Biomass Project: Rationale

I truly believe that the conversion of land, water, air and sun to useful products is a very worthwhile goal. It is worthwhile because it creates something useful, and to me, useful things are more desirable than items that are not. The use of these resources to produce food, or shelter, or clothing, or energy are all worthwhile endeavors.

However, I am also not blind. I grew up in the Midwest, and have lived in the region (almost) my entire life. It pains me to witness the decay of rural areas. This decay is taking a couple of different forms: a) fewer and fewer people living on and gainfully employed on the land, and b) the land itself, in many areas, growing to weeds and opportunistic trees and shrubs. Yes, some of this land is being returned to its 'natural' state, or at least people are attempting this, but much of the land I am referring to is simply lying fallow because it is not economically advantageous to do anything with it.

I am not sure about this, but I don't think the current thinking on utilizing biomass as an energy source is heading in the right direction. The current thinking is that economies of scale is the form of measure to be used, and I disagree with that. What this thinking leads to is the design and building of huge complexes for converting biomass to anything else. Witness the scale of the ethanol or biodiesel plants being built and discussed (Indiana biodiesel, 50 million bu./year soybeans, that's 1000000 acres, some soybeans will need to be shipped 10s perhaps hundreds of miles). With this centralized type of energy production, will we be any better off? Who has the resources to fund such a project?

I think that the situation on the whole would be much better handled in a de-centralized fashion, where hundreds (or thousands) of individual producers create a rainbow of products from these resources. I am willing to lose some of the economy of scale, in return for less spent on shipping of raw material, more diversity of product, and a healthier rural economy.

One of the best means for getting such a de-centralized movement going is the dissemination of information. While people read about the new ethanol or biodiesel plants being built, few know how they do what they do. The more people who know how something is done, the more entrepreneurial types will perhaps give it a go. The Web is replete with pages about biomass to liquid technology (Google), yet it is really hard to find any detailed plans on how such processes can be built, or how they perform.

I am going to lay out my vision/calculations/design for a biomass to liquid conversion device for all to see. I am open to review and criticism, the only thing I ask is that critics propose a better method than they are criticizing!

I fully plan on fabricating this device, using my own money and talents. I will document this also, as well as experiments gauging how well the device performs. More than likely, the first device will be torn apart to build a second, better device, and so on. That is engineering.