Wings Aloft

When I read this, I wonder if this is an example of the Coanda effect. If the leading edge could ever be covered with a super sonic laminar flow of air, the incoming air flow would adhere almost perfectly to the wings surface and maximize lift while sharply reducing drag.


A small jet would certainly cover part of the wing in that manner and this is certainly a good start in that direction. Drag would definitely reduce. My own thoughts along those lines were toward developing a somewhat more elegant solution which may be simply impractical. On a very large wing, you have the flexibility to apply a much less elegant method like dedicating a few small jet engines.


It may be possible to enclose a three to six inch pressure tube along the leading edge with exit slots initiating laminar flow just before the leading edge that is fed by the dedicated jet engine. The laminar flow must leave the slot under a hundred psi pressure drive for the layer to adhere to the wing’s surface.


In the event, it is on the big birds that this technology can be made to work in the first instance. It just never occurred to me that such new research of this nature could be conducted on the big birds already in service.


May 22, 2009 04:27 PM

Not a drag: High-tech airplane wings could cut fuel costs by 20 percent

By Larry Greenemeier

A new study says that within three years jumbo jet–makers could be testing a new type of wing that reduces midair drag and cuts fuel costs by an estimated 20 percent. The wing would do this using small, built in jets that redirect air around the wing during flight.

"This has come as a bit of a surprise to all of us in the aerodynamics community," Duncan Lockerby, an associate professor of fluid-solid mechanics at the University of Warwick in the U.K. and head of the research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft maker Airbus, said in a statement. "It was discovered, essentially, by waggling a piece of wing from side to side in a wind tunnel."

Lockerby acknowledged that he and his team weren't sure exactly how the small jets actually reduce drag, but they're building prototypes they hope will be ready for testing as early as 2012 and will eventually reduce surface friction drag by up to 40 percent.

Part of this learn-as-they-go approach stems from the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe's (ACARE) goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions from passenger aircraft in half by 2020, Lockerby notes on Warwick's Web site.

Airlines and aircraft makers are already experimenting with biofuels to cut the amount of greenhouse gases their aircraft emit high in the atmosphere. Virgin Atlantic Airlines, the U.S. Air Force, Airbus, and Florida-based Green Flight International are testing coconut and babassu oils mixed with regular petroleum-based jet fuel as well as "synfuel" liquid jet fuel made from coal or natural gas.

Cargo ships are also turning to new technology in an attempt to reduce drag and cut fuel costs, including an experimental approach that pumps air about 25 feet (less than 10 meters) below the waterline into subsurface cavities—broad, shallow recesses built into the underside of the ship's hull—creating buoyant pockets that help ships slip more easily through the sea surface.

Energy Market Future

The one certainty that we can have is that the benefits of modern technology will ultimately be available easily and cheaply to each and every human being. At best, a few will cause delay in a rear guard action. The classic example of that is North Korea.

Where the energy will come from is far less certain. Here a USA government report recognizes the inevitable but can only stay focused on fossil fuels. Long time readers know that replacement technologies are been promoted in just about every which way.

I think that fusion energy is far closer than anyone imagines. Some very clever tricks are now been employed because they can actually be modeled and tested. This ability is becoming common place and that means that the best imaginations can advance the technology.

In the meantime, just about any other plausible option has been dusted off and is now been actively pursued and most important, solar technology has dropped into the sweet spot in terms of costing and is now booming.

The real question is ‘will the world use less fossil fuel energy’ and the answer to that is an emphatic yes. First because we really have little choice in the matter as that is been dictated by Mother Nature and secondly because the cost of alternatives is rapidly approaching the cheapness of conventional oil. Most of the cost issues are about scale and that is quickly happening. Wind is a great example of bigger, better and cheaper. While this is happening the cost of a barrel of oil is inexorably inching higher. At some point they will pass each other for good.

May 28, 2009

Will the World Use Less Energy?

