New Life for Paper Mills (Old Town, Greenville: fit in, construction, taxes)

[Moxie]

Here is a link to an article from the newpaper in the area I currently live. Is there any discussion about old paper mills producing Ethanol going on in Maine?

newsobserver.com | New life for paper mills: Ethanol plants (http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/717702.html - broken link)

[msina]

Looks like they just might be doing that Moxie
EPA Requires Air Compliance for Old Town, Maine Facility - Clears Way for Possible Ethanol Production | Newsroom | US EPA
A paper mill closes and opens the door for a new kind of business park — producing renewable energy —A bright future for Old Town

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Many groups are looking for government grants for product and process development. There is no private operation producing ethanol or methanol at a profit in our country. It takes the quivalent of 1.8 gallons of Diesel to produce one gallon of ethanol. There is far less energy in a gallon of ethanol than in any petroleum product. It's a loser all the way around.

Brazil, meanwhile, produces huge amounts of ethanol from sugar. They also produce the VW bug down there. They have very low emissions. It is illegal to sell a new VW Diesel bug in Maine.

[dmyankee]

This is a project with UMO to produce ethanol from cellulose. They also have an ongoing wood composition project and someone up to Greenville will be producing composite timbers for bridge construction as part of the business incubator there.

I hope it works. I know a few who got their Chem degree in paper and never got jobs in the field.

[moughie]

As long as ethanol production does not result in the same nasty smell that plagued the paper mills and the towns that surrounded them, sounds like a great idea.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Many groups are looking for government grants for product and process development. There is no private operation producing ethanol or methanol at a profit in our country. It takes the quivalent of 1.8 gallons of Diesel to produce one gallon of ethanol. There is far less energy in a gallon of ethanol than in any petroleum product. It's a loser all the way around.

Brazil, meanwhile, produces huge amounts of ethanol from sugar. They also produce the VW bug down there. They have very low emissions. It is illegal to sell a new VW Diesel bug in Maine.

They also produce a lot of ethanol vehicles [being the second largest automobile manufacturer in the world], and since gasoline passenger vehicles are illegal in Brazil, everything there burns either diesel or ethanol.

Their ethanol is produced at a huge profit. And they keep trying to import their ethanol into the US, congress will not allow it. They could import their ethanol, under-cut our gasoline prices and still make a nice profit.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Brazil's ethanol production is run by the government. There is no profit. The people pay for it through taxes and drivers benefit. Actually, everybody in Brazil benefits since their currency does not go to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela.

I'm surprised that they are listed as the second largest vehicle manufacturer. Can they be bigger than Japan?

[DavidoftheNorth]

Study Slams Economics Of Ethanol And Biodiesel

[Zymer]

I haven't read the study (yet), but I will relate my own experience with ethanol. I pay attention to my fuel mileage and I have noticed that it is significantly worse when using ethanol. So much so that that my vehicles are actually burning more than 20% MORE gasoline than they would burning gasoline alone. Is it just my vehicles? I don't know, but in my mind, the public is being sold a bill of goods on this deal.

[DavidoftheNorth]

Originally Posted by DavidoftheNorth

Study Slams Economics Of Ethanol And Biodiesel

I don't mean to discourage the prospect of ethanol production - it could well be a good fit for Maine with all of our forest biomass, but if it takes more fossil fuel energy to create than what it eventually produces in net energy creation, what's the point? Looking at it from another angle, however, if our intentions are to reduce greenhouse gases, as opposed to merely finding an alternate energy source away from oil, we may be onto something. If we could instead power the ethanol production process with say windpower (unlikely) or solar power (?), etc., it might work. My favorite is the possibility of using geothermal energy, that is, converting earth heat to usable energy. Take a quick peek at this graphic: http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/temp.jpeg

The problem I see, in my conspiratorial state of mind, is who possesses the means of accessing this huge resource hundreds of miles down? I think you guessed it: THE OIL COMPANIES! Anybody want to start our own independant drilling company?