Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] David Blume and "Alcohol Can Be A Gas"

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Robert Waldrop <bwaldrop@cox.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] David Blume and "Alcohol Can Be A Gas"
  • Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:29:12 -0500

At the Financial Permaculture summit in 2008, one of the groups worked on a concept for a farmer-owned cooperative that would make fuel from local production for use in local production with some surplus available to be sold to the community, another useful product being the "brewers grains" which would go to dairies in the area, all of whom would be in the cooperative too. I think at that level, alcohol production from biomass makes economic, energetic and permacultural "sense". Giant factories using corn to make ethanol for use across a continent is clearly not a net-energy activity. Corn is probably one of the worst things to make into alcohol.

Bob Waldrop, OKC
http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org

Leo Brodie wrote:
Do any of you have any thoughts or experience with David Blume and his
advocacy of alcohol (aka ethanol) as fuel? He touts himself as a
permaculturist (he owns the domain permaculture.com), and does speak in terms
that make some ecological sense (local production, re-applying the mash back
to the soil), but I'm not sure it all adds up.

He makes it sound like alcohol burns completely clean, but I've found
academic research (e.g
http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/patzek/BiofuelQA/Materials/ClimateHealth.pdf)
that says otherwise.

I'm asking because I have never heard any mention of his work in Permaculture
circles, but if his claims have any merit we should be trying this stuff.

Thanks in advance,
Leo Brodie, Seattle _______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Google command to search archives:
site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture searchstring








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page