An alternative to Ethanol from Corn "Clean energy +BIOCHAR"

[qwertyui90qwertyui90]

Yes there is an alternative to using Corn.

It's called Sugar Cane... Yeast produces ethanol as a bi product of itself and if you want yeast to multiply you feed it sugar :)

Corn is very ineffective compared to sugar cane.

[readyxxi]

WHAT LIB CRAP

[mangyscavenger]

Isn't the byproduct of gasification bio-char? If so, couldn't you make use of the producers gas created when heating those cobs, say, to run a generator to recharge a battery bank to power your home? You would need a gasifier for this. Or am I wrong?

Just thinking of getting the most use out of the corn.

[KillaBeMe1]

TEST IF U A PUSS

[leskruth]

Good demo. My question is how much particulate matter is put into the air? Smoke is as deadly as anything to people cooking over open "hearths". Is corn any cleaner than any other material you might burn?

[mciceteade]

i thought he was making popcorn lol just kidding



[TheCaptainLulz]

Thats a waste of food burning it for biochar. Composting it (tilling it under) sequesters the same amount of carbon and adds nutrients to soil.

[buttkracken]

This is great. Next try useing GMO seeds as fuel. Clean the earth of this pollution while helping grow real food.

[WDTripps]

THis is good and a very noble idea yet there is one problem that exists that also exists with the ethanol made from corn. Using corn in this fashion decreases the amount of corn which is used in many products (too many to list). What I am saying is this can cause a shortage of food in some respects, this is the same problem we face when using ethanol made from corn. But a solution would be to have acres of corn used for food, and acres set aside for corn for fuel. We dont have a land shortage.

[crazycloud2]

@WDTripps You don't have to use usable (food) corn. You can use just the cobb that is left or any organic material. I biochar my dogs poop. Works great.

[qwertyui90qwertyui90]

@WDTripps

Use Sugar cane instead of Corn crops...

per acre Augar cane produces more well, Sugar than corn starch will. and in effect you can have more yeast reproducing and creating more ethanol biproduct for you.

[stonerj0e]

ok now i have to agree with this video . so is biochar high in nitrogen ?

[MichaelnChristine]

Alternative to ethanol? How about growing something other then corn. Iowa et al import 80% of their food in spite of having the best top soil in the world.

[snookmeister6]

What is the music in the soundtrack?

I'm making charcoal here at home in an urban setting, using smoke free methods - secondary combustion. I have both test and control beds but no definitive results yet. Great video. Thanks.

[1crazyJOO]

Would it not be more realistic to burn ethanol in a laboratory to calculate the carbon footprint? I think you missed a few steps, corn alone is not ethanol, but corn is an ingredient used to make ethanol.

[icharmeat]

in the title, the poster stated that this is an ALTERNATIVE to ethanol, not ethanol production.

[buttkracken]

I don't understand how you get char when you feed the stove air. Feeding it air, wouldn't you have complete combustion and make ash? I make charcoal out of wood but add no air. Also how about maybe eating corn kernels and using the dried corn stalks. I have a local riverbed that is choked with bamboo. I will see if I can cut and dry a bunch soon.

[kanigo8]

On a side note here and something to look into:

The first time a saw a industrial carbon manufacturing area was in DEATH VALLEY.

Apparently the silver miners in the area needed a pure form of carbon to "extract " the silver , so they went up in the mountains and "gassified" the wood in the area. In about 20 foot tall "Upside down acorn" shaped buildings.

They still stand to this day.

[robotnik77]

I'm cooking in my kitchen.

So, is there a place I can just BUY

agrichar/biochar, or do I have to make

my own? There's a new stove from, I think,

GTZ called a 'rocket stove'. Will that

work, too? They're trying to sell those

in Bangladesh to stop all the soot & CO.

[mrhjoker21]

does this kind of stove need a fan like a gassifier stove?

[Nipwit7]

Where does a person find a portable stove like the one shown in your video? I'd like to make my own biochar in a sustainable way, before some giant, shameless company exploits the name and the environmental image, and starts selling low-quality, industrial, lifeless bags of super-hot fired charcoal as "biochar" in Wal-Mart. My understanding is that biochar requires that temperatures be kept relatively low so as not to burn off volatile oils and partially pyrolyzed organic matter.

[Agrisonic]

Hi Nipwit7,

If your in the States you can buy one of Tom Reeds "Woodgas Camp Stoves" to make a little biochar while producing clean cooking gas. If you want to make more biochar for your garden you might like to use some of the ideas posted on dub dub dub biochar . org

Regarding biochar temp having to be low this is not true, microbial response has a lot more to do with pore structure then oils!

Good luck with your trials!

[4Mengineering]

just lovely

[jcrubin78]

How many BTU's does one obtain from a given amount of corn in kilograms. Here in germaqny wood and corn pellets are used for furnaces. Has the CO output been measured?

[Agrisonic]

Hey jcrubin78,

The stove is a work in progress and as yet I've not had a chance to fine-tune it with a combustion analyzer but when I do the CO should be very very low. I really only wanted to show that it is possible to get clean energy and keep the fixed carbon (Charcoal). We're just about to start some school trails and I needed something to show the students how it all fits together. Later we'll do a full energy balance with different feed stocks so I'll keep you posted.

[jcrubin78]

The large stove could have a stirling motor placed over it. If its true that the CO levels are extremely low. You could provide house heating and electricity at the same time from corn

[Agrisonic]

Hey jcrubin78,

Here I wanted to show people that you could get clean energy from any fibrous material and have the option to keep the fixed carbon (Biochar). If the biochar is put into soil it can add to soil fertility by retaining nutrients, water and provides shelter and support living conditions for soil microbes. When we take this "Take a little and give a little" approach, nature gets right back to work to grow more biomass to provide us with more food and fuel (Sustainability).

[SCODgreenhood]

Good video! *****