Illinois is using pigs, the Japanese are using cows – both are trying to get fuel from manure. The University of Illinois is designing “a pilot plant for a large commercial livestock farm that will convert swine manure to crude oil,” according to this press release from the university’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences or ACES.
The pilot plant is based on research led by Yuanhui Zhang, an agricultural and biological engineer at the U of I. Zhang and colleagues developed a system using thermochemical conversion (TCC) to transform organic compounds (like swine manure) in a heated and pressurized enclosure to produce oil and gas. “The process we developed is different from most conventional TCC processes,” said Zhang. “There is no need for the addition of a catalyst, and our process does not require pre-drying of the manure.” Involved in the project are the Illinois Pork Producers Association, Worldwide BioEnergy (which is supposedly based here in Jefferson City, MO but I can’t find a website for them), Innoventor Engineering Inc., and BioCrude LLC (can’t find them either).
In Tokyo, according to this AP story, scientists are using cow manure to create gasoline. Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said his team has successfully extracted .042 ounces of gasoline from every 3.5 ounces of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat. “The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders” to reduce the burden of disposing of large amounts of waste, Shibusawa said. Meanwhile, according to the article, “another group of researchers has successfully extracted an aromatic ingredient of vanilla from cattle dung.” I found this story from a link on humor columnist Dave Barry’s blog – and as he would say, I am not making this up.
I’m sure he would appreciate the graphic montage I put together to accompany this post.
On Saturday I was travelling back from last week’s Commodity Classic so I didn’t get to attend the press conference held in Miami for the Indy Racing League and our sponsor, EPIC. However, we bloggers have our ways of getting information. You can find out what the things on the table in this picture are by reading below. So here’s what happened:
Team Ethanol driver Paul Dana (pictured) participated in the news conference and told his story about how he was instrumental in bringing the ethanol opportunity to the Indy Racing League. IRL executives Jeff Horton and John Lewis shared the reasons behind the switch. From the League’s perspective, it was a natural way to continue its leadership in racing to include burning an environmentally responsible fuel that performs beautifully in racing machines.
table (pictured above) where EPIC displayed various raw ingredients that are used to make ethanol. Reporters came over to run their fingers through the barley and wheat and find out just exactly what milo looks like!
In case you’ve wondered if you can drive across the U. S. on E85 fuel only the answer is “you can.” Some college students are doing just that as I write. I just spoke with Jim Richardson, 
The latest “Fill Up, Feel Good” podcast from the 
I’m sure that Tom was just standing around his booth (EPIC) at Commodity Classic and looks up and lo and behold, there’s the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture stopping by for a visit. I hope he took a spin in the ethanol car simulator.
Our U. S. Secretary of Agriculture not only mentioned renewable fuels in his speech last week at Commodity Classic but he made sure he met with all the folks there working for the various organizations involved with the industry.
While exhibiting at last week’s Commodity Classic in Anaheim EPIC got to put a new team ethanol sponsor decal on the car (simulator).
Our sponsor here at DomesticFuel is the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). They were in Anaheim this past week exhibiting at the Commodity Classic and had some very distinguished visitors like Tom Dorr, USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development. I just got the pictures and wanted to share. There’s more to come.
Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, spoke to a crowd here at Commodity Classic in Anaheim on Friday. I think some of the folks here would like to see him run for President. He gave a great talk about how his state has led the way in the development of renewable fuels and challenged other states to follow their lead in what he called the “Energy Revolution.”
The Ethanol Promotion & Information Council wants you to experience fuel performance at 220 miles per hour. As they say, “There’s nothing Mickey Mouse about that.” Here at their booth at Commodity Classic in Anaheim, CA, they’ve got an IndyCar racing simulator. So strap yourself in and hold on. You can hear what this baby sounds like here: 