Cattle power new ethanol plant technology

[Fledermaus]

A new technology integrates cattle and an ethanol plant into a so-called closed loop system that also produces energy required for the thermal needs of the plant and fertilizer for crop production.

The technology is on display on a farm adjacent to the University of Nebraska research farm, in Mead, Neb. According to Patrick Tracy of Prime BioSolutions in Mead, the company that has patented the technology, the cores of the facility are a 30,000-head cattle operation and a 25-million-gallon ethanol plant.

Tracy told attendees of the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants in Seattle, Wash., that the facility captures about 12,000 pounds of actual nitrogen per day, enough to treat about 10,000 acres based on 1.2 pounds per acre needed per bushel of corn. It also produces about 12,000 pounds of phosphorus and 9,800 pounds of potassium per day....

“We also treat the stream with lime, and send the liquid stream over to the stripper to strip off the nitrogen and turn it into an aquas ammonia for commercial grade fertilizer, which can be sold commercially, or we can send it back to the land to grow more corn. In the future, there is the potential for sending these products back to land in cellulosic production.”

Most of the water used is recycled, too, according to Tracy. Some goes back to the cattle, contained in wet feed. The water that is left after nutrients are stripped off is sent via underground pipelines to center pivot irrigation systems for area farmers. There are small amounts of P and N left in the stream.

“Because we’re making all our own energy, we have a 5 to 1 ratio, which is about what cellulosic ethanol is going to be. Low carbon fuels are the fuel of the future. Not only do we want to produce renewable fuels, but we want it in a system that creates low carbon fuel.”

Tracy cited a study by the University of Nebraska which showed that a closed loop system has an 80 percent higher energy coefficient than gasoline production. “Standard ethanol is 13 percent better, dry mill ethanol is 40 percent better, any plant not drying its product is 70 percent. So this is the best low carbon fuel on the market today.”

http://deltafarmpress.com/biofuels/cattle-ethanol-0414/

[Massacure]

1. This is interesting research.

I found some data that the United States had just shy of 100,000,000 cattle in 1997. If we were even able to scale this up from say 30,000 cattle to 300,000 cattle, the United States could produce roughly 1.6 million barrels of ethanol a day.