"From a historical perspective, milkweed pods were gathered from the wild, and the floss was extracted and used as fill for life jackets during World War II. After the War, these efforts were abandoned. Standard Oil of Ohio became involved with milkweed in the late 1970s. Nobel Laureate, Melvin Calvin, and others projected that billions of barrels of synthetic crude oil could be recovered from the biomass of milkweed. A research program in cooperation with Native Plants, Inc. was started to produce a synthetic crude oil from milkweed biomass. Milkweed was grown like hay--it was cut, dried, and baled. The dried biomass was then subjected to a hexane extraction and a few chemical processes to produce a crude oil substitute. The unfortunate conclusion from these studies was that the price was too high and the yield was too low. Economically, it was totally unfeasible."
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-422.html ------ on 5/21/02 12:44 PM, kirk at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I live in Montana. It grows in weed patches, turned soil, burned areas, > roadsides etc. > You should be able to find lots of info on web. Some people cultivate it for > the pods. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Shukrainternationals [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 1:31 PM > To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: biofuel at the pumps > > > Where does it grow? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "kirk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 3:24 PM > Subject: RE: [biofuel] Re: biofuel at the pumps > > >> Milkweed is one I remember. Grows pretty well some places. >> >> Kirk >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Harmon Seaver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 11:46 AM >> To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com >> Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: biofuel at the pumps >> >> >> On Tue, May 21, 2002 at 11:27:27AM -0700, Ken Provost wrote: >>> Economics get all counter-intuitive when a resource is widely/thinly >>> distributed -- sunlight is another great example. What's interesting >>> about vegoil is that it starts out very concentrated and expensive, and >>> ends up widely distributed but of poor quality. Wouldn't it be nice if >>> there was a widely distributed oil crop that was of little food use, so >>> that good quality oil could be had in small quantities anywhere. >>> Something like acorns, pinenuts, gopher plant, or perhaps a weed we're >>> not paying attention to. And I don't mean jatropha, or jojoba, or > cuphea, >>> or anything you have to PLANT -- then it just becomes another >> agribusiness. >>> I mean an already existing weed. Any ideas? >> >> Not for oil, but cattails for ethanol certainly fits that bill. In > fact, >> locally I'm currently half-heartedly investigating a couple of different >> cattail >> control programs -- really big areas, hundreds, maybe thousands of acres, >> that >> the DNR and other people are looking at to restore to a more diverse >> habitat. Their plan is to drain the areas and try to burn the cattails. > I'd >> think if they drain it enough, going in with big 4WD tractors w/double > tires >> pulling a potato digger it might both serve their purposes and create a >> fantastic harvest of ethanol feedstock, plus biomass (the tops) for >> gasification. >> I say half-heartedly only because I'm just in no position financially > to >> do >> anything with it, although with the new ethanol plant being built within a >> few >> miles of one huge cattail marsh they want to clear, it would seem an easy >> market. >> >> >> -- >> Harmon Seaver >> CyberShamanix >> http://www.cybershamanix.com >> >> >> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> >> Biofuels list archives: >> http://archive.nnytech.net/ >> >> 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/ >> >> >> >> --- >> Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >> Version: 6.0.363 / Virus Database: 201 - Release Date: 5/21/2002 >> >> --- >> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. >> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >> Version: 6.0.363 / Virus Database: 201 - Release Date: 5/21/2002 >> >> >> >> >> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> >> Biofuels list archives: >> http://archive.nnytech.net/ >> >> 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/ >> >> > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Your use of Yahoo! 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