Copy Ethanol: Fire Up The Xerox, It's Party Time
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.15.08
JUON has developed CopyEthanol, a generator that makes ethanol from your leftover and used copier paper. "CopyEthanol produces zero CO2 emissions and is gentle on the environment. In addition, plant derived ethanol is not converted into CO2 emission equivalents. Using CopyEthanol is easy. You merely insert shredded paper into the machine, turn on the switch, insert some more paper into the tank, and then let it sit for three days, during which time a fermentation solution is made. Ethanol is produced by distilling this fermentation solution at the end of the three day period."
Imagine, you dump all your waste paper into it during the week and then its Absolut party time Friday at 5. Or you could be practical and put it in your car. ::Diginfo
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I've heard a few times that shredded paper is hard to recycle because of its short fibers. Imagine having a bin for small pieces of paper and a bin for larger ones. The larger get recycled and the smaller gets turned into ethanol. Now there's a great environmental idea.
It's illegal to operate a still without a license in the US, so this is not feasible as a small scale application. You will need a lot of energy for the distillation and I doubt that it is self sustainable. Looks like vaporware to me.
LA: actually it is a new definition of vaporware, given that it is a still.
Where does the bleach go?
And that's barely a feasible idea!
If you think this is barely feasible "ethanol in 3 days"
I was told yesterday that if you put your household organic waste in a plastic tub outside in your garden, a year later you will have a load of useable compost, do these people think we are daft?
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Q. Is making ethanol legal?
A. According to the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), it is perfectly legal to own and operate an ethanol still on your property, provided that you are using it ONLY to make fuel and you are not reselling it.
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I'd like to add that while plain brown paper composts OK, most commercial inked or coloured paper is toxic and should not be added to compost intended for food. The inks and dyes contain heavy metals that easily pass into the food, especially things like mushrooms.
I've often thought that production of ethanol from fermentation and distilation would be a net loss of energy, as it takes a lot of energy to heat the solution. If one could use a free energy source such as solar, wind, or water power it may be ok. The headlong rush to make and use ethanol as a fuel, or as a "gasoline streacher", sounds good on the surface, but I beleave that the whole thing needs to be looked at much more carefuly.
Again, where does the energy to distill the alcohol come from, and paper being cellulose must be broken down into complex hydrocarbons, starches, and eventualy sugars that yeast can digest and turn into ethanol. A very long and costly process. I hate to say this but in my oppinion this whole story sounds bogus. A better use of the BS that this article seems to be made of would better serve as fertilizer.