Ever seen world's dirties jobs? Show on Discovery. There is a garbage dump out by San Fran, I believe, that filters through all the trash to separate out the organic matter and is turned into some type of fuel that's used by the utility company in the area.
Manure is also being used but I think that's been around a few years??

 

Round bale of hay round these parts was around $120 last year

Ethanol actually uses more energy to make than they get back, so it's a loosing idea that's only alive due to HUGE government funding.

 

Same here....

 

i dont see why we havn't made a move on hemp the kind with the low THC level. they say u can get all kinds of energy out of it. ive heard it takes 1 tenths as much energy to make something equivalent to ethenol

 

I had no idea they could produce fuel from hemp.

 

this made for some good reading http://www.hemp4fuel.com/link.html

 

That is interesting..........I'm curious how they can get enough fuel from only 6% of the contental land mass to satisfy our diesel needs.

 

I am not all up to date on the info as such, BUT I am not so sure it takes more energy to produce than you get back. As of now all the reports I have read saying that are ones from the oil producing supporters. Thing is BIG OIL likes making BIG EASY PROFITS and they are able to do so sticking to current energy sources. Think back at all the times you may have heard of a carborator being developed that can produce MPG numbers around 100mpg. I heard of a farmer in this region who had done that. He was an average farmer but all at once the talk of his carborator ended and he suddenly had PLENTY of money. Word eventually leaked that some BIG OIL company bought his idea and rights and then shelved it.Big Oil doesnt like any form of competition, and that is what ethanol is. Think of what other industry that only has to pump their product from the ground and sell it with very little investment in the manner of aquiring the raw product. Yes there is a major investment in the platforms and wells, BUT for the amount of raw material being handled I would bet the cost to profit ratio is much greater to the profit side than most other energy sources. Brazil is capable of producing ALL the fuel they consume from ethanol. We rely only the idea of using corn here to produce it. Sugar Cane, Potatoes, Hemp, and many other Agricultural Products can be used to produce ethanol. Do I think we will ever be completely free of using oil, no, but until we are willing to allow other forms of energy to be tested in a REAL market setting we will NEVER know what can be produced cost effectively. I still recall people saying the same things about SYNTHETIC OILS,,,,,,,,,,,,,How many of the members here swear by it? I dont see why when there is a real chance for America to rely less on Arab domination we are not willing to research that avenue with a positive mind set. I would love to see nothing better than to one day the USA tell OPEC WE will PAY YOU this amount for your oil and not have them TELL US what they are going to charge us.
Its time we turn the markets around from a sellers market to a buyers market. Just having the influence of ethanol production on the corn market has raised land prices here as well as rent on farm ground. It is good to see some real profits being turned raising grain and I see ethanol production helping to fuel that. Why not put the money in a fellow Americans pocket and out of a Questionable Foreign Regime.

 

There is yet another way to see this as well....I have been involved in some of the ethanol plants here in Canada, mostly to due with the construction and design of the feedlot portions. Right now conventional shallow gas reserves are running dry, but only 30% of the actual gas content has ever been recovered due to current technology...

The energy companies are now using CO2 to stimulate these wells and have many of them producing again...the problem, no CO2...most of ours comes from the US by pipeline into Canada at a very high cost. We have 4 Ethanol plants in Alberta now, and CO2 is a waste byproduct from the Ethanol production yet no one is capturing it since the Ethanol and Energy companies do not get along and see each other as competitors....

If they would get their poop in a group they could co-generate the Ethanol and the CO2 for mutual benefit, and this can be done quite econimically.

We just need to get these 2 groups together...

 

Looking down the road, McLaughlin believes switchgrass offers important advantages as an energy crop. "Producing ethanol from corn requires almost as much energy to produce as it yields," he explains, "while ethanol from switchgrass can produce about five times more energy than you put in. When you factor in the energy required to make tractors, transport farm equipment, plant and harvest, and so on, the net energy output of switchgrass is about 20 times better than corn's." Switchgrass also does a far better job of protecting soil, virtually eliminating erosion. And it removes considerably more CO2 from the air, packing it away in soils and roots.

Switchgrass offers excellent habitat for a wide variety of birds and small mammals.
http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...chgrass+energy