May 19, 2006

SUPERGRASS:

AUDIO: Canadian Dreams of Ethanol Distilled from Grass (Kathleen Schalch, May 16, 2006, NPR: Morning Edition)

It's been a dream for many years: Distill clean-burning ethanol from grass, the cheapest vegetation. It's not just a dream anymore. An entrepreneur in Canada has a small factory operating already. He claims that he's ready to blanket the continent with such factories.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 19, 2006 8:13 AM
Comments

Since global warming should mean more grass atop the tundra of northern Canada, this is a great idea.

Posted by: John at May 19, 2006 9:30 AM

.. entrepreneur in Canada ... What a find! I thought this type of being (I daren't say species or genre) was no longer to be found in the great white north.

Posted by: erp at May 19, 2006 9:42 AM

Here in Illinois suburbs there are a lot of Mexican Owned Businesses who have an endless supply of the stuff.

Posted by: Bruno at May 19, 2006 11:02 AM

Downstate Illinois is experiencing a mini energy boom of its own. A significant number of pending plans for ethanol plants, coal mines and coal gasification facilities. Even a possible additional nuke reactor at Clinton. Hope some of it pans out, but I'm doubtful, based on prior failures in this area.

Posted by: jdkelly at May 19, 2006 4:34 PM

I hope Southern Illinois gets something going for them. I believe they are sitting of 2 or 3 Billion tons of recoverable coal. It's high Sulfur coal so that is a strike against.

Clinton was originally scheduled for (2) 800MW gens. What they have now is the Worlds last BWR reactor. All others are PWR, pressurize water reactors. I'm not sure the existing plant could accommodate the newer PWR reactors.

Posted by: Tom Wall at May 19, 2006 6:59 PM

Tom Wall, I can't answer your question. Does the new unit have to be similar to the old? New technolgy appears to make high sulfur coal usable. Plenty of coal left in Illinois. You're right. Williamson County sure could use the jobs, but so can Central Illinois.

Posted by: jdkelly at May 19, 2006 8:59 PM

jdkelly, no, the units can be different. When Clinton was completed at one unit a lot of the infrastructure was modified to only accommodate the one unit. Save money by not allocating additional slots for equipment, etc. Now it becomes a matter of economics to go in and redo the plant for the second unit.

Scrubbers for sulfur are functional but very expensive.

Posted by: Tom Wall at May 19, 2006 10:56 PM
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