DaoChi Pres Disrupts ARPA-E/ASU Innovation Forum

Absence

I've been "away" writing my "blog" (having gotten past the snobbish distinction between "columnist" and "blogger" by recognizing that content is the distinguishing factor, not the job title) (Thanks in part to Andrew Sullivan and some of the other pioneers of the blogosphere.)

I write fairly regularly now for my own syndicate of blogs, not just the American Chronicle, Santa Barbara Chronicle, World Sentinel, and the rest of this group. I also make occasional "appearances" on my own blog on POLITICO, and sticking my nose in on HuffPost as well.

I recently attented a conference called Southwest Energy Innovation Forum, thanks to Dr. Bruce Rittmann of the Arizona State University's invitation.

Here's a press release I sent out today/yesterday, depending on where you are and what you clock is telling you.

HEADLINE: DaoChi Pres Disrupts ARPA-E/ASU Innovation Forum

Subheadline: Facts Deflate Myths Experts Believed

"Biofuels turn children into gingerbread men," Stafford "Doc" Williamson, (Pres. DaoChi Energy of Arizona) stood up and called out loudly in one of today´s sessions of the Southwest Energy Innovation Forum that was sponsored by Dept. of Energy´s ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy), Arizona State University (ASU) and the Kauffman Foundation. Obviously this was not the beginning of a myth that anyone took seriously, but as the crowd confirmed that their beliefs had not been altered, Mr. Williamson asked, "Why are so many people buying into a belief in the phony ´food versus fuel´ myth." Indeed panelists Dave Thompson of Diversified Energy (Gilbert, Arizona), and John Steedman, of BP Alternative Energy, had just included some discussion of the topic in each of their presentations at the Advanced Biofuels topic session of the conference. BP whose near term plans include opening a biobutanol facility in the UK in partnership with chemical giant DuPont and British Sugar. The main feedstock that biofuel facility will be using is sugar beets.

Mr. Williamson acknowledged that if the nonsensical scenario of commandeering 25% of the land of the entire United States of America came true that environmentalists and others might have some validity to their worries, but he pointed out that even though a report issued by the World Bank had given initial credibility to the rumor, that a more recent revised report showed that to be an error in their analysis. Rising food prices tracked exactly with the corresponding historic rise in petroleum prices worldwide, and did not directly relate to cost of the feedstocks for most biofuel oils. Panel moderator Eric Toone (of ARPA-E) and Tom Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy appeared surprised by the news. A representative of Raytheon admitted privately that it "certainly looked like" petroleum industry interests were probably helpful in getting that myth noticed by the press.

Dave Thompson, however, was skeptical that despite the "correction" that this argument would ever go away.

Arizona State University President Michael Crow proved to be a very talented speaker and moderator, especially when he drew forth the final observation of the day from Arun Majumdar, Director of Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, when he said, "We have access to innovation. Other countries do not. We should be exporting to them."

Similarly, when another panel had just made the point that at least one study concluded that it would be impossible to provide enough biomass to completely displace the demand of petroleum based fuels, Mr. Williamson again leapt to his feet to "quote one of my favorite statistics that I mentioned to Dave [Thompson] the other day." Mr. Williamson said that the idea that the "earth" (specifically "terrestrial," or land-based plants) could not grow enough biomass, must be contrasted with the growing power of [micro]algae. "Some species replicated, double, as much as 6 times in a day, that produces 6 to the power of two … pardon me, I mean, 2 to the 6th power as much biomass," Mr. Williamson explained.

He then went on to use the example of the old story that demonstrates the extreme power of exponents. The fictional tale goes a Maha Raja´s daughter was saved from drowning by a peasant. The Ruler was so overjoyed, he offered the peasant a huge reward (in some versions of the story, "half my kingdom"), but the peasant, being a clever fellow, asked simply for a single grain of rice on the first square of a chess board, and double the prior day´s amount each subsequent day on each of the remaining 63 squares. Of course the Maha Raja soon discovered that there was not enough rice in the entire world to satisfy this mathematical (or "geometric") expanding progression. The lesson is, as Mr. Williamson said, that, starting with one kilogram of algae, " … in 90 days, if you could actually provide enough carbon dioxide ´food´ to keep growing the algae" (each prior total doubling only once every day) you would have produced more than the mass of the entire planet earth. "Two to the 90th power," he said, "which is 10.e27 kilograms of algae." Which Mr. Williamson, with a grin, said could also be expressed as 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons of the green goo, not that he could pronounce a name for any number that large.

Mr. Williamson made his point, rather effectively, that if we prepare to make a transition to biofuels, it would take less than 3 months to create enough feedstock (from algae alone) to completely replace petroleum based fuel functions everywhere. Mr. Williamson also didn´t mention that once you extract the oils in the single celled algae, the remainder of the algae can be dried and used as cattle feed, or as a food ingredient rather like peanut butter or soy bean "tofu" in nutritional value. Even using the most oil optimized algae available today, it still works out to 50% oil, 50% food, which should silence the so-called ´food vs. fuel´ myth. It probably won´t, but it should.

With almost the entire staff of DOE's ARPA-E unit in attendance, Mr. Williamson who was sometimes known as a "thought leader" in other fields in the past may have changed the landscape a little again, today.

About: DaoChi Energy of Arizona, and President Stafford "Doc" Williamson

Daochi Energy of Arizona is a small company that is a division of Williamson Information Technologies Corp, of Arizona.

Mr. Williamson is a businessman who also writes a column that has appeared in the American Chronicle and it´s "sister" websites for the past 4 years, although he has now branched out into "blogging" under his own syndication, and pokes his nose into POLITICO and HuffPost discussions from time to time. He writes about green energy, biofuels, waste-to-energy streams processing, politics and entertainment. His business interests are mainly in the waste-to-energy field at this time. In addition to his own companies, Mr. Williamson is a major minority shareholder in another privately held corporation developing algae fuel technology. Stafford "Doc" Williamson has written several books (all available on Amazon, some in digital form for Kindle), and tries to "give back" to his community by acting as a substitute teacher.

Contact: Stafford "Doc" Williamson

Daochi Energy of Arizona