----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick Sparber"
You're swimming upstream against the "Agenda Gap" John. :-)
Maybe not Fred. I like John's premise of an open source project,
but is there a single project that would close the agenda gap?
Of the ones John mentioned, something involving electrolysis
would certainly fit in with much of the expertise of vortex.
If we can assume that biomass is indeed "carbon" neutral, thsi
being Fred's expertise (and he would not doubt give us free use of
his patents) then that is osme progress. And if we can agree that
the goal is a transportation fuel, then that narrows the gap. The
big objection to ethanol, otherwise a great fuel, is that in
normal production from grain, it consumes more net energy than it
produces. This can be overcome using solar... solar plus ??
Biomass ethanol is a big step in the right direction and solar
thermal can do the trick, but the clever researchers at Purdue and
elsewhere seem to have that angle already covered pretty well.
What about the electrolysis of biomass?
Not a joke... but an even better starting point might be involve
sono-chemistry rather than, or in addition to, the electrolysis of
a biomass slurry with the intent of obtaining a liquid fuel (part
ethanol) with far less than energy input. A good raw material
would be saw dust, or bark from paper making, and/or recycled bulk
paper that is too degrade to reuse as paper pulp.
Is this closing the agenda gap any?
Jones
