Thoughts on mega wind and solar projects

[jyoutz]

You can here as well but private lands let's them put in food plots, permanent stands (shooting houses). Good trails, use game cameras (without them growing legs) and grow trophies. Or so they think.
I personally know a group of 20 that lease 6400 acres in the boot heel (prime farm land) at insane costs for the big bucks that can be there.

When you hunt on public land you may sit in pumpkin patch once the sun comes up (orange required to hunt). Has lot do with people not wanting to walk far from a road/trail, mostly less than mile. There is a lot of public land with no hunters but it ain't easy to get in and harder to drag a deer out.
Personally I learned it is easier to take one in the yard and use the tractor.

Many of our game species such as elk cover many miles on a daily basis and hunters need to be able to cover ground to track them. They don’t stay confined to a 100 acre area like whitetail deer.

 

[Eagle1]

Many of our game species such as elk cover many miles on a daily basis and hunters need to be able to cover ground to track them. They don’t stay confined to a 100 acre area like whitetail deer.

Here it is ~300K of whitetail taken every year state wide. We now have a lottery for Elk in a few counties and most of the southern half has a bear draw.
I've seen a couple of Elk on my place, one young cow hung out with the cattle for a couple of months. I'm hopeful to hear a bull bugle here before I die. Don't care if I ever hunt one, lots of freezer meat in the deer population.

We have 3 million acres of Mark Twain but half of that is private land (like mine) within the forest boundaries.

 

[lman]

The Rio Grande Valley and the eastern plains have hundreds of thousands of farmland acreage producing more valuable crops than corn such as chiles, pecans, onions, melons, and dairy hay. NM isn’t dominated by desert, but has more area in the Rocky Mountains and Southern Great Plains than desert.

“New Mexico has over 24,000 farms covering approximately 39 to 43 million acres of land. The state boasts some of the largest average farm sizes in the country, with average operations ranging between 1,600 and 1,800+ acres. Key agricultural areas feature a mix of irrigated cropland, cattle ranches, and pecan orchards. [1, 2, 3, 4]”

USDA/NASS 2025 State Agriculture Overview for New Mexico

Sounds good. One good thing about my uncle's residence is you don't have to mow the yard since not much will grow there. His community is surrounded by thousands of acres of wasteland.

 

[jyoutz]

Sounds good. One good thing about my uncle's residence is you don't have to mow the yard since not much will grow there. His community is surrounded by thousands of acres of wasteland.

There’s no doubt that there are areas like that. NM is a big place being the 5th largest state in land area. There’s a lot of different vegetation types, elevations, and climatic zones.

 

[Duds13]

So much BS going on in NY. The so-called climate alarmists pushing for solar and wind farms don't really seem to give two poops about the environment. The state is totally ignoring areas where there are active bald eagle nests and other rare wildlife.

 

[Phil Timmons]

So much BS going on in NY. The so-called climate alarmists pushing for solar and wind farms don't really seem to give two poops about the environment. The state is totally ignoring areas where there are active bald eagle nests and other rare wildlife.

You have front row seats, right? Good to hear your perspective. I looked at it a little bit, and it looks like it (at least some of it) is from Canada interests who trade Hydro back and forth with NY?

btw, the Grid is ALWAYS about Money, First. Grid runs on Money, not so much Electricity. Sort of like the world's largest Cash Register system. Electricity goes out to some 100s of Millions of Meters, and Cash Flow comes in from everywhere.

 

[Duds13]

Yeah I'm just starting to read more about it. There is a young lady doing a LOT of work on it and calling out the state, ORES, and the DEC for their antics.

 

[etpm]

So the ponderance is if I set aside an acre or two for Corn -- can I feed that to them, (E100 Ethanol) and how do the numbers work out? The process (technical) is rather direct as any moonshiner can attest.

The best you can get from a still is E95 because 95% ethanol and 5% water is the azeotrope of water and ethanol and so has the lowest boiling point. Also, a pot still ain't gonna make E95 with the first run. You would need to distill several times. A reflux column still can make E95 in one distillation though. And you would need to get permission from the feds to run your still, even if it just for fuel.
Eric

 

[Eagle1]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

 

[jyoutz]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

Having tasted that stuff, I’ll stick with a good aged Kentucky bourbon.

 

[ponytug]

The best you can get from a still is E95 because 95% ethanol and 5% water is the azeotrope of water and ethanol and so has the lowest boiling point. Also, a pot still ain't gonna make E95 with the first run. You would need to distill several times. A reflux column still can make E95 in one distillation though. And you would need to get permission from the feds to run your still, even if it just for fuel.
Eric

Well, actually, that's true brandy or moonshine pot stills.

