Diary of a Mad Scientist

I’m climbing out of yet another round of ‘thought I was better and then things went wrong’. But they’re definitely better. More soon.

and… I finally found the password to my long-lost blog.

My West Coast ’season’ is just about up. I’m heading to the Collegiate Biodiesel Conference in PA this weekend and speaking about acid-catalyzed esterification and ethanol-based biodiesel, then starting research for Blue Ridge Biofuels, also on acid-catalyzed esterification and other techniques for dealing with high-FFA oil, after that.

I have a California Advanced Topics class about 3 weeks from now, so the traveling schizophrenia isn’t quite finished, but my work future is looking pretty exciting for the next few months, and it’s on the East Coast. I’m juggling a few future projects and shoveling out my inbox and trying to button up my remaining California odds and ends after almost 3 months out here.

I owe the world a giant update (though my twitter.com/girlmark posts are sort of a long rolling update)- here’s the short version:

-I’m still in San Francisco area

-things are going slowly here due to serious complexity, the economy slowing down me selling off my crap, and me still being somewhat sick with Lyme/babesia

-I’m drowning in my to-do list

-I’m feeling a LOT better lyme-wise, though still not out of the woods yet. Big news is that I’ve stopped being in pain about a week ago, which is convenient.

-I’m trying to find a schoolbus or shuttle bus to purchase, cheap, for various reasons

-I’ll be back in NC in a couple of weeks, and have a bunch of East Coast classes in late Feb-March

-my phone’s dead and I can only text, in case you’re trying to call me for some reason.

I’ll be back in my normal life soon.

I am teaching an Advanced Topics class in Concord, CA (SF Bay Area suburbs) on Sat-Sun April 18-19, with a one-day optional Introduction To Biodiesel Production class the day before on Friday, Apr 17th:
Registration info will be posted at www.girlmark.com/tour shortly

working with high-free-fatty-acid oil

working with high-water feedstocks

acidulating glycerine and wash water for easier disposal and cost savings

testing biodiesel, glycerine, and wash water for soap

producing biodiesel from oils recovered from glycerine

acid-catalyzed esterification options

methanol recovery from biodiesel (GL-1 process) and glycerine.

using glycerine as a solvent in various stages of the process

There will be an extensive hands-on section of the class devoted to techniques for making biodiesel using ethanol instead of methanol, and we will discuss small-scale fuel ethanol production.

We will also discuss water-free soap removal such as the use of the GL-1 process and ion exchange resins.

Registration info will be posted at www.girlmark.com/tour shortly

I’ve been traveling like a madman this month. I started off Jan 1st by flying to Oakland to start dealing with my crosscountry move. I’m halfway through the required organizing and sellings-off and so forth. I had a class in Ohio last weekend, and had a fairly major health crash due to moving, and didn’t get done with the moving hell.

I flew back to RDU, drove home in time to pack for class and sleep, drove a gasoline car to the Ohio class 6 hours away, taught class, explored West Virginia a little on the way home, drove the gasoline car back south to my long-time friends’ house on the NC-Virginia line, spent a couple of days there decompressing with these ‘family’, headed to Pittsboro to unload the class crap, saw my room for all of 20 minutes, got on another Jet-A fossil-fueled plane and headed back across country to Oakland. It was snowing in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pittsboro. It was snow-free in Mt Airy but 10 degrees F, where I was sandwiched between snowy drives.

And I’m now in California again. I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, my luck will bring me that disposable truck I’m looking for- which would mean that I’ll be driving my shop stuff across country in the middle of early Febuary winter weather. I found myself walking across an overheated Southern California airport on a layover, carrying my winter insulated coveralls and a winter coat shoved into a stuff sack (I’m traveling without checked baggage these days, since this travel is more like going from one home to the next rather than taking a trip that requires bringing anything). I had to bring the gigantic winter gear in case I’m driving an 80’s Ford on a crosscountry winter wonderland adventure next month. More than once in the last two weeks I’ve found myself waking up confused about where I am- especially since my California experience involved a few friends whom I know as New Yorkers, not Californians, and I’ve been to too many places in the last 2.5 months for the state of health I’m in.

I don’t have a return flight yet.

This feels a bit like I’m unnaturally teleporting around the universe, I’ve seen too many regions and weathers in less than one week, and it’s dizzying and disorienting. I mentioned to an online friend in the solar industry that all the travel I’m doing has used up any fossil carbon that my biodiesel students saved through whatever I taught them. He’s in the nonprofit world promoting solar energy, and responded that they call that kind of travel for the cause “offsetting the offset.”

I started off today in Oakland by sleeping in a friend’s dark windowless cave-room till 4:30 pm, which means that by Eastern Standard Time I managed to stay down till 7:30 at night.

The last visit to Oakland was absolutely insane, I was trying to get everything done by the 16th, had the Lyme treatment Herxheimer Reaction from hell, failed miserably to get the move done, and this time around I’m going to take it a bit slower and actually have a social life again. Somewhere in all the remaining moving, buying of my theoretical disposable truck (I hope), selling of things, car repairing and rebuilding, and paid work, I have a bunch of work to do with the last of the gas chromatograph setup. Friends are coming out of the woodwork in response to my Twitter and other posts and my ‘dance card’ is filling up pretty quickly too, I should have slightly better balance to my life next week than I’d had for a few months.

I got a few really nice emails/phone calls/offers of showers/etc after my last post. It really wasn’t so bad- mostly frustrating with an undertone of funny to find that I couldn’t break in to the shop shower room.

Thanks folks!

