Gel Fuel and much more from cattails

[Carefreeland@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/12/02 11:38:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time, hseaver@cybershamanix.com writes:

> Daniel's comments below
>    I should have added that one of the best feedstocks for ethanol production is
> cattails. Much better yields per acre than grains, plus it grows where normal
> food crops won't (other than rice), the starchy roots used for ethanol plus
> creating great animal feed in the process (of course, cattail roots have long
> been a human food as well), the tops for gasification, and the seed heads
> pressed for oil. 
>
> -- 
> Harmon Seaver    

>  This is an excellent suggestion.  Many of the stoves people are looking into biomass energy derived from growing in wild, rural locations. Where I live, the extensive urban sprawl has taken much of the once very productive farmland out of production. A large percentage of the new land not having buildings and parking lots on it, is set aside for drainage ponds. 
 >  Called retention or detention ponds, these man made wetlands are taking over the landscape. These vary in size from large airated lakes, from which irrigation water is drawn and fish are raised, to mere moist spots, which are dry in all but the wettest weather. The primary purpose is to manage the runoff from paved land and rooftops. In some cases these ponds raise the water table higher than it was in the natural setting before development. By nature, these ponds have an extreme in variance of wet area size through the season. 
> I have for some years been seeking out ways to produce useful benefit from these areas, to offset the often difficult plant management required.  I have seen a terrible overuse of chemical management in these areas, due to the amount of rapid overgrowth and insect problems. While this happens, frogs, toads, bats, birds, and other often endangered wildlife, which thrive in these urban wetland habitats, are under attack by pesticides. 
> Harmons suggestion of productive use for cattails which could be mechanicly harvested, is one of the best solutions I have heard of yet. Much of the surface of these ponds is often covered with cattails, and more would be, if every effort wasn't being made to reduce them. Cattails are known for filtering the water, a very important feature in these settings where motor oil and other human derived waste often contaminates the runnoff.
> The next question is, how can we efficiantly harvest these, possibly roots and all, and create a business to offset the lack of grass cutting jobs in the dry seasons when the cattails are most easily accessable?  This would be a great add on specialty service for landscapers.  A minimal charge for the service would replace the cost of pesticide application already being budgeted by landowners. 
>I have a bobcat which can accept removable caterpillar treads.  Could an attachment devise be designed to rapidly pull cattails up by the roots, and put them in a waiting truck?  A washer would also have to be designed to wash off the dirt from the roots, possibly incorporated into the first design, drawing wash water from the wet areas of the ponds. Harmon, how is this done in the manual way? 
> This is exactly the kind of solution to problems, that take a bad situation created by expanding population, and create good for all. The energy is out there, just focused in the wrong negative directions. If we could all turn these situations around, like many on these list's are already doing, everyone would come out ahead.  I believe that this is the greatest potential of the Internet. 
> This is originally a stoves list topic. I have forwarded this letter to some other lists to open up minds as to sources of biomass sometimes overlooked.  Someone can forward this to biodigestion and bioconversion as well. All of these lists have persons who can use this suggestion as applied to their specific area of development. When Tom Miles comments on (applauds) a suggestion, I know it is a significant one. 
> My computer will be off tonight, as a drought quenching electrical thunderstorm has finally arrived here in Dayton Ohio. We have had one of the dryest June- August periods on record. Greenhouse Effect? 
> Hats off to Harmon, 
       Goodnight or Goodmorning? 
             Daniel Dimiduk