Community thread

8 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 3:14 am | Permalink

    And now on the environmental front.

    The EAGLE published an interesting article, “Newton weighs an Ethanol Plant,” a few days ago on 6/12/07 by reporter, Bill Wilson.

    Did anyone else notice the comment by an executive with ICM, a leading ethanol plant designer and builder with headquarters in Colwich, Kansas?

    ICM’s John Caffrey reportedly said, “Tentative plans call for a green plant, potentially using EFFLUENT from the city of Newton’s wastewater treatment plant (sewage treatment plant) to offset daily 300,000 gallon water demands …” He also said the new ethanol plant would use “steam generated by Harvey County’s waste to energy trash system.”

    Now this is the kind of good news we need to hear and EAGLE editors and writers, please followup with additional information on this subject.

    If this plan is actually put into effect, it would offer an excellent alternative to taking massive amounts of water needed from our Kansas underground Ogallala aquifers which, of course and unfortunately, are being drawn down for many ethanol, power plant, agricultural uses.

    This might solve some of the objections to building ethanol plants in Kansas.

    My question is does the volume of Newton sewage effluent actually equal or surpass the ethanol plant requirement. And will Harvey County’s “waste to energy” trash program provide a significant amount of power for the ethanol plant.

    What’s that saying: “the devil is in the details.”

  2. Ben
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 8:55 am | Permalink

    ICM is the leader in this technology; they are also looking at ‘biomass’ – that can be trash. So, integrating the entire Newton complex can make a whole lot of sense. Water from effluent. Power from WTE an a part of the waste stream. Ethanol from another part of the watse stream. And, of course, recycling the recyclable part of the waste stream.

  3. Joe Williams
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 1:15 pm | Permalink

    That is if Ethanol is still a viable fuel for consumption. Right not it is not, if you take away the tax subsidies given to this industry, plus the net-energy loss to produce ethanol and the many cons against ethanol.

    People may go broke on ethanol as they did in the 70’s. You have to remember, this was all done back then, this isn’t anything new.

  4. snarky
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 2:21 pm | Permalink

    There’s no net-energy loss in producing ethanol. That’s a BS claim floated by an anti-ethanol faction.

    But it really isn’t very efficient to mass-produce, and it’s not as useful as gasoline. Nor can we produce enough of it with today’s technology to do more than fill some gaps in energy production. If the scientists ever get cellulovisc ethanol tech worked out, THEN we’ve got something. Fuel that can be produced cheaply from ANY plant material, not just from grain we need for eating. Kudzu, anyone?

    We need more nuke plants.

  5. Ben
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 2:29 pm | Permalink

    Joe! Read my words about bio-mass. That dramatically improves the net energy balance in favor of ethanol. As snarky says – even Kudzu!

  6. Joe Williams
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 2:33 pm | Permalink

    But that would require heavy research into enzymes that can breakdown bio-mass into ethanol.

    You have to remember, that current ethanol production is largely feed on Federal Subsidized crops. That is what farmers grow. They will not grow switch grass unless it’s subsidize by the government.

    And Snarky! I’m sorry! But today’s ethanol production is a net-energy loss. There is hundreds of reports that show this. Show me one that doesn’t show it’s a net-energy loss.

  7. Ben
    Posted June 15, 2007 at 2:41 pm | Permalink

    Joe! That is why the fact that it is KS-based ICM doing it is so promising. They are the leaders in such research; they are doing that heavy research. That is also why I have recommended sites adjacent to the Harvey County trash facility and out trash facility.

  8. leave my body alone
    Posted June 17, 2007 at 9:31 pm | Permalink

    One of the prosecutors in the Jo Co DA office is speaking out. I heard her last night. She left and is working for Morrison in Topeka now. She said Phill is ruining the DA’s office. She told many horror stories. A murderer was up for parole on Monday and no one from the DA’s office was there to represent the people of Johnson County. The attorney who should have been there was playing golf. She told of another case where the defendant was charged with 5 felonies and had no attorney (she called this a no brainer win) and Kline’s people let him plea down to a misdemeanor and time served. And Kline is calling that a win.

    The only case he has won was that murder trial last week where the defendant’s mother testified against him. DUIs are being thrown out because evidence is lost. Criminal defense attorneys are lining up to get easy wins since the prosecutors are so incompetent. 20 of 32 attorneys in the DA’s office have left since January, some fired and some quit.

    She said someone needs to file a FOIA and find out how much restitution has been collected and paid since January in Johnson County.

    Here’s the best part: Phill is working 6 to 8 hours a week – for $143K a year.