Domestic Fuel

The Real Next Generation Ethanol:

Ethanol is a fuel that is restricted by the sale of another fuel, gasoline. Today, demand depends on Gasoline Consumption and the “blending wall.” Increasing the blend wall is a good short term solution. But then what? Will the EPA continue to inhibit ethanol growth? Will production of the fuel continue to be restricted by gasoline sales and the blend wall? Or could ethanol break-away from gasoline and create unlimited growth and demand? Hold that thought.

Corn ethanol is not only a fuel, it is a significant food production system. The byproducts of corn ethanol, distillers grains, supplement a huge dairy feeding, cattle feeding, poultry feeding, and fish feeding system, and export business. Plus corn oil is produced for food or fuel. GreenShift is extracting corn oil from distiller’s grains, and they’re building 12 more sites to supply enough crude oil to make 20 million gallons of biodiesel a year. If crude oil was extracted from all distillers grains, that would be 580 million gallons per year. Then there’s cobs going to biomass. And now, even the waste products of corn ethanol production are valuable. Could existing corn ethanol plants become the foundation for a much bigger biofuel industry?

Recently, it was announced that ALGAE will be grown on ethanol waste products: CO2, nutrient rich effluent, and waste heat. A recent joint venture between Green Plains Renewable Energy (a corn ethanol production company) and BioProcess Algae LLC (an algae production company). Wayne Hoovestol, Chief Executive Officer said: “Algae is potentially a by-product of ethanol that makes the process cleaner and greener through carbon sequestration…Algae production fits into Green Plains’ business model since we are already in the business of marketing biofuel and feed products.” BioProcess Algae will be produced at Green Plains’ ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa, from the plant’s CO2, waste heat, and nutrient rich effluent water, all of which algae thrives on. From the algae, biodiesel will be produced from algae oil, additional ethanol will be made from algae starches, and a high protein algae feed product will be produced along side distillers grains. If biodiesel is the main objective, then an oil rich strain of algae will be grown. If ethanol is the priority, then a strain of algae, up to 96 % starch will be grown. Or if animal feed is the primary goal, 60% high protein algae strains such as chlorella and spirulina will be grown (also used for human consumption). All exploited from the ethanol waste products of an existing fuel and feed infrastructure. Algae production integrated into corn ethanol refineries will dramatically improve the profitability and the energy balance of the fuel.

We currently have 240 million vehicles on the road valued at $6 Trillion, consuming liquid fuels. And, over 95% of the new vehicles being built also run on liquid fuel. These vehicles consume roughly 140 Billion gallons of gasoline, 60 Billion gallons of diesel fuel, and 9 Billion gallons of ethanol every year. Although E-85 can be used in some of these vehicles, so far, it is not a significant player, because it is restricted by the limited number of pumps and flex-fuel vehicles on the road and by lower mpg. The high compression, turbo-charged engines optimized for ethanol, coming in the next few years, may change that.

What is more significant now is the phenomenal spread of retail blender pumps that mix E-20, E-30, and E-40 from locally produced ethanol. Blending ethanol at the pump is becoming popular, because many people have discovered the MPG sweet spot of their particular engine. Some people are actually getting better mileage and more power on 20 and 30 than they get on regular gasoline. And the fuel is much cheaper, because the shipping cost of locally made ethanol is much lower, and because part of the 51 cent per gallon ethanol blending subsidy is being passed on to consumers.

Still, blending ethanol with gasoline may continue to restrict its growth. Suzuki is introducing a vehicle next year that’ll run up to 100% ethanol. This is a new beginning for the fuel’s liberation from gasoline, back from the days of Henry Ford’s Model A, which ran on 83% ethanol and 17 % water.

Is there a higher use for ethanol? Note the fabulous flame speed, the ultra fast vaporization rate, and the unique way that the hydrogen bonds change when it combines with water. How would these characteristics be exploited? Did you know that if ethanol is mixed in a 50-50 solution with water and then vaporized, it will still combust?

Missing from the current debate is the REAL Next Generation Ethanol, a solution of 2/3 ethanol and 1/3 water. Ethanol-water technology is a basic, inexpensive, onboard reformer that converts the solution into hydrogen, on a conventional ICE engine or coupled with a fuel cell. This is now being demonstrated by DongFeng, a major Chinese automaker, although the original process seems to have been created in 2004 by Lanny Schmidt, Chemical Engineering Professor at the University of Minnesota. Professor Schmidt published a scientific paper in Science magazine called “Renewable Hydrogen from Ethanol by Autothermal Reforming.”

The ethanol-water reformer is remarkable. It produces a stream of hydrogen instantaneously, using very little energy. It is self-powered from byproducts of the reforming process. And, not only does it strip all the hydrogen from the hydrogen rich ethanol, it also strips half the hydrogen from the water.

As a cheap, onboard source of hydrogen, a liquid fuel such as ethanol-water is safe. It can be carried in a conventional fuel tank. It does Not have to be hyper-compressed into expensive high pressure hydrogen tanks and hoses, which would eventually spring leaks and become problematic. Shipping and handing ethanol-water is cheaper, easier, and safer than shipping and handling bulky, invisible hydrogen. Onboard, self-powered, hydrogen on demand from liquid fuel is way more practical than using conventional land-based electrolysis to supply ultra high pressure tanks with the bulky gas.

Furthermore, by leaving 35% water in the ethanol at the refinery, up to 60% of the cost to distill it is saved. This will also dramatically improve the energy balance of ethanol and lower the cost.

This is how we can produce massive quantities of domestic biofuel and solve our liquid fuel demand: We could remove the starch from ALL of our feed corn (instead of just part of it) to make more ethanol. We could partially distill the ethanol, leaving 1/3 water in solution with the fuel. We could adapt ALL of our over 200 ethanol plants to produce Algae from their waste products. From the algae, we could produce more biodiesel, more ethanol, and more high protein algae feed. ITM Power has a device that converts internal combustion engines to run on both gasoline and hydrogen. Combine this device with an onboard ethanol-water to hydrogen reformer, and you’ll have vehicles that run on hydrogen made from ethanol. Locally made ethanol-water would be sold at the pump.
Biodiesel made at or near algae-corn ethanol plants would supply local farmers with tractor fuel, until high torque hydrogen fuel cell electric tractors could be developed that would run on locally produced ethanol-water. Ethanol-water can also be the fuel component for Plug-in Electric Hybrids, using either internal combustion engines or fuel cells. With this technology, we consume ethanol and water, instead of gasoline and foreign oil. Then, ethanol demand would be unrestricted. Conventional vehicles with internal combustion engines would phase-out over a 25 year period, as fuel cells mated to plug-in electric hybrids replace them. By managing technology in this way, all of our liquid fuel can be produced from domestic resources.

Open Source, Publish Freely, Jeff Baker