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Does BC Have a Future in Fuel Production?
By crooky | January 14, 2008
In the past decade, pundits and scientists have teased us with the concept that British Columbia might be able to get into the fuel production business. We’ve heard about offshore oil and gas, we’ve heard some hints that hydrogen might have a future in BC but neither of these have seemed to pan out. However, a recent technological advancement by Coskata may allow BC to turn all of that unused cellulose in Pine Beetle-ravaged wood into almost pure ethanol.
Cellulose is a wonderful organic material. It’s the foundation of paper, cellophane, Rayon and wallpaper paste. It’s also made of the same basic components as ethanol. Scientists have known that they could convert cellulose into ethanol since the late 1800s. The trick has been achieving a level of efficiency where you get more energy out of the ethanol than it takes to produce it - that’s been a problem facing efficient hydrogen production as well. Obviously, if you produce an energy good (such as ethanol) at a net loss, the end result is that you go bankrupt and have to feed your loved ones by giving handjobs behind a dumpster.
The interesting thing about the Coskata process is that it claims to be able to produce ethanol that generates 7.7 times the amount of energy used to produce it. Other forms of plant-based ethanol can barely do better than break even in terms of net energy. The ethanol produced by the Coskata process also burns cleaner than gasoline - producing 84% less CO2.
So, it doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to see how the Coskata process (if it proves out) and our surplus of wood cellulose could be an economic boon for British Columbia.
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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.
Topics: Policy, Technology |
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