Bioroot Energy works with concerned, committed individuals, businesses and communities large and small to scope, plan, design and construct clean and profitable, sustainable gasification to liquid fuel facilities.
Work with us. Tell a friend about our mission. Get involved.
We can’t afford to buy real world billboard advertising yet, so we did the next best thing and hacked a picture to make a point: the future of green energy is just around the corner!
This one sums up our business nicely, but not quite completely. Because our technology can convert much more than household trash to E4™ ENVIROLENE® mixed alcohol fuels. All kinds of unwanted stuff such as excess biomass, sewer sludge, toxic wastes, petroleum byproducts and wastes, and even methane and C02. But household trash is a great place to start looking for abundant, renewal carbons!Truth be told, there will always be middlemen in the fuel business. But they don’t all have to be Middle Eastern men.
This video featuring Standard Alcohol Company of America, Inc., and E4 ENVIROLENE was shot in 2000 by a PBS affiliate. The mixed alcohol fuel story is even more compelling a decade later, yet the first facility has yet to be built.
Greetings world and Bioroot Energy conscientious folk. This is the first post of Bioroot Energy’s Business Development Director, Heath N. Carey.
So who exactly am I? Well, let me give you a brief introduction: I was born and raised in the historically rich area of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I was a pretty normal fellow from the get-go, spending modest amounts of time on my education, and the remainder romping around the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. In 1996 I began attending classes at Shippensburg University. I graduated in 2001 with a bachelors degree in English, minoring in Secondary Education.
Unfortunately, as I approached teaching as a career, I quickly came to the realization that I would be required to act more so than to teach. This realization led me to travel to Los Angeles where I tried my hand at acting and modeling. I had always aspired to do something great with my life; however, I began to form the opinion that “greatness” is something that stems from your mind and your actions NOT your acting ability or your looks. Again I reassessed my direction in life as I packed my things and returned to Pennsylvania. I spent the next 9 months outlining the topics that mattered most to me. Time and time again I found myself returning to the wilderness.
This realization was confirmed on a hunting trip in northern Pennsylvania – one of my father’s friends was describing a trail crew job his granddaughter held and boy did that seem heavenly. On the drive back to our home, I explained to my father that I was seriously considering going back to school to acquire the knowledge necessary to obtain a trail crew job. I’ll never forget his next statement, “Heath, you don’t want to be the guy who maintains the trail. You want to be the guy who says where and how to build the trail.” Long story short, I agreed with my father and relocated to Missoula, Montana where I attended two years of post baccalaureate classes to hone my beginner science skills. I was then accepted into Graduate School through the College of Forestry, Resource Conservation and completed a Master of Science degree by 2010. My thesis project, which also doubles as a current career, focused on reusing municipal wastewater as a source of irrigation and fertilization for short rotation crops (i.e., Poplars/Willows) as an alternative to discharging nutrient-rich effluent (i.e., wastewater) into the nearest body of drinkable water.
I suppose by now you are beginning to realize the synergy between Jay and I - the completion of the waste cycle. We, the global population of humans, MUST realign our understanding from waste to resource. This is where my journey has led me – While it is easy to point the finger of blame towards older generations, my generation, and those following, will have no one to blame other than themselves if we do not reach a collaborative understanding and pursuit of alternative and sustainable methods by which to manage our waste. Bioroot Energy offers just that. I encourage you to follow my blog posts as I delve into this world of renewable, sustainable fuels. I promise and guarantee to look at this topic from an unbiased point of view and to share my honest opinions and findings throughout the journey. Thank you for your attention and exploration.
Cordially,
Heath N. Carey
“Change will be the result of collaborative efforts rather than the perseverance of one.”
Want to better understand the renewable fuels landscape, from algae to biodiesel, corn and cellulosic ethanol, to mixed alcohols? Here’s a fresh look at the confusion regarding renewable fuel subsidies, and why it is in the industry’s best interests for biofuel players to get out of “silo” mode and help the government sort through the questions.
3 paragraphs from the article:
“With their extreme versatility and often complicated nature, it isn’t easy for most people to wrap their brain around advanced biofuels, and the definitions in the renewable fuels standard 2 (RFS2) aren’t much help.”
