I have a friend that asked a question the other day. "Is it possible to create a small switchgrass pelletizer. so that someone with a small rural homestead could efficiently grow and harvest their own fuel?"
This sparked an interest in me, and questions started to arise. In order for the fines of grass to stick together, how little or much moisture is needed? What is the actual process that pelletizing takes? And, most of all, why would someone want to do it?
Why? Having renewable resources is a hot topic these days. Man has been using fire to heat homes since the beginning. Wood as a fuel is what people default to when you think of this. Burning corn has been an alternative that is attractive because it is renewable on an annual basis unlike a tree that takes decades to grow. Switchgrass, which can be harvested multiple times a year produces as much if not more heat per pound as corn and depending on the desisity of the pellet can rival wood.
Next, I was looking at the process it takes to produce pellets. First, bales are chopped into small chips and or fines. These fines are then dried to a moisture content of 10-12%. then the fines are mixed, extruded out a die and cut to length. In the mixing process moisture or steam in added to facilitate the fines to bind together during the extrusion process.
Once the process was set the question is how to get this process to a size that can be mobile, affordable and easy to use and monitor. Having worked with a farmer in the past the designed a built his own harvester, I started to think of ways to pelletize cornstalks, hay, and straw to a density and form that can be used by cellusoic ethenol plants. But this led me away from the original quest of a rural homestead being able to grow its own heating fuel.
How would you like to mow your grass and get fuel for you home at the same time. The clippings from your lawn mower would be chopped into small fines, compressed to reduce the moisture, and extruded into pellets that will burn in a pellet furnace. Now any piece of property becomes a source of fuel. Road sides are mowed and the pellets are used to fuel the boilers in our municiple building and our schools get theirs from mowing the football and soccer fields. Or the fuel in burned to produce steam for a turbine that powers our building.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
KISS
I sit here at work, my desk is a mess and all I can think about is, "Am I going to have a job tomorrow?" Many may not understand why I am thinking that and many do. With unemployment at 5.5% and inflation at 4.5% the outlook on the economy is not good. It is much better then it was in the recession of 1982 and 1983 where inflation was at 14.5% and unemployment was at 7.5%. But still worse that many of the recessions that we have lived through. I work in manufacturing and jobs are being cut in that sector at a higher pace then any other. That is why I am thinking what I am thinking.
A misnomer is that the American economy follows the automotive industry. That is not true. They economy follows agriculture. With the rise in the price of Crude Oil, the cost of bringing food to the table is increasing. The rise is food cost is more closely related to the rise in crude prices and not the rise in demand for feed stock and the manufacture of ethanol. Diesel fuel is used in everything from the transportation to the planting and harvesting of the crops. Fertilizer is primarily an oil based product. So, as fuel cost rise so does the cost it takes in growing our food.
With ethanol as an additional draw on our food production, where does the solution lay? Second generation biofuels that use the parts of the plant and plants that are currently not wanted may be part of the solution. But, I say, why worry? Corn based ethanol does pull from feed stock, but as a nation, we will find a way to meet demands. Ingenuity is what built this nation and when the return on investment is there, we find a way to get things done. When put to the task we will find a solution. Yield per acre is at an all time high. There are millions of acres that lay fallow and will not support the crops that are needed. If the benefit is there, these lands will be used, improved and become viable farmlands. The yield per acre will increase and the demand will be met. Isn't that what our free market society is based on? If there is a demand, and a profit can be made in the supply to that demand, someone will find a way to do it.
I look at the automotive industry in the same way. Our domestic makers are fighting to stay afloat. For years they have been trying to improve fuel economy and emissions. While advances have been made, there is still a long way to go. And now it may be too late. How should they go about making the improvements? Do they need to develop new engines? No, they don't have the billions it cost in development of a powertrain and they don't need to. My suggestion would be to send two engines to the each of the top engineering colleges in the world. One engine is to be used to achieve the best possible fuel economy, and the other for emissions improvements. At the end of the school year, the engines are evaluated and the top school is given a scholarship or the students are given internships. Open up the research to the scholastic world and don't just keep it behind closed doors. Would this work? Would enough gains be found that the CAFÉ requirements could be exceeded well before current deadlines? I say yes, but we won't know until it is tried.
