Renewables, Revitalization, and Restoration
Every plant has cell tissues that contain sugars. Getting
those sugars to the place where they ferment and produce ethanol
requires two extra processes than grain ethanol. Those two
processes exist due to a plant’s tough exterior and a mixture
of sugars that do not ferment. Both of these characteristics
will impede the manufacture of ethanol if ignored.
Cellulosic Ethanol, as this process is called, produces approximately
38.13% less product than its grain counterpart. Corn
Ethanol produces around 120 gallons of fuel for an equivalent ton
of material that Cellulosic Ethanol would churn out merely 75. That
is because the sugars exist in only about 1/3 of the plant fiber,
and are typically discarded.
Increases in production can be fostered through advances in technology
systems, sugar transit, quality of yeast, operations stratagem,
and microbial participation. Cellulosic Ethanol needed
improvement in just one area: utilization of the entire cell tissue. The
potential in Cellulosic Ethanol is the conversion of all the cell
tissue into sugars.
Most ethanol inventions focus on one particular improvement. We
started with a purely organic process for breaking down the plant
exterior, called an exoskeleton, in a process called hydrolysis. This
discovery led to other advances, where the organic environment
allowed for organic by-products and a combined output of around
325 gallons of ethanol.
We did not do this because it is easy, rather because it is the
level of responsibility that the next generation requires of its
leaders. For, it is not sufficient to promote conservation
programs, when are a nation of extravagant consumers. It
is not sufficient to decry the need to become carbon neutral, when
our trading partners outsource to those who abuse their carbon
footprint. It is not sufficient to use renewable energy,
when our industry pollutes with disposable energy. It
is not sufficient to revitalize communities after the landfills
are gone, when communities must destroy ecologies in the process. For
Fuel Freedom, along with its subsidiaries and partners, actively
seeks to implement carbon-negative and accelerating-energy technologies.
We do not follow industry recommendations; we pioneer the next-generation
of standards.
When New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, there was a chain
reaction that caused America to go into even a greater oil supply
crisis. Originally, refineries had been placed regionally
to service vast amounts of consumers and industry. Due
to the short supply of oil locally, it is not the oil but it’s
the time it takes to refine the oil that’s the problem. Many
regions in the Southern states were not stocked with sufficient
fuel following the disaster leaving a logistical nightmare. Gasoline
prices then skyrocketed all over the country because there was
no local fuel source.
When Corn became king of ethanol production in the U.S., it peaked
early. Economists predicted Corn Ethanol would have
an economic threshold of 15% of our nation’s fuel demand. Corn
Ethanol is not eco-friendly because it is a fossil-fuel equipment
intensive crop in terms of seeding, cultivating, and harvesting. For
that reason, Corn Ethanol is only profitable in large quantities
together with its grain byproducts. As a result, rising
grain prices affected beef, dairy, and flour in several related
markets in 2007. The American dilemma is finding a
form of Ethanol that is both economic and eco-friendly.
When Auto manufacturers in Detroit started probing into producing
alternative fuel vehicles back in 1995, they were not aware of
the pending corn boondoggle. Over 35 models of flex-fuel
vehicles were experimented on, and over half of those production
lines were distributed throughout the Midwest. Initially,
850 gas stations across 13 states followed suit, providing ethanol
fuel pumps close to America’s heartland. Flex-fuel
vehicles can run on any type of ethanol or gasoline, but our nation’s
infrastructure needs a fuel that is commercially available nationwide.
And therefore, America has need of a decentralized fuel distribution
network. Cellulosic Ethanol can be made from most any organic
substance, such as trash. Trash is more than a cropless
source of organics, it is environmentally sound to remove it for
the production of alternative fuel. Since trash is
expensive to transport, most communities have landfills within
a day’s travel. It makes sense to mine ethanol
where the landfills are and support the local economy.
With that, our vision is to use all of the renewable energy and
green ecologies of trash mining and take none of the centralized
and limited economics of corn.
We recognize the need for cities to generate revenue within the
community for sustained growth and economic development. Local
revenue streams usually are in a constant flux as a city ages and
new business centers emerge, forcing the community to devote considerable
resources to revitalization to entice business back. In
major metropolitan areas, that inner city dynamic can be a different
tax base and jurisdiction, forcing cities to compete for revenue. Cities
struggle to recover property tax revenues and attempt to bolster
spending following unforeseeable calamities, economic conditions,
or terror plots. America has stood strong in the face
of Tech Stocks, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Southwest Wildfires, and
the Housing Bubble in recent years. Local communities
desire to bring in companies that contribute to their economic
security.
When we say we support the local community, we stand by our dedication. We
start with hiring locally. Our company policy is to
search for qualified local residents within the greater metropolitan
area in the vicinity of the Ethanol Mill to fill open positions
there. We start with a core target location, and expand
our search to concentric areas of proximity until the need is met. The
benefits of such a policy extend beyond pure demographics. It
may be obvious how shorter commute time promotes support of local
area business, but other externalities such as indirect reduction
of vehicle collisions as a result of the traffic reduction also
affect the local economy.
For Fuel Freedom seeks diversity by finding the best representative
group. We hire with demographics in mind, and create
an internal culture that is not unlike the surrounding community. For
example, our Board of Directors at the time of founding began with ½ Women
and ¼ Latinos. Now should a landfill, material
recycling facility, or other waste collection center serve more
than one community, we will strive to find a representative culture
of those communities.
