Ethanol Ramble...

This is an excerpt from a letter I just sent off to a close friend, fleshing out the bones of this business/life venture I'm embarking on and creating:

Hey Brother! Things are congealing for me over here. I've begun a blog to journal daily the progress in creating an energy cooperative. I've basically come to the final conclusion that it's back to Ithaca that I must come in the Spring after this last boat pulls away from the dock for the last time. Honestly, I don't know what exactly I'm going to do to make ends meet while this is coming together, but I'm setting fear aside and staying present with everything except the forward planning and goal-setting.

I've given myself goals to achieve in the first year, such as agreements struck with participating farmers (or wineries) for feedstock, a minimum number of coop members (I've arbitrarily set it at 200 for now), having a real site and facilities set up to actually make alcohol and, again arbitrarily, set a minimum production goal of 1000 gallons. Just as importantly, having a goal for finding a market for the co-products of distillation (otherwise known as distillers grains) is going to be a loop-closing goal that will top off the list of achievements for the first year.

Besides being something I believe in whole-heartedly, I'm increasingly convinced this is going to be a vital service that people will rely upon as a necessity. We have a real storm approaching with converging fronts. Re-localizing energy production, doing it in a way that is sustainable in a climate neutral (or arguably having a positive effect on climate and air quality), environmentally rehabilitative way that also generates what I call "cascading" enterprises that mandate non-exportable good jobs is fundamental bedrock business stuff!

These marketable ventures that are downstream from the actual distillation of the alcohol are only limited by imagination and the willingness to create connections - not to mention that they're far more lucrative than the distillation of the ethanol at the beginning of the process. For example, when the alcohol is distilled, it leaves behind distillers grains in solution which, at it's simplest, is a great feed for livestock (far more nutritious than the original grain/seed because now the difficult to digest starches have been removed - converted to alcohol - leaving behind a high protein, high fat, nutrient rich meal that lends readily to healthy growth in farm beasties. Likewise, the distillers grains can be simply turned back into the soil as a supplement/fertilizer that is being increasingly regarded as having amazing impacts on improving microbiological structures in the soil and improving not only the fertility of the soil, but also the defensiveness of the soil and plants to pathogens and insect damage.

Speaking of insect damage, another co-product of alcohol distillation is CO2. If collected at the time of fermentation, it can be injected into well-contained greenhouse spaces, creating a positive air pressure that drives plants wild and virtually eliminates the presence of insects. Another area is the creation of mycelium colonies from distillation co-products and growing marketable mushrooms.

Likewise, another area that is very lucrative is in aqua-culture; farm grown fish, besides fetching higher and higher prices, yield very lucrative fertilizers derived from their remains and their poop.

That leads me into composting... But I'll save that for another installment!

I'm excited about this, bro. This is something that is burning inside me like a flame not unlike that flame my Dad used to talk about having in his belly. I never knew that feeling until I commited my Heart to this. It's the right thing to do and it's the kind of thing I can create to leave behind something that will be a legacy - I'll have contributed something positive and beautiful in this paltry life of mine. And that ain't bad :)

Peace!