The Wild 'Green' Yonder

In July of last year, I wrote about an exciting new source of biofuel, the Jatropha plant (See Full Story). The jatropha is an especially hardy, drought-tolerant plant that produces large quantities of oil that can be refined into a good quality diesel-like biofuel. Further refining can even produce lighter fuels like jet fuel.

Similarly, I reported in December on a form of algae that produces enough oil in its cells to have it extracted as a biofuel (See Full Story). The algae is so efficient that it uses as much or more carbon dioxide in its growth than it does when used as fuel --- making it a net zero carbon footprint product. (That should really make the likes of Al Gore exceptionally happy!)

Now, I can report that these two forms of biofuel are being tested on anairliner. In the good ole' U.S. of A, in the State of Texas, they are testing both jatropha and the green algae on a Boeing 737 (See Full Story). Previously, in New Zealand, jatropha was tested with a 50 percent blend of regular jet fuel on a Boeing 747. In both cases, the tests are being conducted with Boeing as a joint venture.

Jatropha can be an important crop in this country without infringing on our food production as in the case of ethanol and corn. Jatropha can be grown in what was previously unusable or barely usable scrub lands throughout this country. Further, massive water supplies aren't needed. On the other hand, the algae production can be co-located with coal power plants so that the carbon dioxide output of the coal (of natural gas plants) can be used to pump through tubs of algae in order to generate growth. Eventually, algae power plants could be somewhat self-sustaining with the algae based power production facilities working in concert with co-located algae growth and harvesting facilities.

I just thought you'd like to know.

Image by Simon Lieschke's photostream on Flickr with Creative Commons Licensing of remix/adapt/modify permission (Click to View Other Works). Specifically modified by Cranky George for this blog entry

A Truth (or three) About Compressed Natural Gas

The TV ads regarding Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) say that it is clean, cheap, and it is American. Well, not quite.

Let's address the last point first about CNG being American. As a country, we import more than 15 percent of the natural gas we use (See Full Story). If it is so American, why, then, would have to import any of it? The TV ads also mentions the abundant gas reserves in shale basins. However, just like drilling for oil, we can't get to it because drilling and extracting natural gas from those areas is being blocked by the Democrats in Congress and by the environmentalists. That's why we import.

In terms of being clean? Yes, it is. It certainly doesn't contain the contaminants like sulfur that is produced when burning petroleum-base fuels and coal. However, it is still a fossil fuel and, for that, it gets a big "F" for cleanliness from the likes of Al Gore. Burning natural gas produces carbon and it is carbon, if you listen to the Global Warmists, that is causing the excess heating of the earth. That's why you will never hear a democrat promote natural gas. Just listen to Barack Obama and you would know this. He doesn't mention natural gas at all. He primarily talks about solar and wind.

Lastly, let's address the issue of natural gas being cheap. Compared to gasoline it is 40 percent cheaper. For a vehicle that it is specifically designed and built for natural gas it is cheaper to operate. But, that vehicle isn't. It will cost a few thousand more dollars to build than a gasoline version of the same car. Existing vehicles can cost between $8000 and $50,000 (for trucks and buses) to convert to natural gas. Even at 40 percent cheaper than gasoline, it would take the life of the car to recoup the increased costs of buying or converting a natural gas vehicle as opposed to a gasoline vehicle of the same type and size.

The purpose of all these TV ads by T. Boone Pickens and Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corp. is to get Congress and the American people behind exploring and drilling for natural gas. They both have a financial incentive to do so. By running these TV commercials, their hope is that the environmentalist that have been so adamant in blocking natural gas production are put aside by the public's need to get off foreign oil. They also hope that additional markets are created for natural gas by moving vehicles to this form of fuel.

This is not to say that Messrs. Pickens and McClendon only have a profit motive behind their beliefs. In fact, I firmly believe that they are very patriotic. They both can see a real pathway to our independence from foreign oil. Natural Gas is something that both these people know and know that it is capable of creating that independence. But, so are other alternatives. As I have said in this blog many times before, we need it all. Natural gas is just one facet in our energy future. We should include drilling for our own oil (to support our existing base of vehicles and power production), nuclear energy (because it is so clean and carbon free), wind and solar (because of the like benefits to nuclear; but, not to the extent being promoted because they have the downside of requiring mammoth space to produce energy), clean coal (as an abundant source of energy) and biofuels like ethanol and bio-diesel (as long as they don't infringe on food production in this country).