I’m moving out of my California shop. I hung on to it, first because I was sharing it with Tom, who still lives there, and later because I was in Oakland for most of the spring and thought I might be coming back for school in the fall, and still later, because I was too sick to leave my room in NC and couldn’t deal with travel there.

It’s been a few days of forklifting things off the racks and palletizing them for transport (at some point). It’s a welding shop so everything is covered in years’ worth of fossilized grinding dust. For the last 2 days I just locked myself in and slept on the couch- I’m excruciatingly sick and have few functional hours in the day, so the loading is taking forever.

The clean ‘residents’ bathroom (as opposed to the minimalist day users’ bathroom) at the shop, which I helped build, is the only one with a shower, and it’s locked and inaccessible to non-resident users. Last night I was filthier than you can imagine, coated in carcinogenic who knows what, and in pain, and cold, and miserable, and I tried to break in to the locked shower room to no avail. I shivered myself to sleep on the couch.

Babesiosis is a malaria-like illness (though it seems to reside mostly in bone marrow rather than red blood cells themselves as far as I know???). One of it’s hallmark traits is chills and fevers, just like malaria. I haven’t had night sweats/fevers in quite a few weeks, since I’ve been treating it with anti-malarial drugs, butbefore that, there was a pretty regular 4:30 am microbial party in my bone marrow, or whatever it is that the evil bastidges do to cause drenching fevers.

This week of course I was beating myself up way beyond my capacity, and some of my other symptoms that I hadn’t seen in months have been coming back. So, at the ‘regularly scheduled’ fever hour of 5 am, I got a drenching malaria-like sweat episode, soaking my clothes and blankets all the way through- all while still covered in my thick layer of black, nasty grinding dust. This disease misery stuff is starting to push me over the edge.

Once upon a time, in a biodiesel group that could be just any biodiesel group and is not me…

-Someone had a methoxide mixer

-Someone’s methoxide mixer used a pump to mix methanol and lye

-Someone’s methoxide mixer was a cone-bottom tank that mixed from bottom to top, which I think leads to the following scenario quite often:

-Someone’s methoxide mixer in the cone-bottom tank that mixed with a pump from bottom to top clogged horribly

-Someone’s methoxide mixer in the cone-bottom tank that mixed with a pump from bottom to top clogged horribly like bottom-to-top methoxide mixers based on cone-bottom plastic tanks tend to do

-Someone’s methoxide mixer in the cone-bottom tank that mixed with a pump from bottom to top clogged horribly, like bottom-to-top methoxide mixers based on cone-bottom plastic tanks tend to do- even though people tend to try to insert ‘baskets’ into the cone-bottom plastic tanks thinking that they’ll somehow stay put and keep the KOH from clumping up

-Someone’s methoxide mixer in the cone-bottom tank that mixed with a pump from bottom to top clogged horribly, like bottom-to-top methoxide mixers based on cone-bottom plastic tanks tend to do- even though people tend to try to insert ‘baskets’ into the cone-bottom plastic tanks thinking that they’ll somehow stay put and keep the KOH from clumping up. This theory doesn’t tend to work because with plastic cone-bottom tanks most connections other than the top lid and bottom plumbing just aren’t very secure and very few things can be modified about their configuration

-Said someone Who Shall Not Be Named had a very large, solid clog in what I assume is the bottom of their methoxide mixer based on a cone-bottom tank et al

- Someone Who Shall Not Be Named has this happen relatively regularly. I once saw a certain member of the Someone Who Shall Not Be Named group, sitting amongst clogged methoxide mixer plumbing parts with his arm up the mixer up to his elbow. I thought of large-animal veterinary procedures involving the nasty end of the animal. They make gloves for that, you know.

-This year’s iteration of ‘how to unclog the methoxide mixer crystalline rock of poison’ scenario apparently included sulfuric acid. That Someone had around from years past, in case they ever got around to doing acid-base biodiesel.

-Someone Who Shall Not Be Named apparently used GALLONS of sulfuric acid, of the 95% concentration, to unclog their KOH-carbonated KOH rock.

Terrifying. I’m so glad no one lost an eye, or a face.

Sulfuric acid is one of the nastiest, scariest dangerous chemicals we work with. It’s essential in acid-catalyzed esterification- other acids and other catalysts can be used, with drawbacks- so H2SO4 it is. I’m madly in love with acid-catalyzed esterification. I actually got jealous of Greg one day a few months ago when he started messing around with it. Tom used to say at one point that in our relationship, biodiesel was ‘the other woman’ that he took a second seat to- and I did in fact leave that relationship due partially to the call of ‘the other woman’. With Greg, it was more of a feeling like he’d touched my Other Woman. It was pretty funny.

Anyway, I do worry, greatly, about all the people who are messing around with sulfuric acid because of my proselytizing.

I do think that the worst problem we’ll experience in homebrew ing isn’t someone burning themselves, but that someone will get KOH in their eyes and will be blinded. That’s one of the things I lay in bed worrying aobut.

Sulfuric acid is probably the second worst hazard- second only because fewer people are using it. I’m worried that we teach people some really rudimentary chemistry, and some of them are going to take the relatively simple and relatively safe procedures of transesterification and apply them to things involving sulfuric acid, HCl, or other concentrated acids. Acid-base reactions can cause quite a bit of heat, splashing, fumes, etc- and I don’t think people are quite prepared for it.

-

I’m in California for a few more days, feeling like I’m juggling a bunch of money and potential purchases.

This is known as the ‘picking up where I left off when my health fell apart’ maneuver. Yuck. I was supposed to be in a much more interesting place by now.

