
                  ENERGY FARMING IN AMERICA
                       by Lynn Osburn
                       copyright Aug. 16, 1989


       On  June 12,  1989, President  Bush made  good  on  his
campaign promises  to  address  the  pollution  problems  long
facing the  United States.   He  unveiled an ambitious plan to
remove smog  from California  and the  nation's most  populous
cities, as well as efforts to reduce acid rain pollution.
       Bush  recommended  auto  makers  be  required  to  make
methanol-powered cars  for use  in nine urban areas plagued by
air pollution.   Methanol  is the  simplest  form  of  primary
alcohol and is commonly called wood alcohol.
     He further proposed a 10 million ton reduction in sulfur
dioxide emissions  from coal-burning  power plants;  that's  a
fifty  percent  reduction  over  present  standards.    Sulfur
dioxide is  a major  cause of  acid rain.   It has been linked
with respiratory problems in humans.
       William  Reilly, chief  of the Environmental Protection
Agency, at a briefing before Bush's speech, estimated the cost
of the  plan would  be between  $14 billion  and $19 billion a
year after its full implementation at the turn of the century.
      Bush said, "Too many Americans continue to breathe dirty
air, and  political paralysis  has  plagued  further  progress
against air  pollution.   We've seen enough of this stalemate.
It's time to clear the air."
       Political  paralysis seems  to be  a dominant  trait in
Washington in  any given  decade, but  what  did  he  mean  by
"stalemate"?      The root of this "stalemate" can be found in
the concept  of world  energy resources.  The industrial world
currently runs  on fossil  fuel: oil,  natural gas,  and coal.
Fossil fuel resources are non-renewable, being the end product
of eons  of natural  decomposition of Earth's ancient biomass.
Fossil fuels  contain sulfur which is the source of many types
of aggravating  environmental pollution  problems.    Removing
sulfur compounds  from fossil  fuels is a major expense to the
energy  producers.     Also,  burning  fossil  fuels  releases
"ancient" carbon  dioxide produced  by the  primordial biomass
eons ago  into the atmosphere causing the air we breathe to be
overburdened with  CO2 increasing the danger of global warming
and the greenhouse effect.
       In  the late  1800's, the  fledging petroleum  industry
aggressively  competed   with  the  established  biomass-based
energy industry  in a  effort to  gain control of world energy
production and  distribution.  Fossil fuel producers succeeded
in their  campaign to  dominate energy  production  by  making
fuels and  chemical feedstocks  at lower  prices than could be
produced  from  biomass  conversion.    Now  the  pendulum  is
swinging against them.
       It  is likely  that peak  oil and gas production in the
coterminous United  States has  been reached.   The bulk total
production of  roughly 80%  will be  reached by the year 2000.
Peak world production will occur about the same year.
       The situation for recoverable coal, world wide, is more
favorable.   Peak production  is estimated  to happen  shortly
after the year 2100.  However, increasing numbers of Americans
are unwilling  to accept the escalating costs of environmental
pollution and  destruction  associated  with  coal  powerplant
smokestack emissions  and land destruction resulting from coal
mining.
         If the  pollution problems  inherent in  fossil  fuel
consumption are  solved, the  dollars and  cents cost  of this
form of  energy will  continue to  rise due  to the  dwindling
availability of this nonrenewable world resource.
       On the other hand, the dollar cost of energy production
from  biomass   conversion  will  remain  relatively  constant
because the  world biomass  resource is  renewable on a yearly
basis.   The point  where the  cost of  producing energy  from
fossil fuel  exceeds the  cost of  biomass conversion has been
reached.   With a few exceptions energy from fossil fuels will
cost the  American taxpayer  more money  than the  same energy
derived from biomass conversion.