Forget the bells and wistles, and get back to the basics. We don't need to solve all our engery problems now, but we do need to make some progress for the future. If we were able to reduce our need for oil by 5% this year, and an addtion percent per year after that, within 10 years we would be using 36% of the fuel we currently use.
A misnomer is that the American economy follows the automotive industry. That is not true. They economy follows agriculture. With the rise in the price of Crude Oil, the cost of bringing food to the table is increasing. The rise is food cost is more closely related to the rise in crude prices and not the rise in demand for feed stock and the manufacture of ethanol. Diesel fuel is used in everything from the transportation to the planting and harvesting of the crops. Fertilizer is primarily an oil based product. So, as fuel cost rise so does the cost it takes in growing our food.
With ethanol as an additional draw on our food production, where does the solution lay? Second generation biofuels that use the parts of the plant and plants that are currently not wanted may be part of the solution. But, I say, why worry? Corn based ethanol does pull from feed stock, but as a nation, we will find a way to meet demands. Ingenuity is what built this nation and when the return on investment is there, we find a way to get things done. When put to the task we will find a solution. Yield per acre is at an all time high. There are millions of acres that lay fallow and will not support the crops that are needed. If the benefit is there, these lands will be used, improved and become viable farmlands. The yield per acre will increase and the demand will be met. Isn't that what our free market society is based on? If there is a demand, and a profit can be made in the supply to that demand, someone will find a way to do it.
I look at the automotive industry in the same way. Our domestic makers are fighting to stay afloat. For years they have been trying to improve fuel economy and emissions. While advances have been made, there is still a long way to go. And now it may be too late. How should they go about making the improvements? Do they need to develop new engines? No, they don't have the billions it cost in development of a powertrain and they don't need to. My suggestion would be to send two engines to the each of the top engineering colleges in the world. One engine is to be used to achieve the best possible fuel economy, and the other for emissions improvements. At the end of the school year, the engines are evaluated and the top school is given a scholarship or the students are given internships. Open up the research to the scholastic world and don't just keep it behind closed doors. Would this work? Would enough gains be found that the CAFÉ requirements could be exceeded well before current deadlines? I say yes, but we won't know until it is tried.
Forget the bells and wistles, and get back to the basics. We don't need to solve all our engery problems now, but we do need to make some progress for the future. If we were able to reduce our need for oil by 5% this year, and an addtion percent per year after that, within 10 years we would be using 36% of the fuel we currently use.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
In The Beginning
I would say that this is a new beginning, but this is far from the beginning. Many of my friends have been exposed to my ranting for years. The only thing new here to them, is the format of my ranting. They are true friends for having put up with me all these years.
They say that the only stupid question is the one that in not asked. Over the years, many questions have come to mind and not all have been answered. This page provides the forum for those questions to be put out there. If someone feels fit to answer either directly or with another question, please do so. Clean candid conversation is desired, emotions may run high, but in the end our minds, if not our lives, will improve.
Too many question come to mind. From, "What is the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything", to how do I stop that nagging leak in the upstairs sink? Where does one begin? Today's society is addicted to many things. From Coffee and cigarettes to fossil fuels and technology, we have become prisoners. Where and why did it all begin? Did our forefathers do the right thing by trying to provide a better life for us? Today, our children have become to expect everything to be handed to them. Hard work and pride in the rewards are foreign to many of us. Have we become lazy because of it?
The Three R's of life, Respect, Responsibility and Reverence, have been lost. How do we find them and center our lives on what is really important?
They say that the only stupid question is the one that in not asked. Over the years, many questions have come to mind and not all have been answered. This page provides the forum for those questions to be put out there. If someone feels fit to answer either directly or with another question, please do so. Clean candid conversation is desired, emotions may run high, but in the end our minds, if not our lives, will improve.
Too many question come to mind. From, "What is the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything", to how do I stop that nagging leak in the upstairs sink? Where does one begin? Today's society is addicted to many things. From Coffee and cigarettes to fossil fuels and technology, we have become prisoners. Where and why did it all begin? Did our forefathers do the right thing by trying to provide a better life for us? Today, our children have become to expect everything to be handed to them. Hard work and pride in the rewards are foreign to many of us. Have we become lazy because of it?
The Three R's of life, Respect, Responsibility and Reverence, have been lost. How do we find them and center our lives on what is really important?
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