I never “completed” my complicated move to the East Coast- partially because I wasn’t sure where I was going to ultimately end up, and partially because I own a ton of shop stuff and it’s a huge load to haul, so this is what I’m here, working on, as part of a multi-trip complicatedness.

At this point I’m moving out of my shop finally. I’m hoping to not move into a storage container, but into a trailer (to put into cheap storage) instead. I basically don’t have the time or quite enough money to do a cross country drive with the trailer this month- have a class coming up the weekend after next- so I"m trying to get an enclosed trailer, put my crap in there, come back in a couple of months when it’s warmer, with enough cash to buy a ‘disposable’ truck, do the one-way drive East, and sell the disposable truck. Yes, it makes more sense than getting a moving van, especially because I am probably moving to Asheville in a couple of months from Raleigh, and it makes no sense to unload everything twice. Lots of ‘probablies’ in chronic illness, by the way. Few certainties.

Currently I’m juggling:

-getting the moving trailer. I need one anyway- the future of the ‘class teaching trailer’ is a weird hybrid enclosed-flatbed system I’ve wanted for several years. I found the grumpiest seller EVER on Craigslist, who’s got a really good price on one, but was such an ass that I wanted to ask him if he actually wanted the money or what. I’ll be looking at this tomorrow.

-getting half a tote of fuel processed into biodiesel for this future drive crosscountry in warmer weather. Methanol is insanely pricey right now- GRRR- but getting a head start on this would mean that I’d get a much easier time with soap removal- ie , long settling time before I actually use the stuff= no washing or any other work.

In other news, Andrew Morris helped make an arrangement whereby I can get use of a large processor of some friends of his, and do it all in one batch. In other other news, he spent a day or two making his own ‘large batch’, which apparently included recovering from the fact that they’d left a lot of water in the processor (???) and he didn’t check before pumping his nice perfect oil into it. Add that to the safety checklist- if using someone else’s processor, assume nothing, check everything.

-getting the gas chromatograph last bits and pieces and chemicals ordered. Long story, I’m very excited.

-looking at trucks and buses. I really want to get a shortbus to use as a mobile shop or a lab, and this is one option for the ‘disposable truck’ scenario. I don’t quite have enough cash to do this AND the trailer, though, and it makes more sense to wait on the truck on this trip, and get “the perfect vehicle” later, with more money, I hope. I just missed the perfect setup- airport shuttle with a lift in the rear. It’ll come. Anyone have a bus in California that they need taken off their hands?

-juggling social life with a pile of people I havne’t seen in months. It’s sooo nice.

-working on the VW. Lots of things fell apart in my absence, and it’ll be nice to have it back to ‘good condition’ finally. I still can’t decide if it’s worth selling , as it’s so insanely convenient to have a car while I’m here, and I’m planning on being here a lot more if I stay healthier. I’ve been borrowing a friend’s friend’s professional mechanic shop, which is such a nice scenario. I (heart) hydraulic lifts.

Dumb Maneuver #200: filling the VW with smelly petrodiesel RIGHT before working on the fuel system…

Totally improbably, I’m getting really good response to my Fayetteville TN class and it might even fill up (unless this is the wave of ‘early and dedicated’ people and it’ll die down later?).

Most people with a biodiesel homebrew business are having a really hard time right now due to low gas prices and economic downturn issues. Of course, I had to postpone the Mississippi class due to the exact opposite situation- few people signing up- but most of the others are getting good response.

Thank you, people.

Really, really, really, really, really looking forward to the return of my interesting life after the New Year.

I’m getting better just in time, which is nice- I am still having some sporadic problems with breathing, pain, heartbeat issues, and fatigue, and I haven’t tried any physical work in a while, but my concentration and word-finding and other cognitive and ‘energy’ stuff is far better just in the last 10 days or so.

I can read again, which was a big issue for several months. Greg and I ordered older editions of a chemistry textbook for $4 each, and are going to wade through some of the online free MIT ‘opencourseware’ chemistry courses. I am grateful for the modern world and it’s conveniences, let me tell you.

The improvement is coming just in the nick of time (I did raise my medication dosage), just two-three weeks ago I was really starting to wonder if it was ever going to get better and starting to have serious logistical problems that required me to have real money again (like paying for the next immensely expensive round of medical testing, finding myself unable to afford my current lifesaving medication some weeks, moving my crap crosscountry finally, etc). I feel lucky that many people helped- people I know, and Greg, and people whom I don’t know at all, all came out of the woodwork and took care of enough of my needs that I didn’t flounder completely. I’m tearing up just thinking about the support I’ve received and the kindness of a couple of strangers.

I feel really lucky that I came out of this disabling state- and there was work, without my having to go looking for it. It’s exciting and interesting work, exactly what I want to be doing, I have a 2-year plan involving a proposed international project, and a 10-year plan involving something entirely unrelated, and I’m looking forward to life again.

My really exciting new research project job is starting to take shape, I’m headed to California tomorrow to deal with projects that were orphaned at the beginning of this illness in May, and everything is just fabulous. Sometime this winter I should be moving to Asheville to go work on process optimization for Blue Ridge Biofuels, exactly what I want to do for a job at the moment, I’ve got awesome research projects lined up for a couple of clients, I’ll be picking up my gas chromatograph in California, which is all set up and ready to go for ASTM 6584 (I was on the 3-year plan for that- started putting it together this time 3 years ago!),.

I just immersed myself in 48 hours of reading some industrial chemistry relevant to what I’m trying to research, and life is just plain good. About the only thing I still hope for is that with my work and project schedules, I get to be here in Pittsboro long enough to enjoy it again- I spent 4 whole months barely able to leave the house and it’s been really isolating. I’m not in a hurry to leave now that I have perfect roommates and friends in town and am actuallly mobile again.