The U.S. government doesn't think so, and forecasts oil prices as high as $200 per barrrel
By Katherine Ling

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-use-less-energy-oil-prices&sc=DD_20090528

World energy consumption is forecast to increase by 44 percent from 2006 to 2030, with almost two-thirds of that coming from developing countries and fossil fuels that continue to dominate energy supply, according to the Energy Information Administration's 2009 outlook report [pdf] released today.

Developing countries are projected to increase demand by 73 percent by 2030 in the outlook's base reference case -- EIA's analysis under current laws and policies -- whereas developed countries will grow by 15 percent, the report says.

Oil prices will return to $110 per barrel in 2015 and go up to $130 per barrel in 2030 in the base reference case, although in the high-price reference case they could reach $200 per barrel, depending on supply, EIA said. In the high-price reference case, potential supply reaches 90 million barrels per day, but in the low-price reference case, supply reaches 120 million barrels per day, according to the outlook. All three projections' prices are significantly higher than in the 2008 outlook.

Liquids -- including biofuels -- will continue to be the primary energy source in the world's transportation sector unless there are "significant technological advances" and despite several policy changes, EIA said.
Unconventional resources such as oil sands and biofuels will become increasingly competitive, accounting for about 13 percent of the world's liquid supply by 2030, the report said. The United States will particularly see an increase in biofuels, mostly in advanced cellulosic rather than corn-based ethanol, acting Administrator Howard Gruenspecht said at the report's release event in Washington.

World natural gas and coal consumption will also continue to rise, especially in developing countries, the report says. China is expected to triple its coal-fired generating capacity by 2030, according to the report.

The United States will continue to grow as an important supplier of natural gas, projected to increase to 5.3 trillion cubic feet as unconventional gas plays such as the Marcellus Shale account for more than 50 percent of U.S. production by 2030, EIA said.

EIA predicts "much brighter prospects" for natural gas supply, keeping prices at about $8 per million British thermal units by 2030, compared with the International Energy Agency's outlook, which predicts $16 per million Btu by 2030, Gruenspecht said. He added that if hydraulic fracturing drilling is constrained -- as has been suggested by some lawmakers -- it could seriously affect the nation's ability to reach the unconventional natural gas. U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said last week that the agency may look into the environmental impact of the process, which some environmental groups say releases harmful chemicals into drinking water (E&E Daily, May 20)

"I think there is no question that gas growth in the United States in unconventional [plays] is all dependent on hydraulic fracturing," Gruenspecht said. "If one envisions a world where hydraulic fracturing is off the table, that would really change" the outlook, he said.

While the EIA report finds renewables are the fastest growing source of electricity, "coal and natural gas still fuel nearly two-thirds of the world electric generation in 2030," the report says.

Gruenspecht also noted that while EIA is still analyzing the current House Energy and Commerce Committee climate bill, the target of cutting 17 percent of carbon dioxide emissions below 2005 levels likely will not significantly alter the EIA's energy outlook.

"One could imagine you could comply with the 2020 proposal of a 17 percent cut just using offsets and not a significant change in use of energy at all," Gruenspecht said. "It doesn't necessarily cause huge changes in projections because a lot of countries are showing a huge energy demand. ... I'm not sure they are as committed to making these changes," he said.

New Wood Dissolution Process Replaces Krafting

A new method of gently tearing apart the chemical constituents of wood has been discovered.

The historic krafting process is a potent chemical process that operates at over a hundred degrees Celsius. It is not easy to work with at all.

Again this is early days, but once again, this may lend itself to small farm based operations able to ship byproducts such as the lignins.

Up to now, one was forced to dismiss wood waste as much other than an inconvenient handling problem for silviculture. This may help change all that. The idea of the wood waste entering a vat and then exiting later as a liquor or as a baled paper like product has appeal.

Now we have a way that will allow ease of handling and no caustic chemicals to deal with. If it can be limited to a modest vat for batch handling, then it should be possible to produce a farm friendly system.

