Reply #24: The gasification of any carbon source is well understood and is superior

[NNadir]

to all of the elaborate biofuels day dreams involving ethanol.

It is the subject of a considerable amount of research around the world, and has been evaluated for many forms of biomass, from walnut shells to crushed olives, to used paper.

From direct crops, biodiesel is a much better game than ethanol, but it's potential is also limited.

If one insisted on having ethanol - probably a poor choice of a fuel because of its affinity for water - one could easily make it from ethylene derived from biomass or just about <em>any</em> other carbon source.

No one here, I predict, will ever see the cellulosic ethanol craze play out in a meaningful way. Ethanol will probably produce a single exajoule of energy in this country in a year. If it were to do so, the external cost in environmental damage would probably make it wholly unsustainable.

Here are some links to some discussions of biomass gasification that I have discussed here in previous times:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=40283

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=51211

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=72238

These are only a few of the many similar approaches being studied. The few posts I have made on this subject is hardly even close to being comprehensive.

A commercial gasification project from biological waste products, the internal organs of dimembered turkeys, operates in Missouri. I don't think it makes much money but it works.