On Site Ethanol Production using crop waste

I belive that on-site ethanol production using crop waste or even corn is one of the best alternative for ethanol production. On site processing is easy and safe, it eliminates transportation costs and enables the use of various waste products not just the use of corn. Systems that I am familiar with can produce 2 - 5 gallons of ethanol per hour and with the use of conversion kits that are on the market the ethanol can be used to operate DIESEL and Gasoline equipment. I believe that on-site systems will help with Farm Sustainability with AG CO-OPs forming to process various waste crops and produce ethanol for a number of farms within the CO-OP and this will in turn increase the use of ethanol, thereby saving fuel expenses.

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Permalink Reply by Roadrunner on May 9, 2011 at 5:39pm

Is there a website with any additional information?

I would think that you would need to have a certain size to make it worth your time.

2-5 gallons per hour would seem to be too small.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Edmonds on May 10, 2011 at 12:46pm

Hi Roadrunner

I have found a couple of general websites for you. The first talks about a company in Minnesota that has a modular biorefinery and can make at a minimum 500,000 gallons of ethanol per year.

http://blog.energy.gov/blog/2010/09/14/biorefinery-goes-mod-and-small

The systems that my company is marketing in Canada is smaller, easier and less expensive that the one noted above, however, works on the same model. The amount of ethanol you obtain per year depends on the amount of feedstock or waste that you have to process. With our systems we help you set up the tanks for pretreatment of the waste and fermentation and then delivery to the distillation system which is sold separate from the tanks. Based on the fermentation of the waste and the percentage of alcohol you obtain from your waste determines the amount of ethanol you can produce. I noted 2 - 5 gallons per hour because that is what I thought a normal farm would want.

How much Diesel fuel and gasoline do you use in a year. My company is working with the University of Wisconsin on the use of ethanol in Diesel equipment using a dual fuel tank system with the ethanol injected into the combustion chamber separate from the Diesel. Based on initial studies at the University of Wisconsin this dual fuel system can save at the least 50% of your Diesel expenses.

http://www.favstocks.com/reactivity-controlled-compression-ignition...

My company website is out of date and being worked on at this time. As soon as it is up I will post it.