Something like this can be also used to create a woodlot management system. Chips can be gathered and processed over the year for their product stream that can subsidize the whole enterprise.

Queen's Scientists Discover Eco-Friendly Wood Dissolution

http://www.biofueldaily.com/reports/Queen_Scientists_Discover_Eco_Friendly_Wood_Dissolution_999.html

http://www.biofueldaily.com/images/cellulose-fibre-art-bg.jpg


by Staff Writers

Belfast, UK (SPX) May 22, 2009

\Scientists at Queen's University Belfast have discovered a new eco-friendly way of dissolving wood using ionic liquids that may help its transformation into popular products such as bio fuels, textiles, clothes and paper.

Dr Hector Rodríguez and Professor Robin Rogers from the University's School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering worked along with The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, to come up with a more cost and energy efficient way of processing wood.

Their solution, which is reported in the journal Green Chemistry, may see a new sustainable future for industry based on bio-renewable resources.

At present wood is broken down mainly by the Kraft pulping process, which originates from the 19th century and uses a wasteful technology relying on polluting chemicals.

The key reason for tolerating this method is that it is very difficult to break down and separate the different elements of wood. Until now any alternatives to the process have presented similar problems.

The Queen's researchers found that chips of both softwood and hardwood dissolved completely in ionic liquid and only mild conditions of temperature and pressure were needed. By controlled addition of water and a water-acetone mixture, the dissolved wood was partially separated into a cellulose-rich material and pure lignin.

This process is much more environmentally-friendly than the current method as it uses less heat and pressure and produces very low toxicity while remaining biodegradable.

Professor Robin Rogers said: "This is a very important discovery because cellulose and lignin have a wide variety of uses. Cellulose can be used to make products such as paper, biofuels, cotton and linen, as well as many other commodity materials and chemicals.

"Lignin can be used to create performance additives in various applications, such as strengthening cars and airplanes with a fraction of the weight of conventional reinforcement materials. It is also a source of other chemicals which are mainly obtained from petroleum-based resources."

Dr Hector Rodríguez said: "The discovery is a significant step towards the development of the biorefinery concept, where biomass is transformed to produce a wide variety of chemicals. Eventually, this may open a door to a truly sustainable chemical industry based on bio-renewable resources."

The approaches that the scientists are considering for the future include the addition of eco-friendly additives to the ionic liquid system or the use of catalysts.

The researchers are hoping to eventually achieve better dissolution under even softer conditions and are also trying to achieve complete separation of the different elements in one single step.

Both teams are also focusing on biomasses which are rich in essential oils and can later be used in processes such as the manufacture of fragrances.

Eastern Forest Recovery

It never occurred to me that anyone ever thought that the carbon retention ability of eastern north America was even close to been satisfied. But I guess that some did. The rebound has been natural and pretty inefficient. I have championed the need for a restoration of close forest management similar to that of the original managers who created an open forest of mature trees supporting a maximum of biodiversity.

That is what needs to happen and it has to be accomplished in partnership with local government acting as a stakeholder in the timber itself, since the life cycle is way beyond that of an individual operator. Good forest management will provide a stream of forest products including charcoal. Open woodlots also will provide areas for cattle and buffalo and deer husbandry.

The partial forest recovery is actually successful but rather dominated by weed trees. This needs to be changed.

Potential To Amass More Carbon In Eastern North American Forests

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Potential_To_Amass_More_Carbon_In_Eastern_North_American_Forests_999.html


http://www.terradaily.com/images/wisconson-woodland-forest-bg.jpg



The results have implications not only for Wisconsin, but also for regions across eastern North America where forests were leveled historically to make room for agriculture, and then grew up again as settlers abandoned their farms and headed west. In Wisconsin, for example, forest biomass and carbon have been steadily recovering since the peak of agricultural clearing in the 1930s, while those in the northeastern U.S. have been rebounding for about 125 years.



by Staff WritersMadison WI (SPX) Apr 08, 2009

With climate change looming, the hunt for places that can soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is on.

