<DrumBeat: October 30, 2008 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: October 31, 2008>

122 comments on Cutting Through the Coskata Cellulosic Ethanol Hype

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El on October 30, 2008 - 7:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As noted in my post below...

British Columbia already harvests the timber equivalent of 33,000,000 Douglas firs annually. This figure is less than 1% of the provincial resource base and a tiny fraction of the beetle-infested timber that surrounds the under-utilized infrastructure already in place.

The BC and Quebec governments are transitioning both the infrastructure and resource base away from traditional pulp-paper and construction industry support programs (i.e. US housing) to Bioenergy initiatives.

That said, Robert's Douglas fir analogy, albeit effective, is misleading.

Coskata Michigan is certainly not going to be harvesting Douglas fir but rather (in a perfect world) organically grown, nitrogenous fixing perennial Dedicated Energy Crops (DECs) such as hemp - a plant that maintains a higher biomass/btu ratio, higher biomass/acre ratio, not to mention an easier and more frequent harvesting profile.

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Robert Rapier on October 30, 2008 - 8:57pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That said, Robert's Douglas fir analogy, albeit effective, is misleading.

It is simply designed to give someone a feel for the amount of biomass required. If I said "a million hemp plants" that would have been completely meaningless to most people.

...a plant that maintains a higher biomass/btu ratio, higher biomass/acre ratio...

Numbers?

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El on October 31, 2008 - 3:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Fair enough.

My btu assertion is based on your ballpark usage of 12.5MMbtu/ton as opposed to the 15-17MMbtu/ton that a DEC would support.

And as for the latter assertion. You're looking at 10-30tons/acre for Douglas fir vs. 10-15tons/acre for a DEC.

But you and I both know that while the DEC acreage can be harvested annually, the same cannot be said for a stand of Douglas fir.

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NeverLNG on October 30, 2008 - 9:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

don't forget the beetles. They could be profitably converted into bio-diesel in a suitably engineered plant. Vinod Kholsa, are you listening?

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robert2734 on October 31, 2008 - 12:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My car runs on beetle juice.

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Jason Bradford on October 31, 2008 - 12:57am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As far as I am aware, hemp is neither a perennial nor nitrogen fixing.

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El on October 31, 2008 - 12:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Miscanthus rather, not hemp.

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122 comments on Cutting Through the Coskata Cellulosic Ethanol Hype

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