We work with cities to promote a greater sense of community and
belonging by involving their citizenry. For example,
we will bring mentoring to any employee that desires advancement. By
assigning a mentor, the employee benefits from a friendlier work
environment, the company benefits from a better employee, and the
community benefits from the mobility. We also encourage
employees to participate in local ecological and humanitarian efforts
in some form. We offer employees automatic charitable
distribution with preference to programs for the Homeless, Single
Parents, Adoption, and Widows. For security purposes,
we specifically exclude organizations that seek gain or harm as
a means of ascension, purification, or pleasure.
When we hire locally, we advertise with the local community in
mind. We make every attempt to consult with local planners
prior to advertising and include slogans and images that is in
keeping with the local culture and aspirations. By
doing so, the community is served by self-promotion and continuity.
The community is the basic building block of our nation. Our
nation was founded upon principles that out of a sense of community
emerges the family, the economics, the electorate, the church,
the jury, the militia. As our economics and demographics
evolve, a sense of what is a community has changed significantly. In
many large cities across the nation, there are homeowners who are
not familiar with their neighbors, there are tenants who do not
associate with others in their apartment, and co-workers who simply
mind their own business. Now, in some places that is
good policy simply because specific conditions do not permit the
risk of interaction on that level. However, this sense
of minimal involvement has begun to infiltrate smaller cities and
rural communities to the point we have begun to lose our collective
identity amidst the drudges of everyday living.
When we say we participate in shaping the local community, we
mean that we make an effort to resist the external pressures that
cause isolation. We start by avoiding outsourcing to
the greatest extent possible. Although certain technical
components cannot be manufactured locally, we do design the Ethanol
Mill locally. We accomplish this by working with civic
leaders and planners to accommodate the needs of their specific
community. We maintain careful adherence to local regulation
and permitting as well as keep in mind local stigmas that often
are not mandated. From details concerning eco-friendly
design to disposal traffic requirements, each phase of construction
is designed uniquely to fit the community in which the unit will
be placed. Although the overall design of an Ethanol
distillery is standard and many of our environmental processes
streamlined, the size of the Ethanol Mill is custom design-built
to match the logistics and population particulars of the landfill
and its customers.
We are committed to producing locally. That means
we will seek out local funding and establish our facilities in
reasonable proximity to the landfill that serves the community
associated with it. We will go to great lengths to
preserve the right of the community to not have to pay landfill
closure fees for the amount of organics diverted to our process. We
will also stake our preference for locally produced organic solid
waste when possible. And, we will work with local agencies
to remove the liquefied organics that are often the source of toxic
plumes trough our recycling mining techniques.
By producing locally, we maintain camaraderie with the community. For
it is not merely working with the community when we set up our
plant, but it is our continued presence that makes the difference. That
means we are reducing air pollutants, preventing well-water effluents,
preserving local habitats, creating jobs, sustaining local economies,
and making a difference in the lives of local citizens.
We do not stop there when shaping the community. Fuel
for Freedom contributes to the Chamber of Commerce and other local
organizations. We encourage our employees to maintain
their relationship with the community through their local school
districts, market nights, food banks, environmental awareness,
domestic safety workshops, and church events when they aide the
community. Our presence means restoration of the community,
return of the local wealth, and revitalization of the city.
The lifeblood of any community is the city in which it is founded
upon. In metropolitan areas, most cities are interconnected
to the greater community through a network of highways, supply
networks, and forms of collaboration. Oftentimes these
greater communities consist of bedroom communities, commuter hubs,
and work centers. When smaller cities lack infrastructure,
its citizens must look outside its borders to find supplies. This
interconnectivity between cities worked well when communities found
chains of stores to carry hard-to-stock items. Then
when warehouse-style markets started carrying non-luxury items
at discount prices, the result strained local businesses. There
must be a mechanism to restore local revenues.
We believe in supplying the community where we produce. Cities
often look for means of generating additional revenues and ways
to reduce spending. One program we support is combining
the funding of the Ethanol Mill with the purchase of a modest amount
of flex-fuel vehicles for use by city personnel. Fleets
can be purchased through bond issue or other civic funding method. Either
way, this enables the city to purchase our fuel at a discount,
thereby saving thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs. When
partnering with city municipalities, cities also can make money
off of the sale of the fuel sold within the greater community.
Local supply of alternative fuel is crucial during times of economic
crisis. Our nation’s key commodity is petroleum,
but we are no longer the major suppliers of our own economy. Although
it is true that most of our oil comes from Canada, its price structure
is based on Middle East production. In addition, our
nation’s refineries are regional and are often affected by
local catastrophes. America’s economic security
depends on both our ability to decentralize our fuel supply and
to reduce reliance on foreign oil.
Distributing locally means providing the greater community with
the fuel created from its own backyard. Infrastructure
is typically not an issue, because ethanol can be used as a gasoline
additive or sold separately. There are thousands of
fuel pumps nationwide that are dedicated to ethanol according to
the Department of Energy who keeps track of alternative fuel suppliers. When
there is insufficient local infrastructure for distribution, For
Fuel Freedom’s assessment of the existing demand as well as the
potential for increased use will be used to create awareness and
change. |
