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lunarhighway 06-23-2009 12:17 PM

lawn mower fuel from grass?
 
would it be possible to make ethanol from grass?

when i bought my house it came with a nice electric lawnmower, wich unfortunately since we increased the size of our lawn, is no longer big enough. My still had a rusty but trusty petrol powered lawnmower they no longer used wich they gave to me... fired up right away and mows great.

unfortunately it's not all that clean than the electric one... however after mowing i noticed i had produced a quite respectable pile of biomass...

so now i wonder would it be possible to distill some sort of fuel from it for the mower....

any ideas on how to pull this off?

NeilBlanchard 06-23-2009 12:54 PM

Hi,

Have you considered a push reel mower?

Amazon.com: Scotts 2000-20 20-Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower: Home Improvement

fultondp 06-23-2009 01:24 PM

Don't distill, digest
 
Ethanol from grass is difficult, it takes expensive enzymes to get the cellulose to break down. Yeasts are like kids, they like simple sugers, not locked up inside vegetables.

It would be easier to make biogas with a digester. Biogas is a mix of methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. It comes from bacterial composting, not from fermenting with yeast, like ethanol.

It works better if the grass first goes through a sheep, chicken, goat, or cow to get the plant breakdown process going. It is pretty easy to convert an engine to run on biogas, but your horsepower rating will likely drop by about 1/4.

Mother Earth Magazine has some online articles about it. Just search the archive. Here is a link to some books that can also get you started:

KP

notshiftgood2 01-06-2011 06:19 PM

from grass IS possible.......
 
To get straight to the point, if one reads the means where one makes ethanol from biomass, including grass, one will unequivocally see they
want what appears to be PRACTICAL means of making it. INDEED, should you or anyone decide to get your grass, chop it up, PULVERIZE IT, in a blender. THEN, add a little more (beer) malt as directed, and just keep it ONLY under a biol for one hour. AS one just almost boils it, (or just less heat then boiling according to directions on malt can). Add YEAST, and ferment- NOW this is the part that until now people say is impractical...that is- the fermenting of the enzyme and yeast grass that was thoroughly pulverized in your blender will only ferment completely with VERY HOT TEMPERATURE for fermenting and very controlled!. Please do this in a labratory flask first with your grass as many sorts of grass are different. remember, pulverize in a blender, add regular beer making malt (with enzymes, of course), add a little more yeast then usual with making alchohol, and HEAT. The heat must be absolutly controlled as you experiment with your fermenting. Indeed it will make a large head at first, but for complete fermenting, you need add heat constantly. This heat you can get from the solar distilling ideas all over the internet and a thermomoter heat controll with a shutter openinging and closeing for your absolute temperature. this solar distilling is the part "they" consider impractical, yet it works and can be done with a cheapo temperature "shutter" opening and closeing devise for absolute controll. Best Wishes and Glory to God Almighty for what "they" consider impractical is practical...Also, I speak in luie of me driving a slow vehicle with slow stickers, The Box, part time jobs for many years and saing so.

rmay635703 01-06-2011 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notshiftgood2 (Post 213492)
To get straight to the point, if one reads the means where one makes ethanol from biomass, including grass, one will unequivocally see they
want what appears to be PRACTICAL means of making it. INDEED, should you or anyone decide to get your grass, chop it up, PULVERIZE IT, in a blender. THEN, add a little more (beer) malt as directed, and just keep it ONLY under a biol for one hour. AS one just almost boils it,

Also, I speak in luie of me driving a slow vehicle with slow stickers, The Box, part time jobs for many years and saing so.

My father drives a slow moving vehicle, that aside

Is it really practical to boil 2% alcohol beer into 92%+ alcohol needed for mowing? I would say MAYBE if you lived down south but up here I think the resources to make it exceed the gain, maybe I am wrong.

notshiftgood2 01-06-2011 08:31 PM

Practicality
 
Although it may take a lot of time to build a solar distiller and a little shutter to open and close a valve that makes it less HOT with a little eletric relay.... I am doing this anyway. I have had lots of success, TONS OF worthless things too whem making things from scratch, yet getting cheap alchohol from biomass would mean the price of sugar would not necessarily go higher with this fuel. Again, I'm only glad to keep some of the price of sugar down and use biomass (grass) for this alchohol fuel. Of course, in lieu of stickered vehicles bla bla bal hehehe.....PTL. (I have a horrible spelling phobia as well, sorry. :O))

JasonG 01-06-2011 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fultondp (Post 111727)
Ethanol from grass is difficult, it takes expensive enzymes to get the cellulose to break down. Yeasts are like kids, they like simple sugers, not locked up inside vegetables.