Considering how indescribably horrible the last few months have been- in September and October I was so sick that I thought there was a distinct possibility that the disease would kill me, and the remaining months haven’t been much better- I think I am long overdue for things being fabulous.

Happy new year everyone..

http://southwestfarmpress.com/energy/energy-independence-1223/

Biofuels and energy independence in uncertain times

Dec 23, 2008 8:14 AM, By David Bennett
Farm Press Editorial Staff

Thirty-five years ago this month, President Richard Nixon declared the country would be energy independent in a mere seven years. Obviously, that didn’t work out, but economist Joe Outlaw says it wasn’t a bad idea then and still isn’t.

“It’s easy for people to be cynical — ‘Energy independent? We can’t do that’ — but my point is every little bit helps as long as the economics and a business model support it,” said the co-director of the Texas-based Agricultural and Food Policy Center at the recent American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers annual meeting in San Antonio.

The “whole complex” of biofuels is “tremendous. Lots of people say I’m a biofuels apologist. What I am is a realist. I don’t care what anyone says, we’re going to have biofuels in this country. The politicians want it. For the most part, consumers want it.”

What really matters is the economics.

“At the end of the day, I’m an economist. Economics matter, but I’m not going to try and convert the rest of you. It doesn’t matter if I like ethanol or biodiesel or the people producing it. If they can’t make money doing it, they won’t be in (the business) for long.”

When the economics turn south, as they did with biodiesel recently, “people say, ‘Well, this is fine, but I’m not going to lose money on every gallon I make.’ They’ll sit back for a while and come back when the price moves back in their favor.”

Even in such an environment don’t be dissuaded, cautioned the economist. Biofuels, in some form, are here to stay.

Back to the 1980s?

Since 1960, domestically manufactured liquid fuel supply has remained relatively steady. Consumption, however, has remained on a steady track northwards. Referencing a chart showing a large gap in domestic supply and demand, Outlaw said, “Sure, this is last year’s chart and won’t show that prices got so high this year we used less, but it still shows the trend. Frankly, it tells all you need to know: we need more fuels and we probably don’t need to be so picky about where they come from.”

Many are comparing the current situation with ethanol to the early 1980s. At that time, “we had over 100 ethanol plants and then we went to 12. Well, a lot of people think we’ll go back there. I can tell you that the circumstances are completely different.”

For one thing, the United States is “more motivated to produce our own fuels for a number of reasons — 9/11 and other things. But the main difference is when (Congress passed) an RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard) that says ‘We’ll blend this much of these types of fuels.’ That’s a game-changer in this arena. It makes everything different.”

Outlaw said while he doesn’t agree with everything the Department of Energy does, he does believe when it comes to funding research “they have a good approach, saying, ‘We don’t know what technology — cellulosic production and other stuff — going forward will be the winner. So we’ll fund a whole lot of different things.’”

Food prices rise

Earlier this year, a debate raged across the country on the cause of food price increases. After releasing a study titled “The Effects of Ethanol on Texas Food and Feed,” the AFPC found itself in much demand. Outlaw was even called to speak before the Senate Energy Committee for the first time. Why? “Because we came out with some results that showed you can’t blame ethanol solely for what’s happened with food prices.”

Unfortunately, biofuel proponents and news stories then cited the report as saying ethanol was blameless. However, that isn’t what the authors stated. Ethanol was one of “many other factors that needed to be talked about.”

Among the things the report actually said were impacting food prices:

• Strong global economic growth.

• Weak dollar relative to many foreign currencies. “I don’t think anybody would tell me I’m wrong. When you had a weak dollar it made our very expensive corn very cheap and we were exporting more last year at all-time high prices then ever before. You knew the value of the dollar was encouraging that.”

• Recent crop problems (like wheat).

• Increased volume of trading in commodities by funds.

• Biofuels.

• Higher energy prices.

The timing of the report’s release coincided with the Texas governor asking for a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) waiver. “So, it looked like the state’s major agriculture institution was coming out against his waiver request. That isn’t right — there were things in the report that supported the waiver and things that didn’t. We tried to be balanced.”

Policies

Outlaw then showed a long list of government policies and statements regarding biofuels since the 1970s.

“Most people forget that the blender’s credit was put in place in the 1970s. It’s been around for 30 years and no one really cared that much because we didn’t produce that much. Now that we’re producing something like 9 billion gallons times 51 cents, that’s a chunk of change and people” are paying attention.

The “big thing” that pushed biofuel production was the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which installed a Renewable Fuel Standard. Even at lower levels that weren’t binding “that started the trend where we’re at now. It also didn’t hurt that (President Bush) talked about ethanol in the 2006 State of the Union.”

In 2007, with the second energy bill — the Energy Independence and Security Act — the RFS “were extended way up and talked about other types of fuel.”

The 2005 act “basically capped corn-based ethanol. It only went to 2012, but it was going to stay flat. Now, we’ll jump up to about 15 billion gallons (out of a 36 billion gallon total) by 2022 and cap it there.”

A “big chunk” of the 36 billion gallons, “will come from advanced fuels. Some will be cellulosic biofuels or biomass diesel; however you want to get there.”

No link

A surprise to some, there isn’t strong linkage between the prices of crude oil, ethanol and biodiesel. Why is that? “Because when you have a fuel like ethanol that is used by oil companies when they feel like it, when it’s in their favor to use it, it isn’t a one-for-one price link.

“What’s happened in the last year, or so, is crude oil (prices) have gone up and down and biodiesel has been all over the place. Ethanol has been relatively flat. All have been going down recently.”