       Biomass  is the  term used to describe all biologically
produced matter.   World production of biomass is estimated at
146 billion  metric tons  a year,  mostly wild  plant  growth.
Some farm crops and trees can produce up to 20 metric tons per
acre of  biomass a  year.   Types of  algae  and  grasses  may
produce 50  metric tons  per year.  This biomass has a heating
value of  5000-8000 Btu/lb.  with virtually  no ash  or sulfur
produced during  combustion.   About 6%  of contiguous  United
States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply
all current  demands for  oil and  gas.   And this  production
would not  add any  net  carbon  dioxide  to  the  atmosphere.
(Environmental Chemistry,  Stanley E.  Manahan.  Willard Grant
Press. 1984)
     Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the Mission Analysis
study it  conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy in 1979,
chose five  types of  biomass  materials  to  investigate  for
energy conversion:  herbaceous plants,  woody plants,  aquatic
plants and  manure.   Herbaceous plants  are those that do not
produce persistent  woody material;  were divided  into to two
categories: those  with low  moisture content  and those  with
high moisture content.
       Biomass  conversion  may  be  conducted  on  two  broad
pathways: thermochemical  processes and biochemical processes.
Thermochemical processes can be utilized for energy conversion
of all  five categories of biomass materials, but low moisture
herbaceous  (small  grain  field  residues)  and  woody  (wood
industry wastes,  and standing  vegetation  not  suitable  for
lumber) are  the  most  suitable.    Essentially,  biochemical
processes are  anaerobic digestion  and  fermentation.    High
moisture herbaceous (vegetables, sugar cane, sugar beet, corn,
sorgum, cotton)  plants, manure,  and marine  crops  are  most
suitable for biochemical processes.
       Anaerobic  digestion produces high and intermediate BTU
gasses.  High-BTU gas is methane.  Intermediate-BTU is methane
mixed with carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.  Methane can be
converted into methanol efficiently.
      Fermentation produces ethyl and other alcohols, but this
process is  too costly in terms of cultivated land use and too
inefficient in  terms of alcohol production to feasibly supply
enough fuel alcohol to power industrial society.
         Pyrolysis is the thermochemical process that converts
organic materials  into usable  fuels.  Pyrolysis can take two
pathways  to  produce  energy  fuels  with  high  fuel-to-feed
ratios,  making  it  the  most  efficient  method  of  biomass
conversion, and  the method  most  capable  of  competing  and
eventually replacing nonrenewable fossil fuel resources.
       Pyrolysis  is the  technique of  applying high  heat to
organic matter  (lignocellulosic materials)  in the absence of
air or  in reduced  air.   The process  can produce  charcoal,
condensible   organic    liquids   (pyrolitic    fuel    oil),
noncondensible gasses,  acetic acid,  acetone,  and  methanol.
The process  can be adjusted to favor charcoal, pyrolytic oil,
gas,  or   methanol  production   with  a  95.5%  fuel-to-feed
efficiency.
      Pyrolysis has the advantage of using the same technology
now used  to process crude fossil fuel oil and coal.  Coal and
oil conversion  is more  efficient in  terms  of  fuel-to-feed
ratio,  but   biomass  conversion   by  pyrolysis   has   many
environmental and economic advantages over coal and oil.

     Pyrolysis has been used since the dawn of civilization to
produce charcoal  from wood as a domestic and industrial fuel.
If some  means is  applied to  collect the off-gasses (smoke),
the  process   is  called  wood  distillation.    The  ancient
Egyptians practiced  wood distillation  by collecting the tars
and pyroligneous acid for use in their enbalming industry.
       Pyrolysis  of wood  to produce  charcoal  was  a  major
industry in  the 1800's, supplying the fuel for the industrial
revolution, until  it was replaced by coal.  Wood distillation
was still  a profitable  industry in the late 19th century and
early 20th Century producing soluble tar, pitch, creosote oil,
chemicals, and noncondensible gasses to fuel the plant.
     By the 1930's the wood distillation industry declined due
to the  advent of  the petrochemical  industry and  its  lower
priced products.    However,  pyrolysis  of  wood  to  produce
charcoal for  the  charcoal  briquette  market  and  activated
carbon for purification systems is still practiced in the U.S.
       The  wood distillation industry employed pyrolysis in a
process called  destructive distillation.    The  process  was
carried out  in a  fractionating column  (a tall  still) under
high heat,  sometimes as high as 1000 degrees F.  Charcoal was
the main  fuel product and methanol production was about 1% to
2% of  volume or  6 gallons per ton.  This natural process was
replaced by the synthetic process developed in 1927.
       The  synthetic process  utilizes  a  pyrolytic  reactor
operating as  a gasifier  by adding more air or pure oxygen to
completely burn  the biomass  to ash, releasing all the energy
contained in  the biomass  in  the  form  of  gasses.    After
purification the  syngas, hydrogen  and carbon monoxide in a 2
to 1  ratio, is  altered by  catalysts under high pressure and
heat to  form methanol.   This method will produce 100 gallons
of methanol per ton of feed material.