Obvious "sinks" for the greenhouse gas include the oceans and the enormous trees of tropical rainforests. But temperate forests also play a role, and new research now suggests they can store more carbon than previously thought.

In a study that drew on both historical and present-day datasets, Jeanine Rhemtulla of McGill University and David Mladenoff and Murray Clayton of University of Wisconsin-Madison quantified and compared the above-ground carbon held in the forest trees of Wisconsin just prior to European settlement and widespread logging, and the total carbon they contain today.

Writing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that despite decades of forest recovery, Wisconsin's woodlands still only hold about two-thirds the carbon of pre-settlement times - suggesting substantial room for them to accumulate more.

"There's probably more potential (to store carbon) than people were considering," says Mladenoff. "There's still a big difference between what was once there and what's there now."

He adds that the true storage potential is probably at least two-fold higher than what he and Rhemtulla calculated, since they factored in only the live, above-ground biomass of tree trunks and crowns, and not the carbon stored in roots and soil.

The results have implications not only for Wisconsin, but also for regions across eastern North America where forests were leveled historically to make room for agriculture, and then grew up again as settlers abandoned their farms and headed west. In Wisconsin, for example, forest biomass and carbon have been steadily recovering since the peak of agricultural clearing in the 1930s, while those in the northeastern U.S. have been rebounding for about 125 years.

Yet, it's precisely because many temperate forests have been recovering for so long that people tend to assume their potential as carbon sinks is "maxed out," says Mladenoff.

"Our results suggest we need to rethink this," he says. "Rather than there being an intrinsic limit on how much carbon a forest can store, how we use the forest - how much we log, how we manage - may be more important."

The findings come amid sweeping discussions of international carbon treaties and accounting systems that are designed to reduce CO2 emissions and combat climate change. In the future, for instance, countries might earn credits for maintaining carbon-rich old-growth forests, or replanting trees on lands logged off previously for agriculture.

Areas that once supported large amounts of forest biomass might also be good sites for growing plantations of hybrid poplar and other biofuels crops, says Mladenoff. But, he cautions, any move toward planting more land in trees must be weighed against competing social and economic factors, such as the need for farmland.

"The landscape is full," says Mladenoff. "So if we're going to add something like forests, we're going to need to take something out."

That certainly seems to be true in Wisconsin. Based on historic carbon levels, the researchers' analysis found that much of the best land for growing trees is the north-central region and along northern Lake Michigan. If those lands could be reforested to pre-settlement levels, the scientists estimate they could add 150 teragrams of carbon (150 million metric tons) to the state's current total of approximately 275 teragrams.

The problem, however, is that most of those lands are still being farmed, setting up an interesting dilemma for policy makers: how to weigh the current economic benefit of agriculture against the future environmental benefit of carbon storage.

"Because we often forget the invisible services, like climate regulation, that ecosystems provide to us for free, we don't usually factor them into our decision making," says Rhemtulla. "But this will need to change if we're going to find ways to meet our immediate needs without compromising critical services over the long term."

Doane's Monsanto Article

When you read a report like this you become very grateful in the invisible hand of the market place. The real scope and scale of the task facing us on this planet is completely outside the capacity of governments to properly tackle. As I have posted many times, presently perhaps two billion people properly participate in the global middle class, two billion are on the way in while two billion have heard about it. Over the next twenty years, that second two billion will join the global middle class and the third billion will exit subsistence farming and the like. The next twenty years will see the balance join the global middle class.

Can you imagine a government agency preparing as cogent report as this on the problem we face?

Readers of my blog know that my underlying theme is terra forming earth to accommodate the population we have and perhaps much larger populations than that.

So before you read this, recall that the Eden Machine and the biochar protocol for soil fabrication can and will increase farmland by possibly a full order of magnitude. To start with, all tropical soils can be addressed today with the biochar protocol and made intensely productive. After that we have everything else to play with thanks to the Eden Machine.

