Hey Keith,,, Playin' weekend catch up here, --I just read through the article you first posted about ethanol manufactured from coal.
Fischer-Tropsch conversion of synthesis gas to oxycarbon alcohols or into synfuel hydrocarbons (syn-gasoline, diesel, jet fuel) which is first made by coal gasification processes (invented back in 1917 by Hitler's synthetic fuels scientists) is probably the cheapest way I know of to produce methanol. And now, with improved FT reactor catalysts, synthetic ethanol and higher mixed alcohols including propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, heptanol and 8-carbon octanol can be produced as well using coal as a cheap and abundant feedstock. Alternatively, pipeline methane or even society's garbage and sewer sludge utilized as bio-feedstocks work exceptionally well for the typical "front end" processes of steam reformation or gasification which typically drive this synthetic fuel technology. Synthesis gas is a mixture of three basic elements to include carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrocarbons (oils) are molecules containing Hydrogen & Carbon. Oxycarbons (alcohols) simply add a third element Oxygen and become water soluble, thus biodegradable. What totally floors me from the published article is that it claims that Dakota Gasification (probably the largest coal gasifier group in the continental USA) is interested in pursuing a biologic bacteria methodology to produce ethanol from coal. I don't understand this at all. New, higher powered bugs are responsible for breaking down green plant matter as a lignocellulosic conversion which then ferment and distill out more expensive ethanol than the traditional corn fermentation processes, --whether they be either wet or dried milling technologies. The lignocellulosic arena is excited and growing, but I don't hold out any hopes for its ultimate profitability. Too expensive and 90% of the light-weight porriages remaining must still be trucked and spread out over the lands as weak fertilizer. With corn fermentation, the remaining porriage is utilized as a high-grade food co-product, something that the U.S. ethanol lobby hasn't explained very well to average Americans. I'll have to run some very specific research to begin to understand how bacterial bugs can convert coal to ethanol. It seems a little far fetched to me, but I'm not familiar with it. Maybe I'll be surprised? Yet I wouldn't expect any co-product leftovers from coal conversion which would substitute as animal feed like is routinely accomplished with distillers dried grains after corn, wheat or milo are distilled. It is obvious that many of the posters responding to this article over the past few daze have no clue as to the BIG technological differences between gasification of coal or biomass when compared to fermentation of corn or what is really going on with lignocellulosic conversion of biomass green plant wastes into two-carbon ethanol. The varied technologies utilized within these alternative fuels processes are as widely separated as are the expected volumetric conversion rates coupled most importantly with the profitabilities of each process. And all of this stuff is just fine with me being discussed on a public biofuels web board. Not every reader here is active in recycling MacDonald's french fry grease into biodiesel. Perhaps the terror activities of Sept.11th will actually spur development of a host of new alternative fuel technologies as a result of investors and gov't agencies becoming aware (once again) of the fact that we import about 66% of our crude oil supplies from "over there." Keep a close watch on the Straits of Hormuz during the coming weeks/ months. If our western pipeline of mideastern oil tankers were to falter, the physical effects of supply disruption would take several months to actually be felt at the gas pumps. But with CNN's live coverage, those effects would be felt within 30 minutes as was recently demonstrated by price gougers charging American motorists $5 per gallon for gasoline. Best Regards, Mark Radosevich Standard Alcohol Company Durango, Colorado ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/MDsVHB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
