Our Energy Plan, Cont.
September 6th, 2005 by Northern FarmerWell, we’re not chopping silage yet. We decided it can wait till next week because we’re getting the rains we didn’t get in July and August now. And amazingly the corn greened up alot. The creek is up to where it should be and the cattle watering ponds are full to the brim. Now the bass we planted in them should survive their second winter. What amazed me is that they survived last winter and this year they spawned. Lots of little bass in them ponds. Our cattle ponds are fenced off so the cattle can’t get close and we pump the water to them with solar charged twelve volt pumps. The wildlife love it there, and the cattle do much better with clean water to drink. A win, win situation.
Today we rented an earth trencher to dig a trench, or should I say trenches for water lines for another outdoor wood furnace that we purchased last week. This will be for my parents home and two outbuildings. My parent’s home is heated with fuel oil now and this will be a huge savings for them. They use on the average around thirteen hundred gallons of fuel oil a winter, so it won’t take long for payback. The other two buildings will be a garage and a remodeled hog barn that’s a shop now.
Once this project is done later this fall phase two will start here on our energy plan. We will draw on the heritage we have on all sides of our family and start cooking up some alchohol. And yes, it will be licensed, unlike my grandparent’s operations. I was going to do that twenty or thirty years ago but never quite got to it. Although, maybe I’m glad I didn’t then, because researching it now it seems alot simpler than before. It should be interesting converting our gas powered engines to run on it. Years ago they tried to say it was impossible, even though they were manufacturing in this country cars and trucks that could run on it and then shipping them to Brazil. It was just impossible for an engine to run on alchohol in this country I guess. Must be alot of people smarter than me, because I wouldn’t of figured that out. Sure am glad our government and industry looks out for dummies like me. Keeps me on the straight and narrow, eh.
It’s kind of exciting, these challenges coming in the future. The combination of different methods, wood, solar, wind, alchohol, work horses, vegetable oils, and the like. Each has an important place to keep a family operation going. Plus distancing ourselves from reliance of the industrialized world. We could downsize our horsepower requirements here drastically and still thrive here as far as I can see. This subject is really getting to me, providing all of our own energy. The most amazing thing is that it’s possible. Who’da ever thought.
September 7th, 2005 at 9:36 am
I’m curious. “They” have portrayed turning corn into alcohol as a very inefficient process that uses more energy than it produces. Is the process you will use sustainable within your own farm? I mean, will you be able to use the alcohol generated to produce as much raw material as you used to create it?
September 7th, 2005 at 10:42 am
I believe “they” are correct with the current industrial process. And much more correct when you add the heavy petroleum expense raising the corn. Our plan is totally different. It uses our rotations,distilling Open Pollinated corn, no boughten fertilizers, no gas based corn drying. The distilling would be with wood heat that would be recaptured for other purposes for the most part. As these plans are coming together the differences between industrial alcohol production and home based are huge. And one more thing, we can feed out the mash, so the corn is still used as feed.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:22 am
This is truly great stuff.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:27 am
One more question. Have you tried to calculate how many acres of corn you will need to grow in order to produce enough alcohol for the year?
September 7th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Not yet I haven’t John. I had a ballpark figure a little while back but can’t recall this evening.But like I wrote earlier, I’m not really calculating it as alcohol per acre being that it will be fed out also.When I get the figures down I’ll be sure to share them. Another thing is even when we do this the combustion engine hours hopefully will be way down from present by using many different farming methods.A close family member is doing the figuring and researching for me, I’m just the guy with the deep pockets around here.From what I gather, we’re making it out of all copper, which means it can be dual purpose…..
September 15th, 2005 at 6:46 am
I’m a Tennessee corn, wheat, and soybean farmer. I am currently in the process of researching still design and building. I want to produce 20-60 gallons a week in 1 or 2 batches.
Any good design Ideas? Most of my idea will probably center around the tanks I find at the scrap yard, but some plan ideas will help me figure out how to more efficiently condense the vapors correctly.
-Clint
September 15th, 2005 at 7:10 am
Clint,
When we’re done with silage in a few days, (I hope), I’ll be looking into this more.My other post called Still Link has the info that I’m getting shortly. From what I gather it should handle the amount you are talking about.And also from what I read it should cost about $600 dollars if every part was boughten.So there could be cheaper ways.
Tom