Ethanol from Wood Chips?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:11 am

I was listening to the State of the Union address last night and President Bush spoke of making ethanol from wood chips. How would that be done? Wouldn’t that be methanol, or wood alcohol?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Rocky_Creek · Post by **Rocky_Creek** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:40 am

You probably could get an eth - meth mix. Would not matter for fuel I wouldn't think All you need is the right enzymes th break the cellullose into starches and then into sugars. You could use anything with cellulose.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:49 am

there exists an enzym that can bring cellulose to glucose, but is't very slow

and there might be a chemical methode

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:52 am

What RC said. Methanol is called "wood alcohol" because it used to be made by the dstructive distillation of wood, not because that's the only thing you can get from wood. The technology isn't yet economically feasible, but that's why we need more research into it. Biomass production of ethanol (softer crops like corn stalks etc) is much further along--look at Brazil. If the politicians are serious about it, we can be off the oil teat much sooner than 2025!

possum · Post by **possum** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:54 am

Biomass production of ethanol (softer crops like corn stalks etc) is much further along--look at Brazil. If the politicians are serious about it, we can be off the oil teat much sooner than 2025!

I'll drink to that....see previous rantby possum

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:03 pm

Hey "Guest", don't hold back, man, why don't ya tell 'em what you really feel!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:09 pm

well it actually seems that they don't wont to hear the truth as my message has been deleted by the moderator

Post by **Tater** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:26 pm

Yes I did as much as I agree with ya this fourm is not the place to rant about politics. Ok

level Joe · Post by **level Joe** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:33 pm

Maybe he/they dont feel what you want them to.

Truth is light, but you cant grab it in your hand to make others see what you do, the light in your hand is not the light in mine.

Must be nice to have the right to have an opinion we all may not share. Sorry your unhappy.

Hillbilly Rebel · Post by **Hillbilly Rebel** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:13 pm

The Prez said, "I believe in a relatively quick period of time, within my lifetime, we'll be able to reduce if not end dependence on Middle Eastern oil by this new technology" of converting corn, wood, grasses and other products into ethanol."

What new technology is he talking about? Is there some pending break through out there that will revolutionize the distrillery industry? What do you guys know?

Post by **Tater** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:25 pm

Now maybe the farmers will get a break and like they guy on news said it would be nice to live in a country that grows its own food and fuel.Heres a 1980 mother earth still for fuel http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_lib ... meCh7.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

linw · Post by **linw** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:20 am

Hillbilly Rebel wrote:The Prez said, "I believe in a relatively quick period of time, within my lifetime, we'll be able to reduce if not end dependence on Middle Eastern oil by this new technology" of converting corn, wood, grasses and other products into ethanol."

What new technology is he talking about? Is there some pending break through out there that will revolutionize the distrillery industry? What do you guys know?

He's talking about that new thousands of years old technology, of course!

Also, plenty of people have done calculations of how much land and energy is required to produce ethanol and the figures just don't stack up. Here is one sobering reference:- http://hubbert.mines.edu/news/Pimentel_98-2.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

decoy · Post by **decoy** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:41 am

yes there are a number of ways to look at it and if you happen to be Mr Puber on behalf of Petrolueum mines of course you will put down alternative fuels and enrgy.. considering oil puts food on your plate and gresses your palm beeach holidays..

the thing that the report dosent mention is how sugger cain farmers in australia and corn farmeers in the us are going bankrupt because there being undercut by cheeper asian imports.

and they dont take into account the hundreds of tons of fruit dumped each year because it rotted before it was sold, fruit fly damage or cheep imports..

then you have the avareg farmer joe who has pddocks he could grow suggarbeets or other easy fruit on but dosent because it is aginst the law...

the document is one sided and when it says somthing positive about distilling it then stabs it in the back to make oil look better..

i doubt we will fully replace petrolium products for quite some time but we have to start somwhere, and the sooner we start the more progress we will make, to making it cheeper and more efficiant..

possum · Post by **possum** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:10 am

I read about this aproximately 1 year ago in SCIENCE NEWS.

It is a newly synthisized enzyme that can convert celulose to sugar.
This allows things like straw and corncobs/stalks to be converted, and then treated with yeast.