Texas Farmers Working on Sugarcane Ethanol Plant
6 Comments
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – July 11th, 2009
Some Texas farmers believe that if Brazil can produce ethanol from sugarcane, they can too.
Jasper County, Texas is located in the southeast part of the state, north of Houston and not too far west of Louisiana. The North Jasper County Renewable Fuel Farmers Cooperative Society is planning to build a 300,000 gallon per year ethanol production plant, using sugarcane for the feedstock. The group is seeking a federal minority business grant for the project and getting support from the county economic development council.
Read more about their plans from the Beaumont Enterprise and KDFM News.
6 Comments
Allen Brown
I have been working at Anheuser-Busch for 22 years in the production of ethanol (Beer). Prior to that I worked at a distillery and was in charge of all the production of distilled spirits (190 proof ethanol, whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.) I have taken an early buy out package from Anheuser-Busch and would like to be a part of an industry that can change our reliance on foreign oil. I agree that ethanol should be produced from sugar cane. I’m here to help someone in the ethanol industry to make money and make a difference.
Aureon Kwolek
I agree that the sugar approach is a good way to go. “Sugarcane territory” can be expanded across Southern United States, but sugarcane climate area is relatively limited, compared to the much larger climate territory of corn or sorghum.
Sweet sorghum is being developed by the State of Louisiana and Renergie in ten localized ethanol plants, under 10 mgy each. This can also be done much further north, as sweet sorghum will adapt to the cooler climate.
The biggest bang for the buck may be what’s coming out of the lab for field corn. Imagine our entire corn crop with the same corn yield, but also with sugary stalk. That would dramatically impact the ethanol yield.
Going beyond this, we have heterotrophic algae that can be grown in insulated tanks, in the dark, on less than 5% sugar in solution in the growth medium. Under ideal conditions, heterotrophic algae can double every 6 hours on nitrogen-phosphorous-patassium (NPK) waste streams. Heterotrophic algae also gets up to 1,000 times more concentrated in the liquid growth medium than algae grown in sunlight. When you concentrate algae like this, you can operate it on a much smaller footprint, using a small fraction of land adjacent to existing refineries.
Duckweed, which is easier to harvest than algae, can also be grown heterotrophically, in the dark, on NPK waste streams and less than 5% sugar feed. We may see sugar – FIRST fed to algae and-or duckweed at ethanol refineries, using the nutrient-rich centrate waste effluent, CO2 waste, and waste heat. This will multiply the ethanol feedstock – onsite – in a matter of hours.
Algae and duckweed are great feedstocks for both ethanol and biodiesel, with the residual high-protein feed product left over. This is green Complete Protein, that would enhance distillers grains, which lack the specific amino acids and hemoglobin carriers that algae and duckweed do have. The result would be the “completion” of animal feed, healthier animals, and higher meat, milk, poultry, and fish production.
Corn ethanol waste water centrate has enough sugars and nutrients for about 2 generations of rapid heterotrophic algae growth. Because the feedstock is being multiplied onsite, even a portion of existing corn sugars could be used to feed additional generations of heterotrophic algae and duckweed in adjacent tanks at ethanol refineries. This would double, triple, and quadruple the feedstock, diversify ethanol coproducts, and dramatically improve plant efficiency – especially if onsite animal manure and-or methane digesters are integrated into the operation, as in Farmer’s Ethanol.
Joe Badyrka
I have worked with evaporators to over 32 years. I have provided design and troubleshooting services for stillage or slops evaporators in the production of ethanol (Beer). Most recently I have provided design services for Indian organization that builds fuel alcohol plants. 3 slops evaporator systems have been successfully commissioned and accepted by the customer.
I will work with you on the thin slops or stillage evaporators for your plant.
DANIEL MARTIN
SWEET SORGHUM IF USE MASIVLY ALL OVER THE COUNTRY FOE ETHANOL PRODUCTION COULD REALLY SUSTAIN AN ENORMOUS PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL AT CHEAPER COST ,MAKING POSIBLE LOWER PRICES AND MORE GAS MARKET PENETRATION ,WHICH WOULD DERIVE INTO SUSTITUTION OF OIL IMPORTS AND TRADE DEFICIT REDUCTION,THANKS
isaiah preales
umm? well im from texas and …yes i go to mexico some times every year? but i ant been there in like two years. iv been looking fowerd on studying and looking in to ethanol…but time is and was aginst me! but now im done with the b.s. and i have land in mexico. igot about 30 ackers of land! good amount! to grow…the soil is vary GOOD! if u know what your doing and look in to it. i can recicle….sorry cant spell but ay i ant worred bout that im more worryd about my world and how we use it…my study and thought of this fine world is a blessing so why now use every bit of fine land we got?
recicling water can grow tha land more and faster? think about it…and if u want to be real about some thing your thinking about on what im saying then lets talk about it? and now stell some thing that im saying here and right now! lets help each other billd a better earth and better air and water and food for our childern…that are starving and that need!!!! my name is isaiah perales u can reach me at brown_green1700@yahoo.com or BROWN_GREEN1700@yahoo.com
Ken
Hi,
Allen Brown, Joe Badyrka
Do you have an email? Would like to check with you on your experiences. Drop me an email at:
kmarkt2@yahoo.com
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