Looking for a success story nearby.

[Judy Thayer]

Hello! My husband and I have about fifteen acres in north central Alabama and we're seriously considering making ethanol for our own vehicles. If it works out, we may expand to a little 'bidness', as they say here.

I just ordered "THE BOOK" yesterday and have been scouring the net all day looking for information. From what I've learned so far, our best source for fuel would be hemp, but barring that..switchgrass might be our next best choice....easier to grow and less expensive than sugar cane.

Wayne can build virtually anything so the still won't be a problem, but he's very cautious and would like to visit anyone who has a successful operation, no matter how small. He'd be willing to travel anywhere in Alabama or neighboring states. Please let us know if your place is open to a little field trip!

Thanks,
Wayne and Judy
[e-mail]

[Aaron Kline]

I am outside of Selmer Tennessee. Write me a line and come on by. I have a Charles 803 still and am just getting going. I have a friend that lives an hour away that bought a still from Mile High that is bigger than mine but it was more expensive. There are a lot of options.

[Thumpin455]

Alabama? Do you have any Kudzu growing near you? There is a younger guy working on Kudzu to fuel in Florida, and if you have any marshes nearby there are always cattails. We are going to harvest cattails soon, just need a few more sets of hands. Michigan is a long way from Bama but it would be nice to have your growing season.

[Red Dog]

Can you tell me in your research about cattails, which part of the plant are you supposed to use? Dave's numbers for how many gallons per ac seem optimistic at best. What is your estimation on volume of cattails per gallon?

[Thumpin455]

The lower 1/3 of the stalk and the rhizomes (roots) have the most starch in them. Some people are working on using only the stalks and letting the rhizomes grow, others of us are digging up the entire plant, using the tops for methane production and the lower parts for ethanol. I dont have the equipment to measure starch, I am a cave man with a welder when it comes to equipment, so I cant estimate how much. How many you need to make a gallon varies by the size of the rhizome and stalk, but consider they have 6 times the starch of a potato and you can get roughly 22 gallons from a ton of taters, possibly more, and it would take far fewer cattails to make the same amount due to starch content.

Most are finding enough starch to make at least 1000 gallons per acre if the patch is thick enough. Most around here are quite thick population wise, but adding some form of waste from a cattle lot, hog confinement, or waste water treatment facility makes them grow much larger and faster, thus more starch. Dave's estimate of 7000 appears middle of the road, some have found enough starch to make 10k gallons an acre, but of course they are in nitrate rich water outside waste sources..

I only need 200-500 gallons per year, so as long as I can get that easily its ok with me. We are going to test run the dual 2" valved reflux column still I built tomorrow and see what kind of proof we can get from it. This time we are using sweet sorghum as a feedstock, some Wisconsin types are coming up with it to test it out and do some research and learning.

I recently got information on drying the cattails, apparently it makes them easier to process into meal for fermentation. So the next batch we harvest is going to get stored and dried. You can get more info on cattails from the Yahoo fuel group or by emailing Peggy Korth at [e-mail]

[jon b. quick]

I haven't started on my still yet. I really don't know where to start.

I have access to a complete fabricating shop as well as a machine shop. So I should be able to make anything! I would like to produce about 5 gal. per hour from a continuous still.

Jon B. Quick
832-724-4197
[e-mail]

[Dude One]

Hello Judy,
I am in Nashville, TN and attended David's workshop in NY this past weekend. Have you had any success at making ethanol for your own use? Has Wayne found anybody with a successful operation?

Thanks,
Dude One
[e-mail]

[Judy Thayer]

Hello, all...thanks for your responses.

No, we haven't followed up on anyone except a guy that we read about online in Georgia. He's a newspaper publisher in a small town and thought that he'd go with ethanol for all the company vehicles but it didn't pan out.

Wayne is still reading The Book, but isn't as jazzed about it as most apparently are. We're mainly interested in a very small still, something just for our own vehicles but so far, the main thrust is for commercial ventures. Maybe he just hasn't read enough. He did skip a good bit of the first half, since it was preaching to the choir as far as we're concerned.

We would like to see a small unit up and running well.

Thanks,
Judy

[jon b. quick]

What about cattails?

[Mark]

If you're in North Alabama, there's a County Extension group that is promoting ethanol fuel. They even used PVC pipe to make their still with.

Alabama Cooperative Extension System
Video: Ethanol Production Demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIRY77faclQ

If you need Mark Hall's contact info, please send me a private message.

[Judy Thayer]

Great! Thanks a lot, Mark. That's just exactly what we're looking for and Madison County is just the next county up from us...we're there all the time! We'll definitely be checking it out.

Judy

[Mark]

You're very welcome Judy,

btw... We are hosting a David Blume workshop scheduled for March 19, 20 & 21, 2010 in the Nashville metro area.

We would love to have our Alabama neighbors come join the fun.

Mark Mayes
BetterFoodBetterLiving.com (under construction)

[Thumpin455]

Build a small still and learn to run it, even if you are only distilling water its good to know how things work.