[Vision2020] Opportunities for Research
Phil Nisbet
pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 11 05:52:15 PDT 2005
As each of us goes to the gas pump, we look at the rising price of energy,
our dependency on overseas sources of hydrocarbon fuels and even the need
for cleaner less environmentally harmful energy. Then we pump our gas and
drive home and forget about it.
After all, what can a place like Latah County contribute to a solution? We
have no oil or gas deposits. We raise wheat not corn, so there is no
ethanol program.
But we do have resources. We have a University, trees and minerals.
Bio-diesel and Gas to Liquid (GTL) technology is spreading and has a fair
amount of grant funding available for research and development. Both those
conversion are based on use of specialty clays as catalytic feedstock. We
have an abundance of those clays in Latah County.
The Bio-diesel folk start using corn based ethanol and the GTL folks start
by converting methane gas to methanol. Its actually fairly easy to use
existing bacteria to turn wood waste into a brewed and distilled product,
methanol, and then convert it to bio-diesel.
So we have the raw resources here and we have a Research University here to
develop the technology. There are even funds out there to assist in
developing that technology for a program that could enhance the University
of Idaho while decreasing foreign energy dependence and having a cleaner
fuel to use.
If anybody is interested, New Zealand is already in production with GTL and
Willie Nelson is using Bio-diesel. Any bio-diesel fuels are getting a buck
a gallon subsidy from the Feds right now as well and 60,000,000 gallons a
year of it are being made.
Would it not be interesting to be part of the solution to having renewable
hydrocarbon fuels?
Phil Nisbet
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