape for the planet.
and yet another thing
BAN LEAF BURNING!
Leaves are the product of photosynthesis. They are made up largely of carbon removed from the atmosphere. Burning them is outrageous.
If you want to rake them up to make a clearing around your house, well, fine. But chop them up with your lawnmower and put them around the shrubbery (the fuel burned by the lawnmower is unfortunate; we have to work on that too).
Lobby your municipality to ban burning, and to provide curbside pickup. The leaves can be composted on public land, eventually used as topsoil. Or they can be used as an annual topdressing for all those median strips. They 'll decompose, returning the carbon to the soil.
The promotion to "plant a tree" as a way of doing your small part to help is largely pointless if the leaves are burned.
I put all the leaves from my yard into the woods at the back of my yard; For several years I used to gather up other people's bags of leaves and put them there too.
The soil there was hardpacked clay when I moved in 25 years ago because the former owner raked and groomed back there. Now it is spongy loam, with plenty of jack-in-the-pulpit and such growing in all that decomposing biomass. The oak trees are happier too.
"Grass" - a means of escape from reality, or a real means of escape for the planet.
Oh, and another thing
What's up with al those expressway medians and shoulders? Plant switchgrass and let it thrive!! Stop Mowing! Even if you don't harvest it for fuel, switchgrass is busily pumping carbon OUT of the atmosphere and locking it up in biomass. It is native; it does not need to be cultivated. Let it grow! It is beautiful, it is great small animal habitat. This is a no-brainer.
Actually, there are other species that would be nice to use decoratively as well - all the native prarie grasses and wildflowers.
This planet developed its oxygen-rich atmosphere as a direct product of the development of photosynthesis. Algae were the big terraforming pioneers - they are what we got and venus did not that resulted in venus' runaway greenhouse effect and ambient surface temperature of some 900 deg F, as I recall. Thus the name for my Algae Awards website (that and the play on Al G.) Higher forms of plant life came along to join the party and pull carbon from the atmosphere and lock it into the soil. Huge ferns. Then grasses, deciduous trees in rainforests, etc.
A billion years or so of that went on to make the place habitable, develop the climate we have today. Then we started digging up and pumping up all that locked away carbon, combining it with oxygen, and releasing it back into the atmosphere. The naysayers who insist "oh, the earth has survived this long; it will continue" are only correct if the earth's solution is to do what the human body does to fight an infection - run a high fever and kill it off. Of course the infection is us in this case. Those same naysayers in many cases also believe the virgin mary appears to them on a cheese sandwich, and that the Apollo moon landings were faked.
Regardless of all the things we need to do to change lifestyles, reduce wasteful consumption, find alternative energy sources, one thing that is cheap, readily doable, and a step in the right direction is to ENCOURAGE our carbon-removing fellow inhabitants to do their thing wherever we can. DON'T mow the median and make it look like a green gulley. The volume of carbon removed by turfgrass vs tallgrass is miniscule. Put tallgrass everywhere you can!
that's 2nd-year switchgrass on the right, sawgrass on the left. Sawgrass is also good - as I recall it is #3 behind sugarcane and switchgrass in carbon-scavenging efficiency. Something like that anyway.
Switchgrass
they were both about twice this size this year (their third). They will be nearly mature next year. They were planted as 1-gallon pot sprigs about a foot tall and a footprint maybe as big as a coffee cup.
last year I start another section about 700 sq ft or so of prarie grass and wildflowers. I am thinking about buying a few acres of scrubland somewhere and planting it in switchgrass as a personal carbon-footprint reducer. There is a strip of land near my house that is not buildable, just lying fallow. I have not been able to find the owner yet. If I do, it may be prohibitively expensive. I will try to get the local park district to do it as a prarie restoration project. This paragraph is not meant to be self-congratulatory - it is meant as a suggestion. Go find a way to do the same!
great blog
I really enjoy reading this. Please keep writing.
Ethanol
I read somewhere that if you used all the corn and I mean ALL to produce it that would only be 22% if our energy use.
I have great trouble using a food staple as fuel, there are still hungy people in America and elsewhere.
Use grass or some other plant if needed.
well, that was my point
of course, the vast majority of the corn we produce goes to animal feed, in one of the least-efficient energy conversion systems in existence.
If people ate more soy and corn products and less beef, pork, and chicken, we'd have more land available to convert to the higher-yield switchgrass
Not to mention the additional energy consumption spent in housing, transporting, and processing the critters
18th century here we come
Great writing dbc---the switchgrass concept is great. ('scuse me, I have to keep getting up to check out the moon). As Americans, we defintely eat too much meat. They've already figured out the amount of land we use to grow grain for the beef is enough to feed the entire planet (or something like that). In our town the leaves are collected and mulched with plant clippings etc. It is then offered back to the community as free mulch to spread on the gardens to keep weeds down. (moon time) We just have to start. Hopefully some of the farmers are entrepeneurs who will figure out the value of "green oil" and get a move on it. The moon is half way back.