Re: Research Topics

["Kevin Chisholm" <kchisholm@ca.inter.net>]

Dear Tami

Petroleum succeeded the way it did because of its many advantages over solid
fuels:

1: High energy density per unit weight
2: High energy density per unit volume.
3: Easily handled
4: Easily stored at normal conditions of temperature and pressure
5: Easily measured
6: Easily dispensed in controlled quantities
7: Very uniform
8: Known properties
9: Low cost
10: Widely available
11: Capital entry barriers favour exploitation by relatively few large
businesses.
12: Etc...

If you look "behind the scenes", you will see that most research is being
directed to make "synthetic petroleum" that capitalizes on the above
features.

There is much more to biomass than its mere "cost per million BTU" index. It
has two fundamental advantages over petroleum and coal:

1: It is renewable
2: Its use does not bring "new carbon" into the biosphere.

While you will never see jet planes running on wood chips, you might see
them running on some liquid fuel that was biomass sourced. I am guessing
that this "new biomass jet fuel" will not be methanol, for the simple reason
that it is very difficult to imagine methanol from wood being cheaper than
methanol from coal.

The focus shift from kerosene to gasoline is easily explained..... it was
not so much a "supplier push" but a "demand pull" that encouraged them to
shift production to gasoline. On the one hand, there was the widespread
electrification that killed markets for kerosene, and on the other hand,
there was the horseless carriage, and the widespread use of the internal
combustion engine, that created markets for gasoline.

People usually blame Lawyers for the troubles of Society, but in the case of
Biomass, I think the villains are the Accountants. :-) Where they err is by
failing to point out where Biomass is really good (environmental impact) and
really bad (physical handling properties) in a way that these features are
"digitized with a dollar value." If this was done, it would be very apparent
what the REAL REASONS were for why biomass is not in generally more
widespread use.

Recognition of the basic problem is the first step toward a solution.

Kindest regards,

Kevin Chisholm

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tami Bond" <tami.bond@noaa.gov>
To: "Weststeijn, Andries" <Andries.Weststeijn@essent.nl>
Cc: <bioenergy@crest.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: Research Topics


>
> Andries,
>
> I like your answer, especially:
>
> > I believe the discussion on desired biomass-for-energy research should
not
> > be so much concentrated on WHEN fossil fuels run out (they will
eventually
> > anyway), or on how FAST or to what EXTENT greenhouse effects are
influenced
> > by man (that's not our main area of expertise), but rather under what
> > conditions certain biomass-for-energy options will prevail.
>
> I'd also ask 'How can bioenergy learn from & piggyback on fossil-fuel
> infrastructure?' What did fossil fuel do 'right' to become so prevalent?
> Sure, much success came because there were no alternatives. In many
> countries (but not everywhere) the story is different these days,
> because the demand is established but we are talking about switching
> sources. Anyway, fossil companies neatly switched to promoting gasoline
> when kerosene lighting markets dried up in the early part of this
> century, so they can (or could) dance if they had to. What does that
> sort of focus-shift require? There were lots of small oil producers,
> wildcatters etc. who failed along the way. Who succeeded, why, how
> (merging with the big guys??), and are these paths inevitable for
> bioenergy? Will there someday be a 'Standard Biomass' monopoly breakup?
>
> Just curious.
>
> Tami
>



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