It would be easier to make biogas with a digester. Biogas is a mix of methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. It comes from bacterial composting, not from fermenting with yeast, like ethanol.

It works better if the grass first goes through a sheep, chicken, goat, or cow to get the plant breakdown process going. It is pretty easy to convert an engine to run on biogas, but your horsepower rating will likely drop by about 1/4.

Mother Earth Magazine has some online articles about it. Just search the archive. Here is a link to some books that can also get you started:

KP

You could also use any extra to heat/cook with/light your place.

I know a few farmers who use it to heat their cow/chicken barns in the winter.

solarguy 01-08-2011 12:29 PM

If you account for your energy inputs, it is unlikely that any homebrew cellulose to ethanol conversion protocol will give you an EROEI of better than 1:1, and most likely worse than 1:1.

Yes, some of the inputs could be solar, which helps, somewhat.

I will just say, having a degree in biology and chemistry, and growing up on a farm, and doing research and preparing grant applications to get free money from DOE for a solar driven vacuum assisted still to use on the farm,,,

you are pushing string uphill unless you are retired and you do this as a very time consuming hobby and you have a fair amount of money to get set up. Once you successfully make the ethanol, which is a challenge, you still have to get all the water out, which takes a huge amount of energy to run a still. Plus, ethanol and water together form something called an azeotrope, meaning, they cannot be fully separated by simple distillation. You have to use "molecular sieve" technology to get the last 10% of water out of the mix. Again, more energy and more money.

If you look at all the inputs, and compare that to the output (fuel grade ethanol), cellulose to ethanol very extremely challenging.

Good luck,

troy

The Rooster 01-08-2011 01:09 PM

Get rid of the lawn?

Just sounds way easier and more eco-friendly, assuming eco-friendlieness is your bag.

I got rid of my lawn because I hate mowing...laziness is my bag.

Frank Lee 01-08-2011 02:08 PM

^Beat me to it. My lawn used to be bigger, then I thought why not let some of it go au naturale. The front yard is still groomed but out back many new trees are coming in all by themselves. The best part is less mowing.

The Rooster 01-08-2011 02:13 PM

I should admit it's easy for me to have no lawn, I live on half an acre in the mountains, and so do all my neighbors. A lawn just looks out of place here.

Ryland 01-08-2011 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunarhighway (Post 111713)
when i bought my house it came with a nice electric lawnmower, which unfortunately since we increased the size of our lawn, is no longer big enough.

I don't fallow why an electric lawn mower would not work for your lawn any more, it sounds like you already have your solution, take the money you would spend on building a grass to fuel system and use that money to improve your electric mower and buy solar panels to charge it with, it will be less over all work, quieter and take up less space.

The Rooster 01-08-2011 05:36 PM

Or even easier, buy a 2nd electric mower so when the first one dies, you grab the second and finish the job.

sid 01-08-2011 10:48 PM

I also got rid of all my grass. Mostly food producing or native plants now, with mulch paths around them.

Ryland 01-09-2011 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rooster (Post 213923)
Or even easier, buy a 2nd electric mower so when the first one dies, you grab the second and finish the job.

The electric mower I have has two battery packs, one pack will mow my entire yard, but it's nice to have the back up battery so I don't have to stop mowing or risk running my pack to far down and damaging it.

gone-ot 01-09-2011 12:00 PM

...POSSIBLE is far different from PRACTICAL...and, im-practical is when:

(a) it takes more energy to create the alcohol than it produces; while,

(b) it co$ts more to make the alcohol than it can be sold for.

notshiftgood2 01-12-2011 11:43 AM

a tube quck lime
 
Man, guys and women, it is SO easy to get ya one of those new FRESNEL LENSES and heat ya up some hydrated lime (Home Depot or any Hardware store...be sure it is practicaly pure hydrted lime 500 C or a little better) and just slap ya some of that quick lime (heated hydrated lime) into a tube with corks at both ends for connections to your stock and distiller. Before ya do your distilling. The stuff comes out the fermented stock, into the tube part with with the hydrated lime (quick lime) and into the distiller. Presto! 200 proof. Er...a...be careful and obey the laws with some poison inside the 200 proof. praise God Almigty for Fresnel Lenses and slow stickered vehicles, part time boss for more 200 proof

gone-ot 01-12-2011 05:02 PM

...what's grass...the stuff they smoked back in the '70's (wink,wink)?

