tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1752027331714385066.post4575058816942684756..comments2024-03-19T14:38:21.141-07:00Comments on Terra Forming Terra: Methanol Economyarcleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05942529252160087271noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1752027331714385066.post-64403181198669750702008-01-22T15:56:00.000-08:002008-01-22T15:56:00.000-08:00Methanol can be produced from biomass: coppice* p...Methanol can be produced from biomass: coppice* planting of Poplar or Black Locust trees makes a good fuel source.<BR/><BR/><BR/>The process is called "gasification" and requires burning of the biomass in a oxygen depleted environment.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Some of the biomass is burned outright to provide the heat necessary.<BR/><BR/>The rest is burned via starved air combustion, and the exhaust gasses are typically drawn down through a bed of glowing char.<BR/><BR/>The traces of water vapor in the exhaust react chemically with the glowing char and disassociate into H2 gas and oxygen.<BR/><BR/>The oxygen reacts instantly with the hot carbon and forms Carbon Monoxide, a burnable gas.<BR/><BR/>So the end product is called "Producer gas" and is composed of H2 and CO with a little leftover CO2 and of course, nitrogen from the atmosphere.<BR/><BR/>It burns pretty well.<BR/><BR/>This producer gas can be dual-fueled in Diesel engines to generate electricity or fed into carburated gasoline engines to get 2/3rds the rated horsepower of gasoline to provide electricity and heat generation.<BR/><BR/><BR/>If you start the process with pure O2, however, you get a much better output, called Synthesis gas.<BR/><BR/>Synthesis gas can be converted to methane at standard pressures with an iron oxide catalyst.<BR/><BR/>Or if you tool up a bit to use higher temperatures and pressures with a Cobalt catalyst, you can produce ... <BR/><BR/>...drumroll please .... <BR/><BR/>METHANOL !!!!<BR/><BR/>And the Crowd Goes Wild ! (cheering sounds in the distance).<BR/><BR/><BR/>*So, to re-cap: you plant fast-growing trees on marginal land, areas where erosion, flooding and/or droughts are a real problem.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Then you come back after the trees are established and cut them off at a uniform height.<BR/><BR/>The trees will sprout suckers from the stumps and you'll soon have a forest of suckers.<BR/><BR/>The roots of the trees recover from the stress, and then you come through and mow down the suckers again.<BR/><BR/>This can be done for centuries, and has, in areas of England where clear-cutting old-growth trees was prohibited.<BR/><BR/>The advantages: you get a fairly steady supply of uniform diameter wood chunks, from land that isn't conducive to farming cereal grains.<BR/><BR/>The foliage from the young suckers can sometimes be used as cattle feed.<BR/><BR/>The land ends up with deep root systems tying down the soil against erosion AND flooding.<BR/><BR/>And of course, once you calculate the huge mass of tree roots per acre, you get to claim that biomass as a carbon credit.<BR/><BR/>A Federal incentive program to support coppice farming in the Mississippi delta could solve two problems at once: flood remediation and economic incentive to help rebuild the shattered local economy after Hurricane Katrina.Jkirk3279https://www.blogger.com/profile/01537585763277181952noreply@blogger.com