Looking at contract highs for the current year, “we’re well over $7 lower on beans and wheat. Looking at the corn crop, the USDA says it won’t be much different than the one they said we’d have when the price was $8. So there’s a whole lot of speculation in this deal.”

Livestock

When the AFPC’s report on food prices came out, Outlaw’s “biggest task” was “explaining it to our livestock industry. They said, ‘Joe, we can’t pay $6.50 for corn and make any money.”

When the report was released, “we called all the commodity organizations in the state and said we’d get a room in Austin and tell them about the study so they didn’t hear about it secondhand.”

There was much agreement when “we pointed out that feed costs were killing our feeding industry — $172 per head expected losses in Texas feed yards. The cattle feeders were nodding. But when we said you couldn’t blame ethanol for all this, the same people said, and this is a quote, ‘I can’t believe that someone that’s so right about (the $172) could be so stupid about’” ethanol’s lack of blame.

“People’s emotions were running high on the issue. We did a lot of work looking at actual production costs. Everyone was blaming the farmer for these high prices, saying they were getting too much for their commodities.

“But in fact, they hadn’t even harvested those crops yet. And they couldn’t use the futures market when elevators wouldn’t give forward contracts.”

The media talked about high commodity prices, “but no one was ever able to capture those. We even had high cotton prices for a couple of weeks. No one got them because no one could afford the risk exposure on margin calls. So, we had to do a lot of explaining.”

During the report’s fallout, the only call Outlaw “really enjoyed” was from a reporter in Dallas “who asked if ethanol was driving up the bread price. I said, ‘What do you think we make bread out of?’ ‘Corn!’ ‘No, you need to fix your story. It’s actually wheat. We do have cornbread, but that’s a different thing.’”

One of the things Outlaw pointed out is while distiller’s grains are a great feed “with inclusion rates, you just can’t replace it one-for-one with corn. There are certain feeding percentages that must be used. And it’s all where the ethanol is and cattle don’t tend to be there. There’s a geographic distribution problem.”

However, the bigger issue with the distiller’s grains is the price, which was expected to remain cheap. In fact, the price followed corn. While it may have been more readily available in some areas than corn, “it wasn’t as cheap as it was made out to be.”

The future

While he admits a lack of knowledge regarding biofuel manufacturing processes, Outlaw is certain there are “really smart people who will soon crack the (cellulosic) code, whether enzymatically, using gasification or chemical processes. It will happen.”

Outlaw actually bought stock in a company claiming a process that derived fuel from wood. The claims proved overblown. “If anyone wants to give me a quarter, they can have these shares of stock I purchased. I’d be money ahead based on what they’re worth now.”

Even so, “someone will do it. But I don’t know how soon. The chemical part is only one part of the problem.”

Transportation of biomass is another part of the puzzle. Delivering 2,000 trucks of biomass to a plant daily “will make the road a little busy.” Outlaw has heard from those who seem eager to convert corn-based ethanol plants to cellulosic. Even now, “they have a lot of trucks come in — but not 2,000 trucks a day. It will be a logistical nightmare.”

And too many times people are getting ahead of the available technology.

“At a producer meeting not far from here, a producer stood up and said he was going to stop growing 3,000 acres of cotton and switch to sweet sorghum. He’d heard a guy talk about the potential of sweet sorghum and he was going to get in on the ground floor. But he hadn’t been told it wasn’t ready yet — there’s no market, no seed.”

Outlaw was the one “to break the news that (the producer) wasn’t going to be the first rich guy in the county. I’ll do that but I don’t like it much.”

Portfolio of opportunities

In Outlaw’s opinion, “we’ll have a portfolio of opportunities going forward. I can’t tell you who’s got the answer. But it’s annoying when someone comes up and says, ‘This is what we’re going to do, this is the way it’s going to be, and it’s going to work and you’ve got tell everyone.’ That’s annoying because, at the end of the day, no one (yet) knows” how it will shake out.

“People shouldn’t have their feelings hurt if the (energy source) they’ve put their money in, or the one they think should happen, isn’t the one that turns out to be the long-term winner.”

During his testimony before the Senate Energy Committee, the most valuable question asked of Outlaw was, “So we get cellulosic ethanol. What happens to corn-based ethanol?”

“I said, ‘Well, Senator, assuming the government doesn’t change a lot of the things you do, it’s all going to be driven by economics: the cost of production of corn-based versus the cost of production of these other things. If they’re very close, we’ll have both. If one is a lot higher than the other, we won’t have it. That’s just the way the market works. That doesn’t mean I like it but that’s the way the world works.’”

email: dbennett@farmpress.com

Well I’m deeply excited about what’s next. In some ways, i’m right back where I left off back in August when I got too sick to function, but oh well, nothing I can do about it now. it’s a few lost months, and hopefully I won’t lose any more to this dreadful disease. I still don’t know for sure what I had (because I haven’t been able to afford testing), but it responds to babesia/malaria therapy, and presumably babesiosis infection or something else transmitted by a tick bite at the beginning of the summer.

I have to spend a few weeks in California, unfortunately-I’m not quite ready to really travel for that long, and I’ve gotten really thrashed by traveling for the last few jobs that I’ve done and classes that I have taught. But, it’s down to the wire on several things I have been putting off for seven months as a result of this illness, mainly the fact that I have to go back to California and finish moving. I’ve been paying rent on the studio/shop space for a year, not too much money back when I was working, but certainly a bad idea the moment. At some point, I’m going to have to load all that crap onto trailer and drive it cross country, but for the moment, I just go there for three weeks and get it out of the shop. I tried to put off that trip as long as I could.

