More Bio-fuel sense

TRUST technology, not the Sandalistas.

From California comes the news that it is possible to make bio-fuels without using food crops or microbial fermentation. The University of California and West Bio-fuels LLC, is developing a prototype reactor that will use steam, sand and catalysts to convert forest, urban, and agricultural wastes that would otherwise go to landfills into alcohol that can be used as a petrol additive.

The alcohol now being added to petrol in California comes from maize, sugar cane, beet, or other farm crops and 95 percent of the alcohol comes from outside of California. The new process will use a thermo-chemical process to break down shredded cellulose wastes into a mixed alcohol, predominately ethanol.

The prototype reactor will mix the wastes with high temperature sand in a reaction chamber while the mixture is heated with steam. This generates an energy-rich combination of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2) which will be "reformed" into alcohols.

About 30 percent of the energy content of the starting material will be burned to supply the energy needed to operate the plant.

The research team includes nine professors and seven post-doctoral fellows.

Orange County, California produces about 30,000 tons of urban green wastes per day, which is simply dumped at landfills and used as compost. This could generate 3 million gallons per day of mixed-alcohol fuel.

This will allow Californians to continue using internal combustion engines, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce the production of greenhouse gases.

A green dream, no less.

And a damn sight better one than the South African bio-fuels plan one which, Spigot predicts, will turn into a nightmare.