FlexFuels in Detroit Bailout? Biodiesel for Alberta, Elephants Choke Jatropha Out, BedTime for Adam

Details are "sketchy" as I write this, but apparently President Bush has determined that he, not Congress, knows best about what is "good for America", which, it turns out is the traditional view of "what is good for General Motors", except of course that he is wrong. Has this man ever been right on any issue I wonder. Somewhere back in history he must have had at least some answers right on his college exams, didn´t he? They gave him a degree or two.

But as C. Scott Miller of http://bioconversion.blogspot.com has reported, Senators Salazar, Cantwell, Brownback, Collins, Dorgan, Landrieu, Johnson, Ben Nelson, and Lieberman sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell, urging that assistance to automakers "be predicated on an agreement to increase the percentage of new cars and trucks configured as Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs)." No such language was contained in the agreements the automakers are expected to sign later today (Friday, December 19, 2008). Conditions of the loans did include a demand that the automakers reduce their debt overall by offering current bond holders equity in the company. This is generally a tactic that simulates what might happen in a Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) proceeding. However it does not address the state laws that make it expensive if not impossible to close down dealerships for sub-brands of cars that are not doing well. (e.g. what happened to the Oldsmobile brand in recent years). Bankruptcy would have eliminated this problem, or at least it was likely that a "pre-packaged bankruptcy" that wiser men in Washington favored.

According to CNN.COM , "the government is calling for GM and Chrysler to use their stock to pay for half the funds needed to cover future retiree health care expenses, which will be paid by union-controlled trust funds, rather than the automakers themselves, starting in 2010." And they also report what most folks already know, that, "Republican senators demanded hard targets for labor union concessions and cited the UAW's resistance to agree to them as the reason the bill died last week."

Indeed, while "flex fuel" conceptually sounds like a step in the right direction, especially "flex" that goes beyond ethanol to the heavier, more energy dense alcohols like butanol and more, yet the more practical solution is simply to blend in the butanol (preferably biobutanol) at the fuel distribution point rather than set up blending at each individual corner service station. Butanol has been shown to be a 100% compatible fuel replacement, and blends in any proportion with gasoline. As I have mentioned previously, Dave Ramey, a leading researcher on biobutanol drove his Buick 10,000 miles on butanol with no ill effects on the car or engine, passing emissions tests in every state he passed through, and ZERO modifications to the standard production model from General Motors.

I sincerely hope that the DuPont/BP folks are correct when they suggest that modifications to an ethanol plant will be minor to switch over to biobutanol when they have perfected their process at their pilot facility in Northern England.

Maybe it is, in part, the season: end of year, holidays and all that; but I found a couple of aspects of this story warmed my heart a bit. You see up in Turner Valley, Alberta (site of some of the first oil wells in Alberta, if not in Canada) a young (?) lady named Jaimey Farnese got some press coverage [originally published in the Calgary Herald] for the fact that she (and her husband) opened the first retail biodiesel outlet in the province. Farnese, CEO of Green Way Fuels, says that they "pretty much cashed in the whole nest egg" to start this business and I was certainly gratified to see that they sold some 4500 liters of biodiesel in just their first week. Petroleum is king (and queen, and several levels of subsequent oligarchy until you reach the cattle and grain "barons", AFAIK) in Alberta, so it´s not all that surprising that it lags far behind Ontario and British Columbia in offering citizens this "green" fuel alternative. It also turns out that the Farnese couple are actually residents not of Turner Valley, but of the tiny town of Millarville, just South of Calgary, where my sister lived for several years as well. Which reminds me, I have a "date" to play golf with a couple of friends from Canada tomorrow (Wed, Dec 24th, 2008) who are visiting for a few weeks from another Alberta town, Medicine Hat, a town where my other (recently deceased) sister lived for a considerable time (okay, to be fair to the small towns, she actually lived in Redcliff, Alberta, a small, though not tiny, suburb of Medicine Hat). But it was the "small world" aspect of these folks from my other sister´s "home" town, that reminded me, of an instance just a couple of weeks ago when I met these Canadian friends for a round of golf. The very next group also consisted of a pack of visiting Albertans, from the Red Deer area.

