Comments on: Start-up to produce cheaper ethanol with microbe

SunEthanol is optimizing a naturally occurring microbe that converts the cellulose in plants to ethanol.

[billmosby]

Dead end

Can't grow enough stuff, not enough land. Do the math.

[thesmj]

You're thinking about corn, not celluose.

We couldn't grow enough corn for corn based ethanol to power America and eliminate our reliance on foreign oil, no. As it stands corn can only reduce our need of crude from outside the country by around 30%. The problem is corn can only yield one harvest per plant, and it takes a lot of time and money to get a stalk of corn to the point of being harvested.

Cellulose, which is what this microbe turns into ethanol, is everywhere. Even an "empty" field full of weeds can be mowed and turned into ethanol with this process. Even something as simple as the grass clippings we send to the dump or put into a compost pile can be used.

And the best thing is - grass keeps growing back. Unlike corn which only yields one harvest per the life of the plant, grasses or most any hearty weed can and will grow back after being trimmed, ready to be trimmed again.

Imagine the amount of fuel which could be made simply by using the fallen tree branches and trimmings a municipality picks up after a storm, or simply trimming the grass next to roads. Furthermore, imagine if the municipality sold the "refuse" of these operations to a company such as this one, lowering the taxes we all have to pay.

[Bio_Man]

Not enough Land

I have a system that will grow 100 tons of
of bio mass per day, per ten acres.
My question is, How much land do you need?