“Depending once again on what your feedstock and technology is, right now you generally fall in one of these buckets: if you’re Gevo (Inc.) producing biobutanol, you get 60 cents per gallon under the VEETC (Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit). If you’re Tyson (Foods Inc.), Neste or Amyris (Biotechnologies Inc.) making a non-coprocessed renewable diesel, then you get $1 per gallon (blenders excise tax credit),” McAdams says. “If I’m Virent (Energy Systems Inc.) and I make speciated gasoline out of a catalyst technology using sugar or corn, I get 50 cents per gallon. If I’m a cellulosic company I have a $1.01 production tax credit, and if I’m algae, I don’t know where I go. If I make a fuel, I guess I default to the alternative fuels mixture credit because it gives me 50 cents per gallon for a fuel.”
“We need to ask ourselves, at what point should an industry’s subsidy end, and whether the current statutes are tilted toward a certain technology and if that’s ultimately good or bad. The industry is way too siloed right now.”
Don’t look to Washington’s finest for credible energy and climate solutions. Legislation, perhaps. Our politicians spend a lot of their time appearing in dignified settings courtesy of the US taxpayer, meeting important (and not so important) people, shaking lots of hands, listening and talking, smiling and chatting amiably with one another like lovable, peaceable Smurfs.
So our politicos are good at face time. But they’re terrible at addressing our biggest problems. Like balancing the federal budget, reducing trade deficits, or curbing the runaway growth of the national debt (Good luck with that). Or winding up our military affairs in the Middle East. Securing our borders. Stopping the BP oil spill. Pulling out all stops for a cleaner environment and a greener energy economy. You get the point.
When you consider that the energy, economic and environmental problems we face are in many ways caused by buying, burning and spilling dirty energy sources (oil and coal), while being utterly [addicted] dependent on consuming both energy sources, it easy to see we’ve got a long way to go to renewable energy independence and a healthier natural world. And a short time to get there.
How far on the road to energy independence is the USA when it comes to next-generation biofuels? We’ve only just begun.
Consider the paltry 88 million gallons of biodiesel produced this year from animal fat mentioned in the quote below, and add the 10 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol, then be generous and round it up to get 100 million gallons of “next-generation” biofuel capacity in 2010. This drop in the bucket represents an entire year of biofuel production beyond corn ethanol, which is currently about 12 billion gallons per year, and which is capped at 15 billion gallons per year.
100 million gallons of next-generation biofuels produced this year? Big whoop. Americans burn 378 million gallons of gasoline a day, according to EIA. That’s 138 billion gallons a year.
“Next-generation U.S. biofuel capacity should reach about 88 million gallons in 2010, thanks in large measure to one plant becoming commercially operational in 2010, using non-cellulosic animal fat to produce green diesel. U.S. production capacity for cellulosic biofuels is estimated to be 10 million gallons for 2010, much less than the 100 million gallons originally mandated for use by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. In early 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the cellulosic biofuel mandate to 6.5 million gallons, more in line with production prospects.”
“Developing the capacity to use multiple feedstocks and to produce biobased fuels that are equivalent to fossil fuels that can be used in current vehicles without limit and distributed seamlessly in the existing transportation sector may become the least risky business model to pursue.”
Who’s making plans for renewable fuel production in hometown America? Who’s laying the business and technology foundation to develop advanced biofuels near you? Look around and you’ll see plenty of waste and biomass resources that could make water soluble, biodegradable fuel for a global marketplace. Look a bit further and you’ll see an opportunity to make an energy product the entire world needs and almost nobody makes yet: Cleaner fuel from stuff nobody wants.
Your trash, along with your neighbor’s trash, and non-crop biomass, is a constantly replenishing stream of renewable energy resources that can be converted into valuable mixed alcohol fuels. Think big here, there’s plenty of trash and biomass, and plenty of coal, coal fines, petroleum coke, or flare gas and methane.
Right now it’s just more municipal solid waste headed to the landfill or incinerator to make marginal amounts of electricity at best. Just another day in a status quo that no longer quite serves.
