 |
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||||||||||||||
A
Domestic Energy Solution (In Development) Our farmers are growing so much food that the law of supply and demand is killing farm commodity prices. The most productive farmers in the world are working themselves out of a job. We subsidize farmers billions of dollars every year because their service is an important one. We sometimes pay them to not produce anything at all. I propose that we take the money we are giving to subsidizing the farming industry and redirect it to the same farmers to start ethanol distillery co-ops in every rural county in America. By redirecting this money out of one program and into another it would cost us nothing more. The farm industry would still receive the same money, farmers would come off corporate welfare and we would be putting them into the energy business. Currently ethanol is cost prohibitive for the end users but by harnessing the most productive agriculture juggernaut on the planet the supply of ethanol would soon bring down the price. If every rural county in America had a farmer owned ethanol distillery and the local farmers grew whatever local crop produced the best alcohol it would be a financial boon to every county in America. Alcohol can also be made from non-marketable agriculture by-products that are now thrown away of plowed into the earth. After getting the government cash pointed in the proper direction Congress could outlaw the importation of oil 15 years after implication of start of the program. This would be a reasonable amount of time to build the infrastructure that would enable us to be free of foreign oil. It could be implemented incrementally immediately, we could start with a mandatory 10 percent ethanol mix to our gasoline and increase the percentage annually until foreign oil was no longer needed. Currently we import 60 percent of our oil; this is America's greatest achilles heel and our greatest import expense. The volatility of the foreign oil market that can swing 300 percent either way and does is a terribly destabilizing force in our economy. This plan harness many efficiencies. We get the farmers to produce something for what was once nothing and it makes them rich and our country energy self sufficient. We deny foreign dictators the hatchet that they have held over our head for a fifty years while making ourselves self-sufficient. The energy, ethical compromise, and political capitol that we have spent being friendly with dictators that don't share our worldview could be channeled into more productive endeavors. Americans then can spend all of their energy dollars purchasing an American product and that will create an exponential domestic monetary re-circulation that would provide innumerable economic benefits for our country. After our farmers become the energy barons of the world we could wean them off government handouts altogether. President Bush has already put up seed money for a much needed hydrogen fuel cell development program and the farmers ethanol program would be a good way to help address the same need for domestic energy self-sufficiency. If this plan is implemented along with my other utopian ideas our country may escape the fate of all the great democracies of history.
Bioenergy Research Starts on the Farm
Researchers at the U.S. Department of EnergyÕs Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are partnering with universities and industry to make critical advancements in the fields of agriculture-based bioenergy and bioproducts. The team will focus on research and development to more fully use the renewable materials from wheat and other crops. Using the biorefining concept, researchers will study how crop residues provide basic chemical building blocks to produce fuels and a range of consumer goods normally produced from petrochemicals.
Unlike petroleum refineries, biorefineries break down agricultural crops and separate them into chemical building blocks, which are used to make products such as fuels and chemicals for plastics and adhesives. Biorefineries are more environmentally friendly because the process of growing crops recaptures the greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) released by fuels and chemicals. As crop residues are used in biomass refining, the cycle continues. "This will alleviate our dependence on greenhouse-gas-producing foreign oil. Additionally, new uses and new markets for the whole wheat crop (i.e., straw and grain) could potentially increase the cropÕs value sufficiently to put our nationÕs wheat growers back in the business of profitably producing a wheat crop," Dusty Tallman, past president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said in a 2001 letter to the U.S. Department of EnergyÕs Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. "The ripple effect of a profitable farmer creates a solid foundation for sustainable rural economic development." Because an estimated 50 million tons of usable wheat straw go to waste in the United States each year, the INEEL is working to develop selective harvest technologies for crop residue collection. This crop residue is a sustainable annual resource. "Not all parts of the plant are of equal value," said J. Richard Hess, a principal scientist on the project for the INEEL. The predominantly fibrous straw stem, high in cellulose, is of greater value for bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts, while the remaining components (leaves, sheath, nodes, awns, hulls) would be better used by being left in the field to maintain soil organic matter and contribute soil nutrients. For several years, the INEEL has worked with a major manufacturing company and Iowa State University to develop a single-pass, multi-component combine that will separate both the grain and stems from straw. The research focuses on reducing harvesting costs by limiting harvesting to a single pass across the field; using straw components for the most desirable end-use; and increasing the total biomass available for harvest. "The coupling of the physical and fluid dynamics modeling in virtual reality is greatly aiding in the design of the multi-component harvester," said Tom Foust, INEELÕs initiative team leader. Earlier this year, the INEEL partnered with DOEÕs Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., Washington State University and University of Idaho to form a Northwest Bioproducts Research Institute. The four partners will collaborate to develop a nationally renowned, multi-disciplinary research and development program. They will examine and develop methods for converting agricultural and food processing residue and wastes into bio-based fuels, power and industrial products, such as chemicals for plastics, solvents and fibers. Industry, processors and growers will be able to use and profit from the instituteÕs products and technologies and, in some cases, profit from the discoveries through licenses. "To the degree possible, research conducted in this institute will contribute to the nationÕs need to reduce its dependence on foreign oil and provide low-cost energy," said Bill Shipp, INEEL president and laboratory director. "Demand for petroleum feedstocks for products, fuels and power production continues to increase, and the institute will strive to address this increase by enabling the use of agricultural resources to partially offset this demand." Related Links
Make your own Ethanol Fuel (and related info)
Think globally act locally!
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