Quite simply, if you can arrive at any spot on Earth with a machine that sucks water from the atmosphere and by folding in some biochar, you can produce soil you are in business. I suppose we could even get up to putting up green houses in the far north if we cared.

Terracing hillsides in the desert will actually be good idea since erosion can be kept minimal. It will still be decades before we run out of good flat land though and we may simply never bother.

Reproduced in its entirety from Dec. 12, 2008 Doane's Agricultural Report (newsletter)

Monsanto Rep Updates 30-year Plan to Double Crop Yields Worldwide by 2030!

Editor's [Doanes] Note:

St. Louis is home to an extremely robust "Agribusiness Club" that meets monthly near our own offices here. We're members and like to network with executives from some of the nation's biggest agribusinesses with headquarters here.

This week, Mr. Michael Doane (no connection with our company) addressed theluncheon group. He's Director of Monsanto's department of Agricultural Economics and Sustainability.

I took careful notes and thought I should share his remarkably candid summary of Monsanto's ambitious "Sustainable Yield Initiative" to double global crop yields from 2000 level by the year 2030.

The global food supply faces a four-factor challenge, according to Mr. Doane:

1) Continued growth in population,
2) Rapid growth in per capita income,
3) Biofuels as a major new demand factor, and
4) Global warming that agriculture can help alleviate.

In fact, he says Monsanto's view is that agriculture lies at the "intersection" of all four challenges. The world will add "three more Chinas" over the next 22 years according to Mr. Doane, cracking the 9 billion mark in population. However, only 3% of that growth will take place in the developed world. The other 97% will occur in the developing world, where incomes are growing fastest and where the number one priority in spending higher income is on improving diets. He says rising income is an even more potent driver of food demand than population pressure. As just one example, 80% of the population of India - more than a billion people - lives on less than $2 per day.

The growth in global corn demand predates the biofuels boom, according to Doane. All the biofuels boom has done is accelerate the rate of growth. Monsanto expects global corn demand to grow by 34% over the next 10 years, and global soybean demand by 52%. Mr. Doane presented a startling chart that showed 50% of the world's "hungry" are actually subsistence farmers, unable to adequately even feed themselves on their hard-scrabble little plots.

Another 20% of the world's hungry are what Monsanto calls "rural residents," people living in remote rural areas, but not growing any of their own food. Another 10% are what Monsanto calls "fishers and herders." Only 20% of the world's hungry are what they call the "urban poor."

Land and water are serious limiting factors. Despite all we hear about the vast potential development of farmland in Brazil, Mr. Doane says the reality is that world-wide there are about 900 million hectares in production today (2.471 acres to the hectare). And, he says, Monsanto estimates there is only 10% to 12% more land with the soils and climate suitable to be developed for farming. That's about 270 million acres, world-wide. It sounds like a lot, but consider that's only what the U.S. plants to major crops currently. Think about it. We'll be adding three more "Chinas," but have only enough land to equal one more "U.S." in terms of farmland!

Furthermore, of the land already being farmed, 18% must be irrigated, and that 18% accounts for 40% of current global food production. And, as population pressures build in areas where fresh water is already scarce, it's a variation of the "food versus fuel" debate, but more basic: Water for farming versus water for people - and thirsty PEOPLE will ALWAYS outbid farmers with thirsty crops!

Another bit of helpful perspective: Direct, per capita water consumption worldwide is about four liters daily (including drinking water, food preparation, bathing, etc.)

However, if you take into account the water used by each human indirectly (to grow and process food, flush toilets, manufacture consumer goods, etc.) per capita consumption runs about 4,000 liters per day!

So what exactly IS "sustainable agriculture"? The folks at Monsanto define it as "an agricultural system that meets the food, fuel and fiber needs of the present population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." That's a tall order given that Monsanto estimates the planet will have to produce more food between now and 2050 than the planet has produced in the last 10,000 years! And to reach that goal "sustainably," Monsanto has adopted a corporate goal of helping farmers:

• Reduce the use of inputs per unit of production by one third,
• Reduce the use of water per unit of production by one third, and
• Reduce the use of energy per unit of production by one third.