...actually, here in the desert, I "grow" rocks and sand...just plant and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait.

rmarotta 01-26-2011 06:17 AM

Forget about drying that alcohol for a lawnmower....
The small engine on it can be tuned to run on as little as 160 proof. (yes, 80% alcohol /20% water)
No need to mix it with gasoline, which would be the only reason for dehydrating it.

jonathan150cc 01-26-2011 03:11 PM

I would second the motion that you should just keep using the electric. Use the piles of dead grass for what God designed them for....free fertilizer!

Also, if you really want to get the job done faster, a well maintained and operating gas mower is faster and cuts better.

I went the reel mower route for 2 years. It is a very pleasant way to to cut the grass (you can even go barefoot) and is 100% free of any negative ecological byproducts. However, you have to mow twice per week, and it takes 3 hours each time.... and I only have a 1 acre lot. For me, it just makes more sense to do it right and do it fast using the good ole Briggs & Stratton 3.5HP lawnmower form 1994.

Phantom 01-26-2011 05:46 PM

Unless you really want to make alcohol find out what voltage the mower runs on and get a small 2nd battery. Then you can get some extra cable and a switch mount the 2nd battery run the cables to the switch then back to the original power connection. You now have a reserve battery that is there when you need it just by flipping a switch.

Green_Primus 01-30-2011 04:10 AM

Any thoughts on using the grass clippings in a gasifier verses a distillery? I've seen cars that run off of a gasifier, now that was charcoal or wood (biomass) But would grass be enough fuel to gasify and run a Mower motor? Better yet could a gasifier be minimized enough to fit on a mower?

hanrysmith 02-14-2018 12:54 PM

I think this is a matter of convenience and hitching, if the first lawnmower was from EGO, then the likelihood that you will use this brand is even higher, given that in fact, all these brands are not so different, everyone has Both successful and unsuccessful models.

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr 02-15-2018 04:08 PM

Get a pet rabbit, feed it that grass, and use a biodigester to process its excrements into biogas and fertilizer. Maybe you could take a look at those "gas bag" systems that were used there in Europe and in China with coal gas as an alternate fuel when gasoline had been rationed during WW2.

Grant-53 02-16-2018 03:34 PM

Back up and consider the ecology of ground cover. What gases are given off by decaying plants? How best to use the heat of decomposition? My yard is small enough that an electric mower that mulches is satisfactory. Consider running a bio-diesel commercial mower if you have a large area. I am looking at what plants in an expanded garden might be better.

freebeard 02-17-2018 02:09 PM

Quote:

would it be possible to make ethanol from grass?

when i bought my house it came with a nice electric lawnmower, wich unfortunately since we increased the size of our lawn, is no longer big enough.
You could, the question is whether you should. That hinges on how big the lawn actually is (acres? hectares?) and why the electric mower is no longer big enough.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...314-276566.jpg

I'm hoping it just needs a longer extension cord. No? deck width? Battery capacity?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oBZGzPNQoE

RedDevil 02-17-2018 02:36 PM

It is not a new idea; traditionally, the seeds of grass like barley are malted and used to make beer. In that sense, my pusher mower has run on fermented grass more or less successfully; only the grass used to power the mower did not come from my own lawn but the fridge.

I admire the idea, but it cannot be worth the cost or effort. It would be so much easier to just buy fuel or an extension cord.
In my case, if I were fed my own grass I might well refuse to push my pusher mower over the lawn.

But that's me. Not everybody would turn down a batch of fresh grass.
Here's another approach to the problem.
http://www.pestdetective.org.nz/asse...-3-500x500.jpg
Feed your mower grass directly - it mows by getting fed.
Free fertilizer to boot.

freebeard 02-17-2018 04:35 PM

Two words: q=switchgrass%20fuel

rnjason 06-18-2018 11:57 AM

Nice information and insights. I don't have a lawn though.

freebeard 06-18-2018 01:38 PM

Thanks for sharing. Take what you need and leave the rest.


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