[extropy-chat] cheap alcohol

[The Avantguardian]

--- Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> 
> > Why is ethanol such a bad idea?
> 
> Because bioethanol utilizes only a tiny fraction of
> energy captured
> in plant biomass on a given land area. You need
> fermentation of sugar
> (direct, or from hydrolyzed cellulose), and
> destillation. Lousy
> yield, and takes energy as input. Negative impact on
> soil and biodiversity.
> Details e.g. here:

This why there needs to be a bioreactor that can turn
almost 100% of the biomass into ethanol. I already
have one in mind, as I have mentioned before on the
list. Question is when would be a good time to start
building a prototype and filing a patent? If I try
this too early, the tech might be quashed by the oil
companies (provided it works of course, of which there
is no guarantee). In theory it should be able to turn
almost all of the biomass into ethanol for sale and
methane that can be used to power the bioreactor
itself. 

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

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