How do they intend to do that? It's a corporate strategy that rests on a three-legged stool of sorts: 1) Better breeding of seeds for yield, drought tolerance, etc., 2) Advanced biotechnology for weed and pest protection, and 3) Improved agronomic practices that maximize benefits from better breeding and biotech traits. To protect crops from pestsility" they've adopted a corporate mantra that amounts to the following equation: "More production + more conservation = a better life for farmers." Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant is fond of drilling into employees: "If farmers prosper, then we'll prosper."

Meeting the "global warming challenge" is part of the company's sustainable agriculture initiative. Though there are some scientists who still insist warming over the past 50 to 60 years is merely a "cyclical phenomenon" that has gone on for eons and has little to do with human activity on the planet, Monsanto's scientists have accepted that global warming "is real" and that "cropping patterns will have to be adaptive and change with the change in climate." They note that since global warming is blamed on excessivecarbon dioxide production, and that plants absorb CO2 and give off oxygen, agriculture has an important role to play and that it is only proper that farmers earn "carbon credits" for certain management practices that reduce their carbon footprint while increasing plant output. That's why their goals involve producing more crop and income with less chemical input and less water usage.

Monsanto cultivates partnerships, not just test plots. Mr. Doane told the St. Louis agribusiness club in concluding his luncheon address that Monsanto is partnering with groups who share their corporate vision and goals, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Keystone Center, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, the African Agricultural Technology Coalition and the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization.

Question and Answer Session Summary

Question from the audience: How will you know when sustainable agriculture is achieved?

Answer: Sustainable agriculture is a characteristic of dynamic systems that maintain themselves over time. It's not a fixed end point that can be defined.

My question to Mr. Doane: You note that advancement in biotechnology is an important component of your three-pronged strategy. But biotech still has opposition among many environmental groups. How can you convince such groups that if they are serious about preserving habitat and wildlife diversity, they ought to be the biggest cheerleaders for biotechnology, not opponents?

Answer: That's a good question that comes up a lot. Progress is already happening. Here are several very encouraging signs:

• You may recall back in the 1990s, Prince Charles of the UK made headlines worldwide when he attacked biotechnology and said it belongs "only in the realm of God." Not many dared challenge him.

But just a couple of months ago, he started in against biotech again and actually tried to blame biotechnology for the global grain crisis and soaring food prices worldwide. This time, he was roundly attacked and quickly silenced by scientists and politicians alike around the world.

• Just last week, Europe approved use of second generation Round-up Ready soybeans, a dramatic change from long-standing resistance and opposition.

• Just this week, Kenya ratified a biosafety protocol that will allow greater adoption of biotech crops that offer great promise.

• Both the World Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy have reversed their opposition to biotechnology.

They now promote responsible applications that can reduce dependence on chemicals and development of fragile lands that ought to be left for habitat and wildlife diversity, so long as precautions are taken to prevent unintended use. What remains to be seen is how they apply the protocol.

Another audience question: What's been the reaction of the public, politicians and the scientific community outside of Monsanto?

Answer: For the most part, people have been supportive and applaud us. Sure, we have cynics and skeptics who believe it's ridiculous to think we can double global crop yields by 2030. But at Monsanto, we believe in setting ambitious goals that really challenge our people and provide a motivational measure of progress if we fall behind the pace of advances needed to reach those goals. But is it unreasonable? We think not. Even though it took 40 years to double yields between 1960 and 2000, we think we have the need and technological tools to double yields again in 30 years.

Final question: So are you on pace? You say your 30-year window for doubling yields by 2030 actually started in 2000. Are you on pace today?

Answer: To double yields in 30 years, we need an average growth rate of about 2.3% per year. Since 2000, we've met that goal in cotton yields. We're a little short in corn yields, which have grown about 2% per year.