One of the nuances to how fuel ethanol is made is that the stills are constructed differently. Fuel ethanol still design is set up for a continuous 24x7 distillation production, not pot by pot. With the that construction, you get 100% ethanol out of the still, which is promptly blended some gasoline to keep it anhydrous, (plus making it non-potable), and stable, as you are correct it would otherwise absorb water to a 5% water/95% ethanol azeotrope.

Permission from the Feds is de minimus if the annual still production is under 10,000 gallons.

https://www.ttb.gov/system/files?file=images/pdfs/forms/f511074.pdf

There are lots of extras details for how to hydrate the cornflour and enzyme pretreatments to get all of the starch solublized, micronutrients, fermentation accelerators, choices for yeasts, and target ethanol concentration. For the still getting the fermented corn liquor (beer) degassed by removing the CO2 before it gets to the still, and for stripping the spent bottoms, evaporating the bottoms to strip off the water to go back to the beginning to add to the corn flour, and to take the solids out as wet distiller's grain solids, dried distiller's grain solids for animal feeds. On a small scale, having a plan for side stepping the evaporation process can save a chunk of energy and complexity.

If you have an interest, most ethanol plants run tours, and take an interest in visitors.

I'm not suggesting anyone shouldn't try, but I would suggest doing some research into the details. These days, it isn't exactly "uncle Bob's still" up the draw somewhere.

All the best,

Peter

 

[etpm]

With the that construction, you get 100% ethanol out of the still,

You cannot get 100% ethanol from any type of still. The nearly 96% ethanol must be further treated to remove the last bit of water. This is because the boiling point of 95.7 something % ethanol with the remainder being water boils at a lower temp that pure ethanol. Really. To make 100% ethanol the last bit of water must be removed using another method, such as a molecular sieve.
Eric

 

[MossRoad]

You cannot get 100% ethanol from any type of still. The nearly 96% ethanol must be further treated to remove the last bit of water. This is because the boiling point of 95.7 something % ethanol with the remainder being water boils at a lower temp that pure ethanol. Really. To make 100% ethanol the last bit of water must be removed using another method, such as a molecular sieve.
Eric

That's the way the ethanol plant here in South Bend works....

The ethanol produced at the South Bend, Indiana plant (operated by Verbio North America) is concentrated to approximately 95% alcohol by volume (ABV), or 190 proof, through conventional distillation. [1]
Following this, it is usually dehydrated to ~200 proof (essentially 100% alcohol) in a molecular sieve system before being denatured and shipped for fuel blending. [1, 2]

 

[Phil Timmons]

That's the way the ethanol plant here in South Bend works....

The ethanol produced at the South Bend, Indiana plant (operated by Verbio North America) is concentrated to approximately 95% alcohol by volume (ABV), or 190 proof, through conventional distillation. [1]
Following this, it is usually dehydrated to ~200 proof (essentially 100% alcohol) in a molecular sieve system before being denatured and shipped for fuel blending. [1, 2]

Yeah, and we can model that small and locally. Have some friends in Saint Louis doing this "small scale." So small locally, I can do this as a skid-mount, solar powered type system. Roll in and out of the trailer or pickup truck. It appears that final marginally "purity" level is not even that critical for ICE engine applications?

Focusing this back to tractors -- that is this site theme, yunno. You see what John Deere is calling their version of Large(r) Farm Tractors for Ethanol Fuel(s) - E98? I think in their case the remaining 2% is Methanol (please correct me if someone knows different). But consider how "pure" Henry Ford's Model T ethanol fuel was NOT. Where I am heading is that Close Enough is Good Enough. (again, welcome any corrections).

For me (and suspecting most anyone near the evolving edge) the Primary Mover and Power Source is going to be Renewable Electricity. The Ethanol are sort of just non-Oil options for the novelty and beyond the local grid small loads (eg. Farmall, and/or other old Tractor) that will be custom on-site rebuild with Ethanol being the intent from the start of the rebuild.

Here is John Deere's entre to the game. This allows a farm do its own fuel. On site. From its own surplus Corn. NO OIL.

 

[Phil Timmons]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

Good point. As cheap local source fuel it is good for cheap local source fuel (duh, huh?)

As a sales, barter, or product it can be a LOT more valuable than the money involved.

Point well taken.

 

[Phil Timmons]

Yeah I'm just starting to read more about it. There is a young lady doing a LOT of work on it and calling out the state, ORES, and the DEC for their antics.

Yeah, I have been tracking her doings for a year or so. The small local aspects of things she represents are interesting -- some of the Solar stuff is little "out there."

But the real battle ahead I can see coming is not about energy this or that, but rather Humans v. Corporations. I would suspect she represents some of the Human side of the game board.