On the other hand, I’m really, really excited about seeing friends while on the trip, and I’m even more excited about this being the beginning of a new phase. Again, I was supposed to start that new phase months ago - especially a dream job I got in August that I’m now just picking up again- but let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like being dysfunctional for months to make you really appreciate health, energy, and being able to do things.

I’m doing a research proposal dance with several consulting clients at the moment, and should be delving back into high-FFA oil research/esterification research this winter. On the trip to California, I am also picking up my GC, and shipping it back here. I can’t wait. I’ve been a little bit stuck here for lack of a good space to do wintertime R&D in- there’s nothing for rent around here that I can afford, and my shop space here is an unheated tractor shed. I’m having some funny ideas about picking up an old camper trailer-middle of winter, in the middle of a recession, should be a really good time to find a small camper for $500-and turning it into a small lab space and office. We’ll see what happens.

I’m cautiously posting a link to an Infopop biodiesel forum discussion on ethanol and food versus fuel- most of the time these threads devolve into libertarians versus liberals, both spouting ideology rather than real information, but so far, this one is a good compendium of links and articles about the issue:
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/429605551/m/5471091742?r=8491051382

Biodiesel Production Hands-on Classes:

-Beginners: Hands-on Crash Course: Operate Your Own Reactor format
-Advanced Topics: Hands-on Advanced Topics course on ethanol biodiesel, methanol recovery, high-FFA oils, and more

with Maria ‘girl Mark’ Alovert
and guest instructors (Advanced Topics)

********************************
Biodiesel Production Crash Course class schedule:

Marietta, OH
Jan 17-18

Oxford, MS
Feb 21-22

Fayetteville, TN
Feb 28-Mar 1

Mifflinburg, PA
March 12-13

Edmund, OK
Mar 26-27

Bartlett, NH
April 4-5

*****************************

Biodiesel Advanced Topics/Farm Scale biodiesel production class schedule:

Mifflinburg, PA (with Preston Boop of Briar Patch Organic Farms)
March 14-15

Edmund, OK (with Carl Shortt of Okiebiofuel.com)
March 28-29

upcoming: Anchorage, Alaska Crash Course and Advanced topics classes, early June
possible Seattle WA Advanced Topics class, late May

******************************
cost:
$140 regular and $108/$95 early registration (see website for cutoff dates for early registration discounts)

no one turned away for lack of funds

For more information and to register, please see www.girlmark.com/tour
******************************

Biodiesel Production Crash Course:

This is a fast-paced class designed to quickly teach the skills needed for safely making high quality biodiesel, using a unique and truly hands-on format. Students will ‘learn by doing’ by making their own 5-gallon batches of biodiesel from beginning to end. There is also an opportunity to build your own full-size reactor to take home for those who purchase a parts kit in advance.

Students will spend one day learning basic theory, practicing titration, making mini-batches, and learning quality testing. The second day is devoted to solidifying the theory you just learned, by making biodiesel in realistic “Processor Stations’, practicing every step used in a full-size home biodiesel production system. Student teams will operate realistic, tabletop 5-gallon processor systems- a miniature version of the common Appleseed Processor/wash tank/dry tank found around the world- and the tabletop reactor will familiarize them with every valve, tank, pump, switch, and interconnect that would be found in a full-size system. The goal of the class format is to take the hands-on learning experience a big step beyond the ‘1-liter mini-batch’ equipment used in most biodiesel classes. There will also be a full-size reactor system on a trailer at the class, including GL-1 and pot still-type methanol recovery systems.

Background for Crash Course class:

In most biodiesel workshops (including my own Biodiesel Essentials), “hands-on time” usually means a few hours of lab work involving titration and shaking 1-liter soda bottle batches, or, at best, a demonstration by the instructor of some pre-arranged steps in a full-size reactor, performed once, with the students just watching. Neither of these is an ideal learning method for the complexity involved in using a ‘real’ biodiesel reactor on your own for the first time at home. People who are hands-on learners sometimes need more time on “realistic” equipment operation in addition to the 1-liter shaken soda bottle batch method.

Operating your own processors in class would be more realistic than 1-liter glassware batches. Operating a full system can also make it easier to understand equipment choices that face you as you design your own home system after the class, or help decide on one to purchase.

Format:
In the crash course, you will first learn the basic theory using a standard one-day mini-batch class, then spend the next day actually operating (with a team of 5-8) your own ‘realistic’ 5-gallon mini-reactor and processing system. You and your team will make decisions and mistakes, with constant personalized guidance to ensure that you understand why every step is done as well as when.

Equipment Building (Crash Course class):
We can also build some processors at the end of the Crash Course, for those students who wish to purchase a parts kit and water heater tank in advance. This is not mandatory and everyone can help build the systems.

Preparation and reading:

Because this is a fast-paced class, it is highly recommended that you purchase, ahead of time, an inexpensive mini-titration/test batch kit from www.utahbiodieselsupply.com and try to make and wash a soda-bottle test batch, using storebought, new oil, before the class. This is not mandatory but the preparation will enhance your class experience.

To make the class run smoothly and so that you get the most out of it, please read the www.biodieselcommunity.org website before the class, so that you have some idea of the basic process. Copies of Biodiesel Homebrew Guide will also be available for sale fpr $15 at the class: www.localb100.com/book.html , and there will be a short handout with some basic formulas for later reference.

************************************

Advanced Topics Biodiesel Production Hands-on Class:
The advanced class is designed for those who already make biodiesel (full-scale or test batches) or have attended hands-on workshops by teachers such as Jennifer Radtke, John Bush, Steve Fugate, BioLyle Rudensey, Carl Shortt, Piedmont Biofuels, Matt Steiman, Frankie Lind, Kalib Kersch, or others who teach from the http://biodieselcommunity.org techniques (check with me if a class is your only hands-on experience).

