‘Alcohol Can Be A Gas!’
‘ Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century’
 Alcohol Can Be A Gas! by author and permaculturist Dave Blume clearly explains the history, politics, ecology, economics, and potential future of ethanol as a fuel. It deconstructs many of the current myths decrying ethanol and extensively describes alternate feedstocks that would provide plentiful fuel without adversely affecting the world’s food supply. In layman’s terms, Alcohol Can Be A Gas! describes how to make and use ethanol as a fuel while doing so in an environmentally and economically sensible manner. The brilliance of Alcohol Can Be A Gas! owes itself to how permaculture principles have been embedded into the heart of Blume’s integrated ethanol/agriculture model even to its smallest technical details. By rooting ethanol production in permaculture principles, the combined agricultural and production processes Blume describes create an energy positive situation that is also environmentally regenerative. Read the outstanding Reviews on Alcohol Can Be a Gas!.
Click Here to buy Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
Alcohol Can Be A Gas! describes:
- A fossil fuel petroleum replacement that is energy positive and at the same time can sequester atmospheric carbon.
- A fuel alternative that could reverse and ultimately eliminate world-wide dependence on Mid-Eastern and other oil reserves.
- A vehicle for creating vibrant, healthy, rural economies by eliminating foreign fuel purchases, reducing monies paid to multi-national corporations for agricultural inputs, and by creating many value added by-products that are more profitable for the farmer than simply selling crops to processors
- An integrated agriculture/biofuel production model that does not require choosing between food and fuel.
- An optimally sized ethanol plant in the less than 5 million gallon per year range which allows farmers adjacent to the plant to benefit from the soil and yield enhancing byproducts, in a manner not realistically achievable with the 100 million gallon per year plants currently being built and operated. Smaller scale plants will be both ecologically balanced and more profitable in the long run due to the value added by-products that in some cases may be more valuable than the ethanol itself.
- A sensible, plentiful, and environmentally benign answer to the consequences of Peak Oil.
- An intelligent approach to utilizing earth’s renewable natural resources to meet our energy and food needs.
- A community building model that fosters self-reliant local economies, builds healthy ecosystems, and revitalizes the family farm.
- How ethanol can eliminate virtually all air pollution from vehicles, and how, if designed properly, it can save the family farm while building soil fertility
Until now, it has been very difficult for farmers, contractors, alternative energy aficionados, those concerned about Peak Oil, and small-scale entrepreneurs to obtain good, accurate information on producing alcohol, or on converting vehicles to run on the fuel. With all the conflicting news stories about ethanol, the public finds it difficult to sort fact from fiction. This text, which has been reviewed by scientists around the world, seeks to be the definitive reference work on the subject.
David Blume is an ecological biologist who first began teaching others to produce and use alcohol in the late 1970s, while working at Mother Earth News Eco Village and Research Center. An early version of the book was written in 1983, to accompany the ten-part PBS television series Alcohol As Fuel, which Blume hosted. That version was never printed, due to conflict between PBS and its sponsors. The 2007 edition is completely rewritten; it is based on four years of full-time research, and visits to alcohol production sites in the U.S. and Brazil, by Blume and his team. It retains the original foreword by R. Buckminster Fuller.
Alcohol Can Be A Gas! contains 596 8-1/2” by 11” pages, with 514 charts, photos, and illustrations to reinforce the information-dense text. The book is geared for the nonscientific reader, but its 473 endnotes provide the technical foundation behind the accessible prose. A 700-word glossary and a 6300- entry index extend the book’s usefulness.
Alcohol Can Be A Gas! is being promoted via a nationwide media campaign as well as via regional workshops that bring together the important constituencies of farmers, contractors, environmentalists, activist/organizers, and fuel users to implement the components of the plan outlined in the book. The workshops will promote creation of driver owned alcohol distribution stations that can be quickly organized with reliance on mechanics primed to do alcohol conversions on existing vehicles. The workshops will also describe integrated alcohol/food production businesses on farms using a wide variety of energy crops or urban/rural waste.
Alcohol Can Be A Gas! provides the inspiration and know how - what is needed next is the foresight and courage to manifest the fundamental shift in agricultural practice and energy policy described therein. The CSC is promoting Dave's workshops to help usher in this shift.
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