Ethanol Produced From Cheese

Hmmm, I don't think there's enough cheese waste to make this profitable..

Using Corn is definitly the way to go if you want to make ethanol..

Look, anything helps. And if it proves to be a cost-effective means of turning waste into usable fuel, we'd be foolish to not take advantage of it.

Actually, there simply isn't enough room in the US to produce enough ethanol from corn. Switchgrass is the next promising ethanol source but I believe we should get our ethanol from wherever we can, especially if it benefits or saves someone else money in the process.

This is going to be good for science major super-geeks: "The Best Food & Alcohol Combined!"

:D

Sounds great. For those who said it isn't worth it: well, if they're getting rid of waste AND making fuel, it's win-win.

The ones that say "this won't work" might regret it later. Amazing things have to start somewhere and when it gets big like many other things that were said to be "impractical or even impossible," the believers will have a much heftier wallet than those with pessimistic views.

anything that cuts back on waste, and creates a closed loop process with a renewable, clean fuel as a byproduct is good.

no, there is not enought cheese to create ethanol for our national demand. but if we apply this mindset to everything we do, then we get somewhere. close loop manufacturing with waste products converted to renewable fuels is what this country needs.

You can't hurt me, not with my cheese helmet!

there is no such thing as waste cheese!!!!

Wow. Someone comes up with a great idea and the first guy doesn't get it. It absolutely is profitable. It reduces cost to dispose of waste increasing profit. It gives you two sellable commodities. Cow feed and ethanol. The cow feed can be sold. The ethanol can be used on site to power the processing facility. . . saving money increasing profit. It's very very very short sighted to say it wouldn't work. And the added bonus is the environmental benefits too. Such as much less waste in the environment and less polution if the ethanol is burned for energy.

Considering that milk costs less than gas in many areas, I'd guess this has a fairly good chance of succeeding.

There's a company here in Ireland doing this already. It's a good idea.

However, the possble problem is that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, so if you go down the road of producing cheesy ethanol, you might be doing more harm than good.

So, using corn or sugar beet or whatever might be more useful.

Anyone know any more about this? How does it balance out, in terms of global warming effects?

Conor, any methane or CO2 coming from ethanol produced from cheese would be effectively carbon neutral from the atmosphere's point of view (unless lots of fossil fuel were used in the production of the cheese).

That's the advantage of biomass; to grow, it takes carbon from the atmosphere (directly or indirectly - plant, animals..), and when it is burned or when it decomposes, that carbon is released back into the atmosphere.

The problem with fossil fuels is that you are taking carbon that has been out of the atmosphere for millions and millions of years and putting it back (all at once).