The Institute for Advanced Learning & Research hosted the “Southern Virginia Bioenergy: Making Innovation Work” conference on Tuesday. SouthsideCentral was there and was highly impressed at what progress is being made in the bioenergy field.
Here are some thoughts that I got from the conference:
- Southside Virginia has two ways to benefit from increased development of bioenergy sources. First, it will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and second, it will be a greatly needed boost in the regional economy.
- There’s plenty of farmland in the region. Combine that with the industrial sites that are available, you’ve got a perfect recipe for bioenergy R&D. Bioenergy projects can be almost anything, from harvesting methane from closed landfills all the way to growing crops that can be turned in fuels.
- There’s a initiative out there called 25X’25 that is trying to have farms and ranches provide 25% of the total energy consumed in the USA. It’s possible if the movement to renewable energy continues to grow.
- One of the areas at the Institute (That You Don’t Know About) is the Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources. They are affiliated with Virginia Tech and have scientists that are doing research all of the time. They had a display about their research on the Jerusalem Artichoke and how they are doing genetic modification to improve its use for ethanol production.
- Auburn University brought a giant truck-size demonstration of how they can convert wood chips and pellets into fuel. I was semi-amazed by that but was totally floored when I was told that their machine can make biofuels out of chicken crap. According to their information, Alabama & Georgia produce 8 billion pounds of poultry crap per year and that can be turned into electricity that can power 1 million homes.
In closing, I have to mention that the Institute is a premier place for business conferences like this. It’s high-tech, super-polished, and the staff handles any need or request that you could ever ask for. They handle the hospitality part excellently with their food and drink services. If only the majority of people knew what happens there, they’d realize how important that the Institute is to the Southside economy.
It all sounds exciting. But be careful when you get so excited that you fail to realize that RIGHT NOW, the bulk of our electricity comes from coal, & changing from coal to these other sources may take years–especially since much of this technology is not fully researched.
be careful not to wish the coal industry ill will (by voting for the cap ‘n trade that Perriello voted for) until we get the biofuels up & running.
The conference was fine but the perspectives presented were very narrow. The U.S. is moving at a very fast pace toward hybrid vehicles that will get 100 miles per gallon of fuel. Full implementation of hybrids could reduce our demand for fuel by 75%. It is not an unrealistic scenario that bio-based fuel will fill a gap until hybrids are fully implemented and solar energy is charging the batteries.
If hybrid technology really takes off then we will need to increase our capacity to produce electricity. Fortunately, when we charge hybrid, much of the the time, the batteries will be charging during the night when the demand for electric is low. To meet demand, the utilities that produce electricity will not be willing to bear the cost of buying expensive liguid fuels. They will likely buy wood and burn it in facilities like the one in Hurt, VA.
The pyrolosis facility in Gretna is already two or three generations behind current commercially available technology. The coop model is a great idea but the technology that is currently being demonstrated is certain to be a money loser.
The grass roots spirit of the conference was interesting but probably somewhat misplaced. Economy of scale is real, and 100,000 gallon per year microrefineries will produce much more expensive fuels than large refineries (100,000,000 gallons per year). A simple analysis points out the flaw in the thinking. The average family consumes, say, 2,000 gallons of gasoline per year. Then, a 100,000 gallon microrefinery will supply fuel to just 50 families. Danville’s population is say 45,000. Assuming three people per family, there are 15,000 families in Danville. A whopping 300 microrefineries would be required to supply the fuel for just Danville. Now expand that thinking to Northern Virginia where over a million people live. Big refineries are going to be the answer. You can take that one to the bank. Osage already has.