I encourage experienced biodiesel producers to bring a presentation or photos of their system and discuss their experiences.

This class is geared to both homebrewers and fleet/farm/small commercial producers.

The class covers a wide range of topics, geared especially towards larger scale ‘home’ production. The class specifically offers heavy hands-on focus on making biodiesel with several major techniques that are useful in your “skillset":

working with high-free-fatty-acid oil

working with high-water feedstocks

acidulating glycerine and wash water for easier disposal and cost savings

testing biodiesel, glycerine, and wash water for soap

producing biodiesel from oils recovered from glycerine

acid-catalyzed esterification options

methanol recovery from biodiesel (GL-1 process) and glycerine.

using glycerine as a solvent in various stages of the process

There will be an extensive hands-on section of the class devoted to techniques for making biodiesel using ethanol instead of methanol, and we will discuss small-scale fuel ethanol production.

We will also discuss water-free soap removal such as the use of the GL-1 process and ion exchange resins.

*************************************

About the instructor:
Maria ‘girl Mark’ Alovert is a biodiesel production technology consultant based in North Carolina. She is the author of The Biodiesel Homebrew Guide, a manual on biodiesel production (http://localb100.com), the founder of the community-written biodiesel homebrewing tutorial site http://biodieselcommunity.org and is the inventor of the Appleseed Processor, an ‘open source’ design now used by thousands of people around the world to produce biodiesel on a ‘homebrew’ scale. She has been involved in home-scale biodiesel technology development since 2000, and is currently researching production techniques for high-FFA oils/acid-catalyzed esterification, and ethanol-based biodiesel. She frequently teaches beginning and advanced biodiesel production classes around the country and is a an active participant in biodiesel production discussion forums such as http://biodiesel.infopop.cc

For more information and to register, please see www.girlmark.com/tour

Ack. Just ran across this journal article about a new strain of the Lyme Disease spirochete (Borrellia anything is a variant on borrelia burgdorferi sensu strictu, the ‘original’ Borrellia species identified as the cause of Lyme Disease, which is also the only one we test for in humans even though many of the related strains cause the same disease in animals and presumably humans).

As an aside, the article mentions that there are 118 separate borrellia species in the South. And we have the ultra-aggressive Lone Star ticks to spread them to humans…

http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/JCM.01183-08v1

For my birthday, I want remission. Please?

I’ll settle for continued improvements. I had about 5-6 days of no pain this week. Major hooray. I still don’t quite feel normal and I feel like I’m on the verge of a health crash, but I have long, long, long periods each day of “normal” for the last few days. Yesterday I worked for 6 hours straight, with productive workflow and reasonably smart decisions. My drug are starting to have effects I can measure, the symptom control is make sense again and I can tell that there’s cause and effect when I take something that should have an effect, which wasn’t the case for the first 6 weeks or so of Mepron, and not for months before then when I wasn’t treating the right things.

I’m sure it’ll all crash again- I seem to be right on schedule for what happens about 8 weeks into babesia treatment, and people go through nasty crashes and relapses- but man I don’t wanna go there, I don’t wanna go there, I want to stay like this and bask in the warmth and light and have a life again.

For my birthday weekend, I spent literally 12 hours today cooking up a storm for tomorrow’s Local Lunch for Piedmont Biofuels Industrial. My friend Jaime and I are making brunch for the dietarily challenged- super low-carb, fancy, vegan, etc. Me and Jaime prepped a whole pallet load of food- it’s in ECO Organics commercial cooler and it currently occupies one full pallet, which means, I think, that we made 2.6 metric assloads of food and may need a forklift or at least some interns to move it back to the kitchen- and Guest Chef Matt came and contributed about 3 gallons of Bad Carbohydrates in the form of eggy potato pancake batter and homemade applesauce, to balance us all out.

I couldn’t have done this last week without a lot more help. I couldn’t have done this four days ago and not felt like crap. And, I’m so beautifully grateful that my interest in cooking is coming back.

I’m waking up, I think. I’ve been seeing the light, or the beginning of the light, or glimmers of the light in the distance, for about 2 weeks now, but I’ve got solid evidence now that it’s really starting to get better. Knowing what I know about the disease, it’ll probably be it’s a long series of ups and downs again, but I’m at least able to think about making plans and I’m getting so excited about them.

Biodiesel Production Crash Course: Beyond the Dr Pepper Minibatch hands-on class (new format!)

with Maria ‘girl Mark’ Alovert
December 6-7, 2008

Wilmington, NC
sponsored by Cape Fear Biofuels Co-operative
$140 /$108 early registration before Nov 7th

For more information and to register, please see www.girlmark.com/tour

This is a fast-paced class designed to quickly teach the skills needed for safely making high quality biodiesel, using a unique and truly hands-on format. After learning basic theory, practicing titration, making mini-batches, and learning quality testing, students will spend a full day solidifying what they learned by making biodiesel in realistic “Processor Stations’, practicing every step used in a full-size home biodiesel production system. Student teams will operate realistic, tabletop 5-gallon processor systems- a miniature version of the common Appleseed Processor/wash tank/dry tank found around the world- and the tabletop reactor will familiarize them with every valve, tank, pump, switch, and interconnect that would be found in a full-size system. The goal of the class format is to take the hands-on learning experience a big step beyond the ‘1-liter mini-batch’ equipment used in most biodiesel classes. There will also be a full-size reactor system on a trailer at the class, including GL-1 and pot still-type methanol recovery systems.