We're falling behind in soybeans, where we've only achieved about 1.25% yield growth since 2000. But can we do it? Absolutely. We've already seen corn yield contests top 400 bushels per acre, and soybean yield contest winners top 150 bushels per acre, just using intensive management with today's seeds and technology. All it means to us is that we've got a bigger challenge in soybeans to meet our goal than in corn or cotton. But we'll meet it. I'm confident of that.

About Monsanto's Michael Doane: Again, he's not connected with this company or our founders. In his current role with Monsanto, Mr. Doane is engaged with the agriculture and food value chain on issues relating to the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture systems and has been involved in a variety of industry relations and sales management roles for the company for 10 years. He was raised on a diversified crop and livestock farm in western Kansas and maintains an interest in the family farming operation that is actively managed by his parents and brothers. Prior to his work for Monsanto, Mr. Doane served as the Executive Director of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers (KAWG) - a policy organization representing the interests of wheat farmers. While with the KAWG, Mr. Doane led the organization's state andnational-level policy development, lobbying, and public relations initiatives. He received a M.S. and B.S. in agricultural economics from Kansas State University and resides with his wife, Julie, his son, Morgan and daughter, Sophia here in St. Louis.

Peggy Korth on Cattail Culture

This article by Peggy Korth shows that cattail culture is advancing and we will monitor this. In particular, she is also associated with the marketing of a farm sized ethanol production unit made from off the shelf hardware. I will do a separate column on that. I am posting the article after our correspondence. Her efforts are well worth supporting as she is getting answers.



Hello Robert,

I thought the letter copied below may be of interest. The intent if such messages is to change the false precepts of overzealous informants who do not fully understand climate warming and certainly do not understand the food and fuel concept. Making all kinds of generalized statements about fuel ethanol can be quite detrimental to the use of an excellent fuel. With my system, we remediate both water and soil, we capture carbon dioxide from the air, we restore fallow land, we have ABUNDANT potential per acre for starch and sugar conversion, we have a new product to provide pulp and fiber without chemical farming or killing trees, we promote rural economic development, we provide new jobs and educational training, we provide low-cost safe equipment for the small and mid-sized producer, and the list goes on...

Out of courtesy, please do not quote the names of the recipient of the letter. The magazine did not respond because they want to holler about their point of view instead of finding solutions. In my opinion, unless the complainer is offering advice or alternative solutions, then that message is not constructive. Building hope relates to practical solution that can be implemented by communities and NOT dependent on big business or government.Also after working for fourteen years out of my own pocket, I intend to offer paid services and equipment that I helped forge through my input and support. I give generously to the public. Yet, I also expect the public to be responsible for their own future. In the past I have lived frugally and enjoyed a good professional life. Awakening the hope of the next generation means building a passion to make a difference for their own posterity.

Sustainable Technology Systems, Inc.

Peggy G. Korth, President
40 Sun Valley Dr., Spring Branch TX 78070
Cell: 512 757-4499, 830 885-4823; FAX 830 885-4827
Email: rpk@gvtc.com
September 25, 2008

Gentlemen,

####Over seven years ago I presented a concept to ##### concerning alternatives to corn as co-development. He patted me on the head and said, “Well, maybe someone will listen to you in ten years, but right now corn is king.”

And now people are starting to listen. Our company had developed a propagation and growing methodology to raise over a thousand gallons of fuel ethanol from cattails as a row crop. The limiting factors are wastewater availability, diverting a polluted stream, and/ or land adjacent to or nearby wastewater processing.

Furthermore, the concept of mega-sized production plants is not necessary or practical. Our engineers have developed farm-scale systems for bioenergy with an amalgamation of energy-savings adjuncts such as gasification from waste woody biomass and parabolic solar collectors to provide low-cost functionality.

Your discussion perpetuates a number of myths, as discussed in the recent Texas biofuels conference in Austin last week where we once again gave state officials information on both rhizome and stalk processing from cattail crops.

