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Closed-Loop Ethanol Plant to Start Production

November 2, 2006   |   10 Comments

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"It may surprise you to learn that the most promising solution to our nation's energy crisis begins in the bowels of a waste trough, under the slotted concrete floor of a giant pen that holds 28,000 ... beef cattle."

-- Vinod Khosla, Sun Microsystems, co-founder
10 Reader Comments
Comment
1 of 10
November 2, 2006
What is the energy efficiency? Calorie input in terms of waste and energy content of ethanol output
Comment
2 of 10
November 2, 2006
At full capacity, and ethanol at 2.50 a gallon, not very long...
Comment
3 of 10
November 2, 2006
How long to break even?
Comment
4 of 10
November 3, 2006
It'll be even better when the ethanol (or hopefully butanol) feedstock is cellulose material in addition to corn. The byproduct of the digesters is a pretty high quality fertilizer which can be sold to further reduce the plant's overhead and displace fossil fuel derived fertilizers.
Comment
5 of 10
November 3, 2006
Fuel is the by product of waste elimination. When you consider the market price and tax incentives guaranteed to 2015, It is not hard to recognize the opportunity here. Cattle are a source of waste that can be used in a positive manner instead of polluting the ground water. The point is that every organic waste product contains carbon. By utilizing that carbon source instead of polluting with it we are all better off. The only market in the world big enough and thirsty enough to absorb waste without diluting the market is the energy market. Also the days of producing giant quantities of electricity and fuel in one location and shipping it across hundreds of miles to where it can be used are coming to an end. It is much more affordable to produce small quantities of power and fuel and use all of it to its best advantage locally. Talk about competition regulating the price!! We all are now able to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
Comment
6 of 10
November 3, 2006
IS THIS SYSTEM POSSIBLE-USING POULTRY LITTER FEED STOCK?
Comment
7 of 10
November 3, 2006
Call it what you want, synergy, circle of Life, closed loop, etc.. The important thing is the farmers, the ranchers, the engineers and the financiers finally got together and decided to do it right. They took grain grown in the sun, a feedlot (that we would have had anyway), an ethanol plant (that we would have had anyway) and combined them to operate in a logical, low impact and self-sustaining manner. You put in grain; you get out fuel, fertilizer and beef with minimized environmental impact. Properly managed, this plant and others like it will still be operating years, if not centuries, after cheap oil is a distant memory. Cow manure may not save America from all oil imports but it is a step in the right direction in reducing those imports and our environmental footprint in an increasingly fragile world. Congrats to all involved on finally getting it right and following through on it. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.
Comment
8 of 10
November 3, 2006
Hmmm...if I'm in the feedlot business looking at my latest expense sheet for watershed pollution fines, trucking costs and organic disposal costs, I want to know if this anaerobic digester converts my problem into a positive cash flow. Even if it only reduces my negative cash flow, that might be reason enough to try it. Whether it is an efficient method of producing fuel is not as important to me as reducing or eliminating my costs of dealing with manure.
Comment
9 of 10
November 3, 2006
I've seldom heard more overlyenthusiastic hype.
The idea that cow manure will have a significant
effect on our 190 billion gallons of crude based fuel we use every year is pure hokum. What a bunch of insignificant dung. Notice that those cows are producing lots of that nasty CO2 and eating lots of feed grain in order to produce that manure. I can scarcely imagine a more inefficient method of producing an energy source.
Comment
10 of 10
November 3, 2006
Well, the point of the plant, as they push in the announcement, is the closed loop portion. We don't usually figure in the 'savings' of not having polluted water (run-off from cow poop).
We're starting to think along the lines of CO2 'savings' (methane not released) and I'll bet they grab more, for natural gas (no pun!) not bought/used in traditional ethanol production. Mainly, its a plant with a much smaller footprint in the enviroment, than other plants. Worth trying out. And the by-products are consumed right on site.
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