Making Gas in Salmon for Salmon Group
Cal Leman, Charlie Thornton, and Willie Mundy are developing the idea.
We submitted an SBIR grant to USDA and and do not have any help now to submit an NSF, which is due on December 3,to help get started.
The tax exempt foundation, Voting People Helping People, or a local business may qualify for a grant.
Here are some facts about producing ethanol. We can do this in Salmon. We don't have to buy gas from oil companies.
No ethanol
production in the United States uses Sugar Beets as a Feedstock.
The United Kingdom,
Columbia, Brazil, India, and China do produce ethanol from sugar
beets. Sugar beets
produce 552 gallons ethanol/acre and corn produces 439 gallons/acre.
Sugar beets grow as far north as North Dakota.
The USA is using corn because the corn growers can affect
legislation, not because corn is better than sugar beets or other
feed stocks for production of ethanol.
Sugar Beet Growing
Cost of growing one acre of sugar beets varies from about $600 to $1500 in the USA. Contracts by the sugar companies near Rupert are for $950-$1000 per acre. We use $900/acre for our analysis.
Production of
sugar beets in Idaho is for sugar.
The government will buy sugar if the price gets too low.
That inflates the cost of sugar beet sale at the field.
Our costs to grow sugar beets should be lower.
The profit for growing sugar beets in Salmon will go to the
farmers in Salmon. Sugar
companies should not affect the price of sugar beets in Salmon.
Production of sugar
beets varies from about 12 tons/acre to 40 tons/acre.
We use 25 tons/acre for
our analysis. Farmers in
Salmon may grow more than 25 tons per acre, by using better cultural
techniques.
Sugar content of
sugar beets varies from about 14% to 18%.
We use 15% for our
analysis. Farmers in
Salmon may produce more sugar beets with more sugar, because they
apply nitrogen fertilizer and water to maximize sugar in the beets
and the tons of beets per acre.
From 25 tons/acre
and 15% sugar, 613 gallons of ethanol is possible. At a cost of $900
per acre, this ethanol is $900/613 = $1.47 per gallon.
This is the growing cost per acre.
Farmers in Salmon may be
able to reduce this cost by 1/3 or more.
Ethanol Preparation
from these Sugar Beets
Assume the cost of
preparing the ethanol from the sugar beet is 1/3 the cost of the
ethanol. Estimates from
the literature show that ethanol production from sugar beets is
$2.36 per gallon. One
third of $2.36 is 78 cents.
With our preparation
of ethanol from sugar beets, we show that our preparation costs are
one-half of the 1/3 estimate.
Instead of 78 cents we need 39 cents per gallon to prepare
the ethanol. We can
produce ethanol for the growing cost, $1.47/gallon plus the
preparation cost of 39 cents/gallon for a final cost of $1.86 per
gallon. This is 50 cents
less than the $2.36 per gallon of other estimates.
Here is what we have learned as of June 10, 2009
When Salmon
farmers grow sugar beets, when Salmon workers convert the sugar in
those beets to ethanol, and when Salmon people burn that ethanol
(instead of the gasoline that they burn now), people in Salmon show
that Salmon people are self sufficient.
The people, the
talent, and the workmanship are in Salmon (and in most small towns)
to grow the sugar beets and to build the fermentation system and the
distiller to make ethanol.
The means to distribute the ethanol is in Salmon too.
Because all of
the operations occur in Salmon, money is transferred from the sale
of ethanol to the farmers and to the workers who prepare the ethanol
from the sugar beets.
The cost of the
agriculture and of the building and equipment to distill the ethanol
can be paid by the sale of the ethanol.
To start this
process, requires money, which none of us has.
The only grants we have found are cost share grants: 20% or
25% from the agency and 75% from the people.
If our startup costs are $30,000, to pay the farmers and to
set up the ethanol preparation building and equipment, we need
$22,500. If any of us
had that much money, we would not be thinking about making ethanol.
So if we stop here, we continue to send our money to oil
companies and get a little poorer each time we fill-up.
We asked Mike
Crapo for help. He answered:
Bob Ford, Office of Senator Crapo, 251 E. Front Street, Boise, Idaho
83714, (208) 334-1776 told us to get in touch with
Shannon Madsen with USDA in
Blackfoot at 208-785-5840 Ext. 118
or Brian Buch (Book) in Boise at
208-378-5623.
If this does not work for you or if you need additional information,
please let me know.
Brian Buch sent the documents that show the cost share of 25% and
75%. They will
guarantee the loan.
Maybe we have to talk with Mike Crapo or with his helpers to get
enough money to do this project.
Grants.gov has not been much help.