          President  Bush's  call  for  both  methanol-powered
automobiles and reduced emissions from coal-fired power plants
can be  accomplished by  biomass conversion  to fuel utilizing
pyrolysis technology,  and at  the same time save the American
family farm  while  turning  the  American  heartland  into  a
prosperous source of clean energy production.
       The  foundation upon which this will be achieved is the
emerging concept of "energy farming", wherein farmers grow and
harvest crops for biomass conversion to fuels.
         Studies have  been conducted by various universities,
government  agencies,  and  private  firms  looking  into  the
feasibility of  producing enough  biomass at a cost low enough
to  be  converted  into  fuel  at  affordable  retail  prices.
According to  congressional testimony  of Professor  George T.
Tsao,  professor   of  chemical   engineering  and   food  and
agricultural engineering,  director of laboratory of renewable
resources, Purdue  University; the  wholesale price of 30$ per
ton delivered  to the  conversion plant  is an  adequate  base
price to  the energy  farmer.   This price  of 30$ per ton has
been suggested by other studies.
       Unfortunately,  no research  has come  up with the best
plant to  be grown  for energy  production.  Instead, emphasis
has   been   centered   around   utilizing   waste   products:
agricultural residues  after harvest, forestry wastes from the
timber and  pulp wood  industry, and municipal wastes.  All of
these wastes  combined cannot  produce enough  fuel to satisfy
the needs  of industry nor the American consumer's automobile.
Yet biomass  conversion to  fuel has  been proven economically
feasible first in laboratory tests and by continuous operation
of pilot plants in field tests since 1973.
       The  problem was well put in congressional testimony by
Dr. Serge  Gratch, director chemical sciences laboratory, Ford
Motor Co.  and Dr.  Joseph  M.  Colucci,  director  fuels  and
lubricants, General  Motors Research  Laboratories.  They both
expressed their  companies' willingness,  especially Ford,  to
make cars  that would  run on  methanol fuel.  The researchers
said it  would take several years to tool up factories to make
methanol powered autos; that industry could solve the problems
associated with methanol as fuel.  And it would take about the
same amount  of time  for the  energy industry  to  build  the
facilities   to   produce   the   methanol.   But   government
certification under  the Clean  Air  Act  required  automobile
manufacturers meet  standards set  by the  EPA based  on fuels
available on  a national level.  Since methanol fuel standards
had not  been set,  the car makers couldn't make the new fleet
until the  methanol fuel  was available  at the  pump.    That
testimony was given over ten years ago.

