More good news.
I do love the fact we are making such strides with Ethanol but I feel like we are pissing away any advantages. Cafe standards must be changed, an E85 Prius would be nice. I would by one if I could fill it in New England.
Biodiesel, 50 mpg jetta and Algae. Any better options?

Nothing like getting the jump on those fiddling around with finicky enzymes.

The thought of gasifying MSW is just not clean. Biomass is OK to gasify but not municipal waste. Other than that a cool idea.

I do not doubt that the Germans used some sort of gasification in WWII. But if it were feasible, why did the Germans stop doing it after the war? They were in desperate needs during their reconstruction also. They didnt do it because it is not feasible, thats why. Towards the end of WWII, they were fairly desperate and had to try to do what they could, as they were being squeezed from every direction.

Wood gasification, to me, does not make much more sense than using all our valuable farmland to grow biofuel. Eventually the so called wood "waste" will become the primary product, and our natural forests will be decimated similar to the way the rain forests in Brazil have been used up. But if municipal garbage can be utilized effectively, than it will be of benefit. But this will not be the silver bullet everyone is expecting. That silver bullet will be the next big breakthrough in battery size and costs, and not in an ICE powerplant.

Mark A wrote:

They didnt do it because it is not feasible, thats why.

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Reread that one again. If they used gasification at all, then it was "feasible". It became "inconvenient" with cheap gas. We no longer have cheap gas and technology has had what, 60 years to develope and refine the gasification process?

As far as using wood for gasification leading to deforestation, I think you are getting ahead of yourself. First of all, all the saw chips, bark, twigs, limbs of the lumber industry lay on the ground now, left to rot and produce CO2 in the process. Then add in all the crops with cornstalks, wheatstraw, rice hulls and straw, etc, etc, etc, rotting producing CO2. How could you have a problem with taking a product, which will produce CO2 by rotting on the ground, and making energy from it thereby displacing coal and natgas? Then, factor in MSW and the possibility that you could actually consume all the MSW(Municipal Solid Waste) and produce electricity and ethanol from it eliminating landfills, protecting water tables, producing slag for road construction(and not having to consume MOUNTAINS full of rock for roadbuilding)thereby displacing billions of barrells of oil?

There will be no one silver bullet. There will be a lot of different technologies like this which help out and then if we get battery technology up to speed and finally get that 40 mile PHEV in a couple of years we could be energy independent in <10 years. And along the way the environment got cleaned up at a profit!

Is bamboo currently being grown in the eastern gulf? If not, then we need to be careful in intoducing new plant species into new areas. Some new plants will thrive under new conditions, to the point in which they become a nuisance. Kudzu was introduced into the southeast during the depression for its soil building and soil holding ability in eroded areas. It then became a nuicance weed that intruded itself into areas unwanted, costing many many times over what it was to fix. Obviously we learn from mistakes, but at times some apprehension is warranted.

The wood (waste) gasification part of this technology is great! Seems like these guys have made some significant advances, leading to the highest efficiency (among existing technologies). And have a system that can operate on small scale is also important.

But inevitably brain-freeze had to step in at some point. Why convert the syngas to ethanol? Why limit your green fuel to flex-fuel vehicles? Why create a fuel that cannot be pumped in existing fuel pipelines, can only be mixed in certain ratios and creates other issues (corrosion, evaporative losses, etc.)?

It would be much better to convert the syngas to hydrocarbon (gasoline and diesel) and have a fuel that can replace fossil fuel gallon-for-gallon without any special requirments (read costs).

If this process works as stated here, someone else will most likely pick-up at the ethanol production point and just make diesel and gasoline as others here have already pointed out. We just need to get a few of the plants up and running so the Media and Business Community get wind of it. LOL

Many of you are rightfully concerned about vehicles of low mpg consuming precious ethanol or other liquid fuels that will be in short-supply.
For that reason, I'd say, make some liquid fuels for now to get the gasifiers built everywhere, but in the future, when petroleum will be more scarce and biofuel cannot support our inefficient vehicle fleets of today, the most efficient way is to convert all the syngas into H2 near the point of consumption for H2/methane-capable vehicles. H2-vehicles are guaranteed to be 2-3 times more efficient than current vehicles, not by choice, but by necessity to have adequate range. The CO2 left behind can be saved for growing algae to produce algae oil at very high yield for more biofuels, or for producing methane from H2 generated at high-temp nuclear plants.

Roger,
As I have stated elsewhere, there is no sensible reason to produce hydrogen if you could produce green diesel and gasoline and spend no unnecessary money on converting vehicles, fuel supply or fuel transportation infrastructure.

The only benefit hydrogen has compared to liquid hydrocarbon fuels is high energy:mass ratio. That makes hydrogen a good fuel for space travel (and nothing else). Call me when hydrogen starts to penetrate the (fiercely competitive) airline industry where its high energy:mass ratio means something, unlike for everyday surface travel.

Regardless of other practicality issues, I like hydrogen as a fuel for its lack of local emissions and the lower noise pollution of a FC. (I like electricity even better)

FC cars cost about $1 million apiece. Mass production? OK, cut the price in half.

And because the fuel cells are so expensive, they have to optimize them to increase current density at the expense of efficiency, so they have no real efficiency advantage over hybrids with IC engines, and are less efficient than electric vehicles charged from the wall plug.