From time to time I mention the promising future of jatropha curcas as a potential source of vegetable oils as a feedstock for biodiesel creation. I just this morning receive a note from a gentleman in Germany informing me that during his recent visits to Africa, while looking at a jatropha plantation, he discovered that the nursery plants that had been transplanted to the fields were being overshadowed, literally, by the elephant grass that had sprung up in a matter of days when the rains arrived. The foot tall jatropha plants were limp and weak from lack of sun, because the elephant grass was already 3.5 meters high (that´s about 11feet). Aha, biomass, I said to myself, but the jatropha growers report that the elephant grass only comes out twice a year when the rains arrive and despite the height (and the dense shade it produces over the jatropha) it is not, in itself, sufficiently dense to be a viable biomass crop.

On the other hand, the jatropha growers who are almost losing their jatropha crop to the elephant grass claim that they have to cut it by hand to avoid damage to the young jatropha plants. It certainly seems to me that a custom-made reaper head on a combine should be able to handle it. On the other hand, since I have never before heard of this particular problem, I suppose the market is too small to be worth the time to develop such a "weed machine", even for those you regularly intercrop other products with their jatropha bushes.

"Intercropping" is not the same as crop rotation. Intercropping is the practice of mixing two or more crops in a single field. This can have various reasons behind the concept and can provide a wide variety of benefits. For small independent jatropha growing operations I almost always recommend intercropping, at minimum for the first 3 or 4 years while the jatropha bushes mature. Jatropha yields are small while the plants are small, and a farmer could go broke or be on the verge of starvation before a harvest sufficient to support her (or his) family was produced. Therefore, in jatropha development, intercropping´s primary purpose is to provide an additional and alternative source of income. I have seen maize (corn) grown in these situations, and that probably works best after the 3rd year of jatropha growth. Otherwise, the maize can quickly sprout up and shade the developing jatropha bushes, essentially the same problem as described above with elephant grasses. Bean crops are a good choice in most cases, soy beans being one of the most marketable, especially since even if there is not market for them as food in the local economy, it seems likely that an independent grower could sell them as biodiesel feedstock. In any case, they are a nutritious food if market conditions are poor. A grower can always use them to feed their family. Sunflowers are another popular and versatile intercrop, but again, one must be cautious of the effect of their shade during the early years with jatropha co-cultivation.

I am optimistic that the Disney movie due out this holiday season will be worth the price of a ticket. I started out as an actual "opponent" of what I considered the dumb and tasteless humor of some of Adam Sandler´s films, but have grown to respect his well meaning positive outlook in his films and there is rarely the kind of wrong-headed, mean jokes of his earlier films in those more recent releases. A neighbor gave us a gift card for a local cinema to say thank you for an errand my wife did for them, so we´ll probably see one or two in the coming weeks. In all probability, Bedtime Stories directed by Adam Shankman (possibly best known as Director/Producer/Choreographer of the musical film of Hairspray) will be one of them. I am a fan of Keri Russell´s sweet face, and the same goes for Courtney Cox, but there is no shortage of lovely ladies in this film, with Lucy Lawless (also known as the stunning "Xena") and the relative newcomer, beautiful, young, blonde Teresa Palmer. I have to confess I am looking forward too, to seeing Russell Brand again. I like his accent, and his quirky personal sense of humor shown on talk shows is fascinating to me.

Did you notice how I stayed away from politics this time out?

Forget it! I´m not letting you off that easily. I just listened to President-elect Barack Obama read his book, The Audacity of Hope. (okay, okay, so I´m rushing things a little, I made his name link to the Whitehouse.gov site). On 5 disks it´s a long sitting, but by the time I had reached the end, I can´t think of a single thing he said in all of it that I disagreed with in any significant degree.

On the (now) Fourth Day of Chanukah, and Christmas Eve, may I wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season, whatever holidays you may or may not choose to acknowledge of celebrate. And more especially, I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Love and warm wishes,

Stafford "Doc" Williamson

http://daochienergy.com