       The way to circumvent this morass is to start literally
from the ground up.  Farmers must be allowed to grow an energy
crop capable  of producing 10 tons per acre in 90 to 120 days.
This crop  must be woody in nature and high in lignocellulose.
It must be able to grow in all climatic zones in America.  And
it should  not compete with food crops for the most productive
land. Preferably,  it should  be grown  in rotation  with food
crops or  on marginal  land where  food crop  production isn't
profitable.   There is  one plant  on earth  that can meet all
these requirements for an energy crop.
       When  farmers can make a profit growing energy, it will
not take long to get 6% of continental American land mass into
cultivation of biomass fuel -- enough to replace our economy's
dependence on  fossil fuels.   And  when the  energy  crop  is
growing it takes in CO2 from the air, so when it is burned the
CO2 is released creating a balanced system.  We will no longer
be increasing the CO2 burden in the atmosphere.  The threat of
global greenhouse  warming and  adverse climatic  change  will
diminish.
      This energy crop can be harvested with equipment readily
available.    It  can  be  "cubed"  by  modifying  hay  cubing
equipment. This  method condenses  the bulk, reducing trucking
costs from  the field  to the  pyrolysis  reactor.    And  the
biomass  cubes  are  ready  for  conversion  with  no  further
treatment.
      To keep costs down pyrolysis reactors need to be located
within a 50 mile radius from the energy farms.  This necessity
will bring  life back  to our small towns by by providing jobs
locally.   The pyrolysis  facilities will  run three  shifts a
day.
     68% of the energy of the raw biomass will be contained in
the charcoal and fuel oils made at the facility.  The charcoal
has nearly the heating value in BTU as coal, and has virtually
no sulfur  to pollute  the atmosphere.  The pyrolytic fuel oil
has similar  properties to  no. 2  and no.  6 fuel  oil.   The
charcoal and  fuel oil  can be "exported" from the rural small
town in  the agricultural  community to the large metropolitan
areas to  fuel  the  giant  utility  power  plants  generating
electricity.   When these power generation plants use charcoal
instead of  coal, the  problems of  acid rain  will  begin  to
disappear.   The charcoal  can be  transported economically by
rail to  all urban  area power  plants.   The fuel  oil can be
transported economically  by trucking  creating more  jobs for
Americans.
       When  this energy  system is on line producing a steady
supply of  fuel for  electrical power  plants,  it  will  have
established itself in commerce.  Then it will be more feasible
to build the complex gasifing systems to produce methanol from
the  cubed  biomass,  or  make  synthetic  gasoline  from  the
methanol by the addition of the Mobil Co. process equipment to
the gasifier.
       All  that needs  to be  done to accomplish this goal of
clean  energy   independence  in  America  is  to  demand  our
government allow  American farmers  to grow  this energy crop,
for our  government outlawed  it in  1938.  HEMP is the number
one biomass producer on planet earth.  It will produce 10 tons
per acre  in approximately  four months.   It is a woody plant
containing 77% cellulose -- wood produces 60% cellulose.  Hemp
is drought  resistant making  it an  ideal  crop  in  the  dry
western regions of the country.
       HEMP  is the  only biomass  resource capable  of making
America energy independent.  Remember in 10 years, by the year
2000  America   will  have  exhausted  80%  of  her  petroleum
reserves.   Will we go to war with the Arabs for the privilege
of driving  our cars; will we strip mine our land for coal and
poison the  air we  breathe so  we  can  drive  our  autos  an
additional 100  years; or  will we  raze our  forests for  the
energy we need?
       Hemp grown for biomass makes very poor grade marijuana.
The 20 to 40 million Americans who smoke marijuana would loath
to smoke  hemp grown  for biomass, so thieves could not make a
dime  stealing   a  farmers  hemp  biomass  crop  to  sell  as
marijuana.
       During World War II the federal government faced a real
economic emergency  when our supply of hemp was cut off by the
Japanese.   The federal  government responded to the emergency
by suspending  marijuana prohibition.  Farmers were encouraged
to apply  for a licence to cultivate hemp.  Patriotic American
farmers responded  enthusiastically and  thousands of acres of
hemp was grown at that time.
       It  is time  once again  for the  federal government to
respond to  our current  economic emergency  by utilizing  the
same procedure  used in  WWII to  allow our  farmers  to  grow
American hemp  so  our  nation  can  remain  energy  free  and
independent.


References:
U.S. Energy Atlas, David J. Cuff & William J. Young

Progress in  Biomass Conversion  Vol. 1,  Kyosti V. Sarkanen &
David
Tillman editors

Brown's Second Alcohol Fuel Cookbook, Michael H. Brown (Senate
hearing transcripts)

Enviromental Chemistry, (4th edition), Stanley E. Manahan

The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer

Hemp for  Victory, U.  S. government  documrntary  film,  USDA
1942-43.
