OT of an OT: Ethanol

[Will]

Hmm, I always wonder which threads cause these random OT hijacks...

Anyway, most of what I have read regarding ethanol advocates the use of switchgrass. That is basically the kind of grass that is naitive to, and grows all over, the US Midwest and Southwest. The process involves crushing out all the sugary and juicy bits of the grass, then beginning the distillation using the remaining stuff as fuel. That said, I have no idea on the feasability of the process. Switchgrass is already abundant, and would require no work to cultivate, and only a little amount of work to harvest it (you mow it). But I haven't seen any studies about what volume of ethanol a typical acre of land can produce in a 365 day period, or if the leftover material used to distill the ethanol is enough fuel for the entire process. Plus I do know that it will take a while to modify the infrastructure to accomodate different fuel; most likely, initially all of it will go into a biodiesel blend, where 80% is standard diesel, and the rest ethanol. Once engines that are designed to work with pure ethanol instead of gasoline, then we could start seeing pure ethanol pumps at a "gas station" instead of blends.

Anyway, I have seen a flurry of commentary on the subject of converting our energy dependence from oil to ethanol, so we should be seeing the results of a lot of research and many studies come out during the next year. It may turn out to be a bust like so many claimed magic pills, but it is still promising at this point. I wouldn't be suprised if there is a study within two years involving creating an ethanol distillery and distribution center based on the switchgrass method in a small town somewhere in the southwest US (probably in Arizona or New Mexico, outside of one of the university towns), with several residents agreeing to purchase ethanol-optimized vehicles and only being able to buy fuel at that one location. They'll do it because it'll be subsidized by a government research grant, and will likely be supported by a few universities, so the residents would essentially get a second new car at discount, and will buy fuel for it at what would likely be 1/3 to 1/2 the price of gasoline. If that works without much of a hitch, there would be more grants to slowly expand it out, etc.