America doesn’t just need national legislation to support clean energy investment and promote a cleaner environment, it needs committed people in America’s cities and economic regions, armed with cleaner fuels technologies to convert what’s currently viewed as waste into dollars and sense. Waste, like politics, is local. And so is green energy.
Enough excuses. Let’s make cleaner fuels the world can use. What’s beyond dirty petroleum? Clean mixed alcohols.
Senator Max Baucus, Jay Toups, CEO, Bioroot Energy, Senator Jon Tester
Bioroot Energy spent this week in Washington discussing clean energy legislation and meeting with people from all walks of life. It’s safe to say that the Bioroot Energy story is officially on the radar with Montana’s congressional delegation and staffers, as well as key Montana citizens and environmental groups for responsible climate and energy legislation. From the warm reception of our clean energy mission, and the messages delivered by our 11 member citizen lobby group, sponsored by Climate Solutions and Clean Energy Works, it was a successful trip and our messages were well received and timely.
People who care about our environment and the role of governments in legislation supporting clean energy are happy hearing about any business that could potentially put lots of people to work making cleaner transportation fuels, and clean up the environment in the process.
Pictured left to right: Senator Max Baucus, Charles Sangmeister, KC Golden, Diane Yarus, Chris Brooks, Michelle Tafoya, Eric Grimsrud, Jay Toups, Jon Turk, Cilla Mosley, Arlo Sakari, William Walks Along, Senator Jon Tester
American citizens and our elected officials are beginning to better understand what other countries have long known – that aggressive pursuit of research and development of technology that will set the pace for the world’s transition to a new energy economy and grant the winners huge, long-term economic benefits.
Bioroot Energy will travel to Washington DC on May 18 to meet with with members of Congress, including Montana’s two senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, and Congressman Denny Rehberg, as well as hopefully sharing our story with the world via NPR.
Want to send a strong message to our beloved politicians to get our renewable energy act together and reduce the risks of using, burning and spilling oil all over God’s creation? Here’s a real good opportunity. Please leave a personal endorsement of our project here: http://www.biorootenergy.com/endorsements
What’s happening in the Gulf of Mexico is a growing holocaust of millions of innocent creatures. It’s a failure to innovate, a national disgrace, and a wake up call to all who call planet Earth home. Depending so heavily on oil for our transportation needs, and power generation and industrial use*, is not only environmentally irresponsible, it’s the basis for many of our current energy security issues, and one of our country’s most egregious economic problems. (65 percent of US oil is imported, and 1/2 of all the oil we consume is used to generate electricity.)
There is proven technology to make cleaner liquid energy from any type of carbons, such as oil or coal. Or stranded methane. Or natural gas. Or your household trash, yard trimmings, and waste biomass, for that matter. All of this carbon-based stuff can be cleanly and profitably converted to E4 ENVIROLENE. No crops to grow or water or fertilize. Or ferment. Nothing needs to be mined or drilled for.
E4 is exponentially cleaner than the gasoline it displaces, and it improves mileage and performance.
Last thing is the most important point on this time of destruction in the Gulf of Mexico: unlike the 200,000 gallons of oil currently going into the Gulf of Mexico every day, if any E4 gets spilled on land or water, it actually feeds the microbes, bugs and plants a free lunch instead of a death sentence. Why? E4 is completelywater soluble. It’s completely biodegradable. It doesn’t float on water, and it doesn’tstick to bird feathers. It simply evaporates, leaving almost no residue of any kind.
Time to improve the combustion of the two dirtiest carbons (oil and coal) for our energy needs and open up massive global opportunities to make cleaner mixed alcohol fuels made from ANY type of carbon. Mixed alcohols blend right in to whatever you’re burning and make it burn better and cleaner.
Mixed alcohol fuel: It’s not rocket science. It’s a no-brainer, and it’s getting ready to lift off.
Why act now to develop clean, renewable liquid fuels made from carbon wastes and biomass at a community or regional level? It’s simple. Your kids’ and grandchildrens’ gas tanks (and wallets, if they still exist) could be empty in twenty years if we don’t.
