The need for soil sustainability needs to be planned for in figuring out how much biomass is available for fuel. The authors of the USDA/DOE “Billion-Ton Vision” (the use of biomass to displace 30% of current petroleum consumption (here))make a point of that.

On the agriculture side, the report touches on planting systems, residue maintenance requirements, changes in crop yield, and a number of other factors.

Tom, the word "just" is one which may be designed to limit the image of novelty of converting straw into ethanol. In reality, converting straw, waste paper and any other form of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol at a market competitive cost/price will be as revolutionary as oil was as it washed over Ford's Chemurgy movement like a tsunami.

Tony, as far as concerns about the soil becoming hardened through use of straw as a sugar source for ethanol, that will be a relatively minor issue compared to the soil that is built when grass is grown, which builds humus. And when that is achieved in the tropics, a major portion of gasoline will be replaced in the decentralization of fuel production to countries which stand to benefit the most in their domestic fuel market, before they begin to export. The loss of 9" of topsoil from the grain states down the Mississippi River to the Mississippi delta over the last 100 years, according to the USDA and other departments is an ongoing "invisible" problem that is far more difficult to solve than the use of straw for ethanol. I cannot help but wonder if corn could not be planted in grass fields in the "corn states" which might provide both soil protection and an early cut for biofuels before the corn grows high. And of course, the corn stalks become a doubling of the farmer's output which is wasted today.

My opinion is that a new method to convert grass into a grain equivalent will reduce the volume of corn production dramatically, because corn for cattle feed can be replaced with highly digestible grass, and ethanol production from grass will allow the same farmers to double their output with the same level of input (planting grass fencepost to fencepost), thus eliminating the need for most ag subsidies.

There is a lot more promise than problems associated with switching to grass as the main feedstock for ethanol production, which applies to the max in the 12 month growing season of many tropical countries with sufficient rainfall and relatively flat land. And growing grass where the rainforests have been decimated offers jobs to those doing the slash and burning, and a way to monitor illegal burning.

Its a new world and its time to decentralize fuel production, for a world of reasons.

Earnest

plz give the detailed information abt ethanol.

I worked for a number of years on the development of the steam explosion process (originally based on the masonite process).
The process is environmentally friendly and will allow you to produce multiple products. The process was patented in Canada, US and Europe. One patent for producing glucose is still active in the US.
We are looking for business partners to commercialize the process for the production of ethanol. We are two of the researchers who originally developed the explosion process.
If this interests you then please respond to [email protected]

Thanks
Paul DeLong
Systems Analyst