Today after the Service Learning Committee meeting I talked for a while with Gwen Hallsmith, the Montpelier City Planning Director about my ideas around local biofuel production. She said two things:
1. One reason to not love biofuel is that the biggest issue with biofuel is water and food. Apparently it takes an enormous amount of water to create biofuel and clean freshwater is a bigger issue for humanity than transportation. The question comes down to, "Who gets the food and water, the people or the cars?"
2. Even so, she liked my idea, and she recommended a pyrolysis-type biofuel producer called Eprida. It sounds pretty much too good to be true (which, we all know, probably means it is), but it's worth investigating. As far as I understand it pyrolysis is a kind of slow burn, letting (in this case) organic material decompose in the absence of oxygen, which leaves some kind of fuel, and a byproduct: char, something like charcoal. Only this stuff enhances carbon sequestration and can be used like a fertilizer. I know - too good to be true, saves gasoline burning AND takes CO2 out of the air. They have short flash video explaining the process, but somehow I feel like that's being generous. I came away from it feeling like I'd just watched a Dharma Initiative video on LOST. It may be legit, but not being a chemist, I'll need to do some further research.
Anyway it was encouraging to hear positive feedback from her about this idea. We'll see how far we get with it.
I think Gwen may be the archetype Eco-Maven.
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