Look at the graph and be afraid. It did not come from Earth First! It did not come from the Sierra Club. It was not drawn by Socialists or Nazis or Osama Bin Laden or anyone from Goldman-Sachs. If you are a Republican Tea-Partier, rest assured it didn’t come from a progressive Democrat. Or vice versa. It was drawn by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), and the United States military’s Joint Forces Command concurs with the overall picture.
What does it imply?
The supply of the world’s most essential energy source, liquid fuels, is about to go off a cliff. Production of all current liquid fuels, including oil, will drop within 20 years to half what it is today, according to reputable sources. The difference needs to be made up with “unidentified projects,” which one of the world’s leading petroleum geologists says is just a “euphemism for rank shortage,” and the world’s foremost oil industry banker says is “faith based.”
How to solve the problem?
Stop waiting for the renewable liquid fuel solution to come from somewhere else. This isn’t going to happen. The answer is, like all politics, local. The key to the sustainable energy solution is where you live in the wastes and biomass resources that surround you. But you have to want it for it to happen.
Wake up and smell the trash can and go out and rake your yard and think about what’s at stake here.
A common comment at events where Bioroot Energy has presented is that our business vision to turn municipal waste and biomass into clean, green transportation fuel sounds too good to be true.
Fact is, the core technologies Bioroot Energy seeks to deploy are already proven. It’s a plasma gasifier, connected to a gas to liquid (methanol) plant. Making a proprietary alcohol fuel formula that is already EPA approved but has not yet been commercialized. Making a cleaner, stronger fuel which will not only compete directly with corn ethanol, but ultimately prove vastly superior as an oxygenate fuel.
The technology is ready to turn on nationally. What isn’t ready? The American people. We’ve been throwing away trash and burning biomass since the day our forebears stepped off the boat onto Plymouth Rock. And burning coal and oil without much awareness of what it does to the environment.
How much longer is this dirty, wasteful and unhealthy practice going to serve us? Today America sits on its heels, dug in, refusing to invest locally in better technologies even as the nation’s energy, economic and environmental indicators glow red. The government can’t build these technologies, it’s up to the private sector.
photo: Johan Spanner for The New York Times
There’s a reason Europe leads the USA in converting its waste and biomass to energy. Given the never-ending quest for efficiencies which pervades European life due to the higher costs of energy and greater population densities, it’s easy to understand why Europe leads the USA in this case. They simply have to!
America can do “waste to energy” better. For example, Bioroot Energy is not seeking to build high-tech incinerators like those being brought online in western Europe. While these new incinerators are much cleaner than any incinerator in the United States, they’re not clean enough.
What’s more, the single product they produce, electricity, isn’t the product we will be making because it isn’t the primary type of product the current transportation fuels market needs, which is better and dramatically cleaner liquid fuels.
We seek to build non-polluting energy creation and waste processing infrastructure based on gasification, not incineration.
There is a big difference in the two technologies.
John Purcell, Business Development Director of Standard Alcohol Company of America on Green Living Magazine radio show April 3, 2010, discussing the E4 ENVIROLENE opportunity. [20 minute broadcast]
Green energy investor Vinod Khosla of Range Fuels is predicting a surprise “upside in biofuels” in the next 12-18 months. Yet he doesn’t disclose any details. Crafty PR for a guy who has so far spent $160 million in taxpayer money and another $140 million in investor money and come up short.
If you would like to know more about the surprise he’s alluding to, in our opinion, please contact us for more information.
There are many different biofuels. Explore how each biofuel is made, what each is made from, and importantly, what happens when each is spilled in water or on land.
"To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth—all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances."
Truth be told, there will always be middlemen in the fuel business. But they don’t all have to be Middle Eastern men.
Consider the paltry 88 million gallons of biodiesel produced this year from animal fat mentioned in the quote below, and add the 10 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol, then be generous and round it up to get 100 million gallons of “next-generation” biofuel capacity in 2010. This drop in the bucket represents an entire year of biofuel production beyond corn ethanol, which is currently about 12 billion gallons per year, and which is capped at 15 billion gallons per year.