Numerous alternative crops are available and it is wise to advance small to mid-sized systems that will provide both the farmers and rural communities with a means for self-sufficiency serving first-responders and community based fleets. Your larger systems can serve the public interest if excess fuel is not available. However, our group DOES have a mechanism to impact the controversy and provide biofuels production systems as a real, doable, and affordable safety net to our rural communities.

Thanks you for your interest. Hopefully we can expand your horizons beyond the corn field. Best wishes,

Peggy


Water Assurance Technology Energy Resources—a 501C3 Educational and Research Organization dedicated to Clean air, Clean water, and Clean energy.

Peggy Korth, President 40 Sun Valley Drive, Spring Branch TX, 78070, 512 757-4499, F 830 885-4827, rpk@gvtc.com


Optimize bioenergy, remediate wastewater, and impact soil amelioration for communities through a methodology suitable to global adoption. Merged clean technologies begin with propagating cattails as a row crop adjacent to municipal wastewater treatment. A new applied methodology brings technological innovation to small and mid-sized bioenergy production units suitable for most any community. Abundant and renewable bioenergy provides a safety-net of security for fuel availability in conjunction with low-cost equipment design merging parabolic solar energy, gasification of invasive species, and waste from sewerage additionally reducing toxins, heavy metals, and drugs from wastewater streams. Furthermore, the benefits of building soil from sludge transforms here-to-fore barren land into fertile acres to grow additional energy and non-food crops.

Practical demonstration began with academic studies through a DOE grant. New feasibility studies related to climate influence are scheduled to begin in January 2009 in Otero County New Mexico—a barren desert with brackish ground water and rugged terrain. Forward-thinking town fathers promote systems for long-term renewable energy application. Supported by a conservation alliance, the United States Forest Service shares research and information gathering with our outstanding group of STS specialty associates. Novel industry application implements remediation and watershed services plus value-added benefits in rural economic development, homeland security, and practical solutions to community self-sufficiency. Modern technical application from spent feedstock residue extraction of pulp and fiber from feedstock waste opens new industry opportunities to the building materials and paper industries.

Collaboration with a research division of the University of New Mexico utilizing algae waste assists in soil building demonstrations. Through the efforts of Ms. Korth ‘Cattails to Ethanol’ is favorably embraced by numerous independent researchers and foreign communities. As new feedstock cattails offers over a thousand gallons of fuel ethanol per acre plus numerous benefits to provide ongoing affordable renewable energy.

Feasibility studies provide unique operating formats to bring most any global village into compliance while reducing surface flow pollution diverting contaminated, non-potable water through remediation beds accessed by unique harvesting equipment. By reducing the cost of operations and providing processing equipment that allows incremental expansion, facilities enlarge on a pay-as-you-go plan. Development of the concept began in the early 1980’s with academic validation of the concept.

Expanding that knowledge into additional beneficial processes brings new low-cost practicality to communities sustaining affordable quality-of-life programs and first responder fuel security.

As the principle of an adjunctive association of specialist working through Sustainable

Technology Systems, Inc. Peggy Korth has been featured at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and The World Biomass Conference presenting lectures and break-out sessions in How to Implement a Community Feasibility Study and Data Collection Basics, Small Scale Energy and Fuel Production for Farmers and Communities, Alternative Crop Efficiencies as well as developing training curriculum for biofuels programs. Ms. Korth authored two Small Scale bio-energy and Fuel Production text: Cattails to Ethanol and Bioenergy Business supporting producers in their due diligence and presentation preparation. Her compilation of the most comprehensive Bioenergy Glossary is being translated into Spanish. Ms. Korth’s USDA, SARE grant program, Livestock and Feedstock: Distiller’s Grain and Fuel Ethanol, proved dairy application benefits for farmers to produce their own fuel in farming operations. Additional environmental lectures are highlighted in Ms. Korth’s biographical summary which is available upon request.

There are good pictures here but we do not have a address for them so they will likely not survive pasting.