Background:

In most biodiesel workshops (including my own Biodiesel Essentials), “hands-on time” usually means a few hours of lab work involving titration and shaking 1-liter soda bottle batches, or, at best, a demonstration by the instructor of some pre-arranged steps in a full-size reactor, performed once, with the students just watching. Neither of these is an ideal learning method for the complexity involved in using a ‘real’ biodiesel reactor on your own for the first time at home. People who are hands-on learners sometimes need more time on “realistic” equipment operation in addition to the 1-liter shaken soda bottle batch method.

Operating your own processors in class would be more realistic than 1-liter glassware batches- but is very difficult to arrange as a class for 20 people. Operating a full system can also make it easier to understand equipment choices that face you as you design your own home system after the class, or help decide on one to purchase.

Format:
In the crash course, you will first learn the basic theory using a standard one-day mini-batch class, then spend the next day actually operating (with a team of 5-8) your own ‘realistic’ 5-gallon mini-reactor and processing system. You and your team will make decisions and mistakes, with constant personalized guidance to ensure that you understand why every step is done as well as when. Teams may choose from several variations on the basic process, and we will focus on quality control and equipment/process decisions needed to make high quality biodiesel, safe processing methods, and efficient system design.

Equipment Building:
We can also build some processors at the end of the first day, for those students who wish to purchase a parts kit and water heater tank in advance. This is not mandatory and everyone can help build the systems. We will not use these large reactors in the hands-on class, so they can be transported home without mess. Please purchase your parts kit from the instructor or from www.utahbiodieselsupply.com. Because we are trying to fit a lot into the weekend, we don’t have time to assemble your own ’store-bought’ parts, and can only work from the kit. The kit sold by the instructor is similar to that formerly sold by www.b100supply.com and if they get them in stock again, please feel free to purchase theirs. If you are building a system, you will also need to bring a new or used electric water heater of any size.

Preparation and reading:

Because this is a fast-paced class, it is highly recommended that you purchase an inexpensive test batch kit from www.utahbiodieselsupply.com and try to make and wash a test batch, using storebought, new oil not requiring titration, before the class. This is not mandatory but the preparation will enhance your class experience.

To make the class run smoothly, please read the www.biodieselcommunity.org website before the class, so that you have some idea of the basic process. Copies of Biodiesel Homebrew Guide will also be available for sale fpr $15 at the class: www.localb100.com/book.html , and there will be a short handout with some basic formulas for later reference.

About the instructor:
Maria ‘girl Mark’ Alovert is a biodiesel production technology consultant based in North Carolina. She is the author of The Biodiesel Homebrew Guide, a manual on biodiesel production (http://localb100.com), the founder of the community-written biodiesel homebrewing tutorial site http://biodieselcommunity.org and is the inventor of the Appleseed Processor, an ‘open source’ design now used by thousands of people around the world to produce biodiesel on a ‘homebrew’ scale. She has been involved in home-scale biodiesel technology development since 2000. She frequently teaches beginning and advanced biodiesel production classes around the country and is a an active participant in biodiesel production discussion forums such as http://biodiesel.infopop.cc

I’ve been meaning to write up a long web page about where I’ve been, but I’m stuck in a catch-22: I’ve been so sick it’s been hard to put down focused thoughts in print or to find the energy to do so even when I can focus.

I haven’t written much email in the past month, I go weeks without opening the computer, and so forth. The Twitter feed did keep me from going totally nuts: www.twitter.com/girlmark - I can handle posting 140-character microblogs from my phone.

I’ve been sick since mid-May, I think, and by mid-September it got so bad that I was starting to contemplate an emergency room visit- I was spending most days gasping for air like I had asthma (which I don’t). I’d been on antibiotics since May and if this was just Lyme, I should have seen results by then instead of getting so much worse.

Enough other oddball stuff surfaced to point pretty clearly to a babesia infection. Along with Lyme, it’s on the much-publicized ‘Deadly Dozen’ list- lucky me- and treating it SUCKS. It’s the most common co-infection found along with Lyme in infected animals, and does a serious number on people with both diseases. I guess with the new Deadly Dozen report, I get to feel like a pioneer for contracting it ahead of the rest of y’all.

I don’t know if I’d gotten it as a new infection in May, when I definitely picked up enough of something to cause heavy immune activity- or if I’d had a ’stealth’ asymptomatic babesia infection all along, which would explain why I haven’t fully kicked Lyme yet- but luckily for me, it finally came out of hiding enough for my doctor and I to consider it this summer.

Like all the tick-borne illnesses, the testing for babesia sucks- it’s a malaria-like organism but it only attacks 1% of red blood cells so it’s difficult to find on standard malaria blood smears. DNA-based or antibody testing only looks for one or two species out of suspected multiple strains. I’d never had the “malaria-like” symptoms before, but since May I developed enough of the other weird shit- extreme anorexia, neurological respiratory distress unrelated to any physiological cause, night sweats, nausea unrelated to my antibiotics, and a few others- that we put two and two together. Getting drugs for it was a whole nother ordeal- atavoquone alone costs $1400/month- but I’ve managed so far.

What I didn’t know was that treatment worsens the symptoms so much. So, for the past 6 weeks or so, I’ve felt like a completely dysfunctional, though angry, frustrated, and pain-ridden, blob. Supposedly this shit continues for several months, though I’m starting to see the light a little and some things have gotten better. Ughhh.

More to come…

oh, and, I’m well enough to be in Oklahoma City teaching Biodiesel Essentials next weekend: www.girlmark.com/tour