[Terrapreta] INTEREST IN TERRA PRETA GROUP

[Sean K. Barry]

Buenos Dias, Luis:

Sounds like a very cool job.  I hope you are successful in your endeavors with the sugar cane to ethanol plants.

I have some suggestions.  Get your sugar cane suppliers (growers) to make charcoal from the bagasse left on the cane fields, instead of burning it after harvest, and have them put that on there fields after each harvest.  Also make charcoal from the waste bagasse coming out of the ethanol plant processing.  Fermentation can only digest the hexose sugars in the cane.  All the pentose sugars in the cellulose, hemi-cellulose, and lignin are indigestible to brewers yeast (except perhaps by some esoteric and expensive, genetically modified E-coli enzymes, heh?), but it can be thermally decomposed and make good charcoal.  Plus you may find use for the excess exothermic heat and BTU containing off gases coming out of a pyrolysis reactor (distilling the beer in the ethanol plant, for instance).  You could sell the charcoal back to the cane farmers or give it to them in exchange for a lower price to supply you the cane.  They will benefit from not having to use as much fertilizer in the future crops.

If you get 50 hectares of forestland, then char most of the big trees (leave a few standing per hectare) and replant the land with a coppice tree crop (something fast growing that can break buds out of stumps when cut).  Then make charcoal out of the biomass growing there.  Put some of that charcoal back onto that plot every year or when the coppicing occurs.
Put the rest of that charcoal on cane fields.

What I am suggesting is that if charcoal in soil can increase the yield of biomass grown on that soil, then put charcoal onto energy crops.  If you can increase the biomass yield on land which is very local to your ethanol plants, then you can use less land, reduce transport distances, and have more biomass available to drive the plant processes.  As I understand the distillation process, heating the beer to drive out the water, "drying" the ethanol is the largest energy input required of a plant, right? Raw biomass material transportation cost comes in second?

If your goal is to make your plants "the most efficient design ever", then you need to harvest the most solar energy you can in the form of larger biomass yields from the least, most local acreage (hectare-age) that you can.  If you have a very local overabundance of biomass, then you can get more sugars and more energy for less cost.  I think building ethanol plants in areas where energy crops are grown in "Terra Preta" soils can definitely help reduce operating costs and raise the efficiency of those ethanol distilleries.

When the biomass yields increase on your land or the land of the farmers who supply your firm with sugar cane, then two huge things happen; 1) you will more efficiently harvest the solar energy which falls on that land, and 2) there will be higher uptake of CO2 by the biomass growing on that land.  With #2 comes the benefit that you can produce more charcoal
from the same land space and you can sequester more carbon from the atmosphere (or sequester it faster).  When the worldwide carbon trading scheme finally comes into place, then your firm will also have one of the most efficient carbon sequestering technologies well underhand, so you can compete vigorously in that market too.


Regards,

Sean K. Barry
Principal Engineer/Owner
Troposphere Energy, LLC
11170 142nd St. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 351-0711 (Home/Fax)
(651) 285-0904 (Cell)
sean.barry at juno.com<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: contacto at calipso.com.co<mailto:contacto at calipso.com.co> 
  To: Sean K. Barry<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> 
  Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:53 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] INTEREST IN TERRA PRETA GROUP


  Good morning, Sean:

  Many thanks for your message. Well, if you have room for another Luis friend, let's shake hands.

  Let me tell you a bit abour my present endeavours:

  It is just a big coincidence that I am also involved in the fields of alternative energies, conservation, efficiency and anything else that is related to it.  It seems that I was born with a nack for dealing with energy. I remember that at the age of eight years I tried to
  make a light bulb, which, of course, flashed only for a fraction of a second, putting an end to my fascination for bulbs.

  At the present time I am the Director of Technology and partner in a local company that is building a demonstration fuel ethanol distillery that will feature the most advanced fermentation technology available at the present time. We will display some other
  advanced means in sugar cane processing. I am shooting for the most energy-efficient distillery ever erected.  Our aim is to
  become distillery contractors to sell turn-key jobs and/or distillery equipment in Colombia and abroad. As you can gather, we
  have very ambitious goals.

  In another venture where I am also a partner, the objective is to practice avanced farming practices, covering from forestry to
  energy crops and food crops. My interest in Terra Preta springs from our interest to apply every possible strategy to make soils
  more productive using minimum resources where there will be no room for conventional agro-chemicals. We expect to secure a 
  farm of no less than 50 hectares to establish our research & demonstration facility.

  As you can see, each new day is flooded with new challenges.

  I visited your web site and discovered your big goals stated in a concise short paragraph.  I suppose you are in tune with
  Tom Bearden, Nikolas Tesla, Broce Perrault and other investigators of the kind, who affirm that there is available energy from 
  the vacuum. Another coincidence.....

  Well, Sean, I will be pleased to share our experiences with you and to try building a lasting friendship. In the meantime, I beg to remain, with warmest regards,

  Luis
    





    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Sean K. Barry<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> 
    To: contacto at calipso.com.co<mailto:contacto at calipso.com.co> 
    Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 7:14 PM
    Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] INTEREST IN TERRA PRETA GROUP


    Hi Luis,

    I am an entrepreneur.  I am trying to develop a business in the field of renewable energy.  I have worked as a professional engineer (software engineering) for someone else for too many years.  Now I want to have my own company and do what I have always wanted to do.  I started out my venture by providing engineering services, writing control firmware for a company which makes DC to AC power inverters and AC to DC battery chargers.  This spring I hope to be making charcoal and selling for use in "Terra Preta" research.  I have many other ideas about harvesting renewable energy resources that I would also like to try.

    Please take a look at my very small (soon to be expanding) (micro)website page at 

    http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/partner?cid=4765<http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/partner?cid=4765>

    My friend from the past, Luis Campoverde, and I worked together on a vineyard in Paso Robles, California.  He was from Mexico and I was the son-in-law of the vineyard owner.  He had a small family, played soccer, and taught me a lot about vineyard operations.  He taught me a little Spanish and was very kind and patient with me, listening to me speak only to him in English.  He was very funny and we were fast friends because we worked together all day, everyday, for the time I was there.  I really liked working on the vineyard, but it turned out to be too much family for me to want to stay.  The nicest way to put it was that I really liked being a vineyard manager and the Mexican laborer friends I met there, but my father-in-law is a miserable, lying, stupid, micro-managing, controlling, son-of-a-bitch who I wanted to kill, so I left there before my children's father was put into prison for capital murder.  Luis knew I had to leave and why.  He stayed (he had no choice) and was later fired from his job.  He worked hard and I miss him.

    Regards,

    SKB
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