Biomass Authority

You don't have to own an ethanol stock to know that the media and the people who believe what they have to say have become apoplectic in their disdain for ethanol over the past year.  Many pundits are parroting each other and blaming ethanol as the root cause for rising food prices and worldwide food shortages.  They do this with such conviction that you'd think they must spend their free time collecting bushels of corn to donate to starving people of the world when they are not pontificating on the topic.  There's only one problem with their assertions: They are...

I had an opportunity recently to attend a presentation by Solix, a startup company located in Fort Collins, CO that is developing a method to produce biodiesel fuel from algae.  I also had a chance to take a look at Solix's proof-of-concept photobioreactor.  The Solix process works by optimizing the conditions to grow a particular type of algae which is high in lipids.  Lipids are fats which are relatively easily to convert to vegetable oil and thus into biodiesel.  The algae are grown in water-filled raceways called photobioreactors that are sealed off from the atmosphere to avoid contamination from microorganisms...

Biodiesel vs. Ethanol - In the world of renewable energy it’s not uncommon for natural allies to turn into unlikely foes.  In order to support a particular point of view, an advocate of one form of renewable energy will often take issue with some other form of renewable energy and adopt the arguments of those who seek to discredit all forms of renewable energy.  For example, I was reading a website that was enumerating the benefits of a vertical axis wind turbine by calling it ‘bird and bat’ safe, thereby implying that horizontal wind turbines are not bird and bat...

There are still many hurdles to the profitable production of ethanol from cellulose on a large scale.  Among them:  convincing farmers it is profitable to collect biomass, finding the technology to cheaply digest cellulose into glucose, and making it logistically feasible to provide the vast quantities of material necessary.And it needs to be on a very large scale.  The US government has mandated that 30% of the nation’s petroleum needs be produced from renewable resources by 2030.  With the amount of corn that can reasonably be produced for this purpose, it is estimated that 40-45 billion gallons of ethanol will...

I have encountered a number of people who have expressed opposition to corn ethanol because they feel that it is wasting food by turning it into a fuel.  You can imagine my surprise when I found an advertisement for a ‘multi fuel’ stove that that actually burned whole corn kernels.   What made it all the more astonishing was that dry corn kernels are the cheapest fuel available, costing even less than natural gas per BTU.  I think that says something about the productivity of the American farmer or perhaps the low value we have for using corn as food. Corn...

At one point in my career, I worked in a division of HP (now part of Agilent Technologies) that made gas chromatographs and other exotic chemical analysis equipment.  Gas chromatographs have many uses such as analyzing compounds in the chemical processing industries and for testing air and water quality.   There was a man who would visit our division periodically by the name of James Lovelock.  In exchange for providing him with equipment to measure atmospheric concentrations of gases, he would provide us with fascinating lectures on his findings and theories.   James Lovelock is perhaps best known for his Gaia hypothesis,...

As biomass interest begins to take hold as gas and fossil fuel prices continue to rise, one might wonder; why is biomass better than fossil fuels? This question first crossed my mind when I realized that burning wood chips, corn, ethanol, or switchgrass (all common biomass fuels) releases Carbon Dioxide (CO2) just like burning gasoline or natural gas.Yes, it is true that burning biomass fuels releases CO2, and yes CO2 is a primary concern for global warming and pollution. The real differences in sustainability, and the "clean tech" nature of bio mass, is that it can be produced locally which...

While traveling through the Colorado mountains on the way to Steamboat Springs this winter, I noticed that a growing number of the evergreens have taken on a rusty shade of brown.  This is a result of mountain pine beetle damage which has claimed more than a million acres of lodgepole pine trees in Colorado and threatens to kill virtually all mature lodgepole pines in the state in the next 3 to 5 years. I was curious about the eventual outcome of these trees because dead trees pose a significant wildfire threat as they allow fires to quickly spread out of...

The mission of Biomass Authority is to create a worldwide biomass resource that is largely unbiased and unaffiliated. While we do participate in select affiliate marketing programs, we also employ free thinking writers and interns to do our research and reviews. Biomass Authority is not a substitute for legal advice however, we do our best to create resources that can inform and inspire people to get involved with the clean energy movement.Biomass Authority has chosen Pair Networks to host their site based on the company's renewable energy commitment. It is in line with our vision to share meaningful and actionable...