Ever wonder how coal can be gasified? The following article published in the Edmonton Journal has a layman’s definition of the procedure and the resulting byproducts. Considering that there is a 900 year supply of coal in Alberta, Canada alone, is this a good alternative energy source? It certainly isn’t a renewable resource, but it is plentiful…at this time. What do you think? (more…)
Claypool, Indiana / Indiana Governer Mitch Daniels announced this week the world’s largest biodiesel plant, capable of making 250,000 gallons a day of the fuel using Indiana-grown soybeans.
The plant, to be built in Claypool, Indiana, by a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Corp., will be the third biodiesel facility in the state. Indiana also has six ethanol plants under construction.
“In just one year, we’re growing from one alternative fuels plant to nine, with more to come,” Daniels, the Republican former director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement.
President George W. Bush has called for increased use of ethanol and biomass fuels to reduce by 75 per cent the nation’s dependence on Middle East oil by 2025.
About 75 million gallons of biodiesel were produced in the U.S. last year, 21 per cent of total capacity of 354 million gallons, according to Amber Thurlo-Pearson, spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board.
The Indiana plant would be capable of producing 80 million gallons a year.