But, all these forms of energy are simply bridges to our energy future. I personally think that our future is in hydrogen technologies. It is clean, renewable, and almost infinitely available in this world. We can use nuclear, wind, and solar to provide the energy needed to cleanly extract hydrogen from sources like natural gas or, even, from water. That should be the long-range goal of this country.

The Sorghum Solution?

Corn is an important food staple for both man and his livestock and poultry. As we moved to increased ethanol production from corn, we experienced the old adage of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" as corn prices went through the roof. Obviously, we can't have corn for our cars and eat it too. Something has to give.

For that reason, the answer is looking more and more like sorghum grass. Sorghum is a high energy content grain that has been used for both for fodder and alcoholic beverages (sorghum mash). It is drought tolerant and, thus, requires little or no irrigation (depending on the annual rainfall amount). It is heat tolerant which is why, for now, it is grown in the hot and dry areas of Texas. It is also "bog" resistant which means that it could have survived the recent floods in the Midwest that literally destroyed all of the corn crop. It can growth to heights of 20 feet. It costs about 45 cents less per the cost per gallon of ethanol to produce than either corn or sugar. Research is being done at A&M University to expand the ethanol production beyond just the grain that sorghum produces (See Full Story). If the stalks, stems and leaves can be included to produce ethanol than as much as 2,000 gallons of ethanol can be derived from a single acre of planted sorghum. That's more than 5 times the effective ethanol production from corn which is around 370 gallons per acre. Certainly, Genetic Modification/Engineering should be able to further enhance ethanol production levels.

I know that Congress is more interested in the votes they can get from the "corn producing" States to worry about sorghum. However, the future of this country could lie in these high yield and high energy plants. I believe we should drop the tax protection for corn and provide tax incentives for sorghum and get away from the politics of getting votes and get on with solving our energy problems.


Image by Houstonian's photostream on Flickr with Creative Commons Licensing. All rights retained. (Click to View Other Works).

Is Jatropha in our Energy Future?

Trucks use diesel fuel because the density of diesel and its subsequent power output is greater than gasoline. In a nutshell, a diesel engine is better suited to "hauling" heavy loads.

Ethanol doesn't really do anything for diesel trucks and cars. Ethanol is also driving fuel prices up as food crops are diverted to make energy. And, diesel fuel is going through the roof because there haven't been any cheaper alternatives, like ethanol, that can be mixed with it to somewhat keep costs down. But, now there is hope in a toxic, non-food, drought-tolerant plant called jatropha.

Jatrapha's big promise as a sustainable biofuel is in its beans. 40 percent of every jatropha bean has the oil needed to make a biofuel. 20 pounds of those beans can produce one gallon of diesel. It takes 22 pounds of corn to produce one gallon of ethanol; and the process to make ethanol from corn is more involved and energy wasteful than to make diesel from jatropha beans. More importantly, you can produce 4 times as much fuel per acre in a single growing season as you can with corn. Another key factor is the fact that the plants are drought tolerant and don't need high quality soils in order to grow. Obviously, GM (genetic modification) should be able to increase these plants yields well beyond today's currently unbelievable yields.

Jatropha is well on its way as a core biofuel in countries like India and the Philippines. In America, at least when it comes to politics, corn (and the "votes" from corn-based economies in our States) is king. So, little is being said about Jatropha. Much of the experimentation that is going on is being done by farmers in Florida; without Federal support. It is too bad that politics (and voting blocks) have to always get in the way of what's good for our country.

Of course, another dirty little secret in this country is that "all" biofuels are just another dirty form of hydrocarbon fuels. They will pump out as much carbon dioxide and feed into Global Warming as any other carbon-based fuel. The "greens" in this country don't really want more CO2 emitting fuels. So, don't expect the Democrats to go hog wild over any jatropha funding. To the greens, energy independence doesn't mean independence from foreign fuels. Instead it means a society free of energy. They just as soon block a wind farm as they would block any refinery for oil, or ethanol, or jatropha. Deep down inside, they would prefer we all be naked; living in huts; and, foraging for food stocks from plants (And, for sure, not animals!). You know... being "one" with nature! After all, Mother Nature didn't make SUVs!