The hearing was held as air-quality regulators are considering restricting, and in some cases banning, diesel fuel because of its cancer-causing potential. In Washington, ethanol is being touted as a strong contender because of a powerful Midwest lobby representing growers of corn, which can produce the fuel, said Roberta Nichols, a retired alternative fuels consultant at Ford Motor Co. who is a part-time professor at UC Riverside. But, Nichols said, methanol is cheaper to produce while having the same power and efficiency as ethanol.

Manure handling issues are a concern for Northern San Joaquin Valley dairymen, as well. As the valley's dairy continue to expand, regulatory agencies are taking a closer look at the impact that these additional cows are having on groundwater quality. A handful of valley dairymen have been fined for mishandling manure, and one Oakdale dairyman was sentenced to jail for allowing his cow manure to contaminate a waterway. Stanislaus and Merced are among the state's top five dairy counties, and both have seen their herds increase in recent years as China Basin dairies have moved into the region.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to Biomass Energy. Biomass can be converted to energy by three conversion processes:

1. Combustion
2. Dry Chemical Processes
3. Aqueous Processes

      Since organic matter can be converted to energy in various ways, the conversion process is generally chosen by determining what type of end product is desired. Another factor which is important in determining which process is employed is the water content of the organic matter.

Combustion:
As biomass fuels are carbonaceous materials, derived from plants and animals, these materials can be oxidized to heat, light, carbon dioxide, and water. This process is commonly known as burning. The combustion process is often employed in electrical generation. The heat produced during combustion can be used to boil water resulting in high pressure steam. This high pressure steam then impinges on the blades of a turbine producing rotational mechanical energy. As the turbine generator shaft rotates, mechanical energy is then converted to electrical energy by the means of electromagnetic induction.

Dry Chemical Processes:
Thermochemical reactions in which biomass is heated inside a reactor where there is an absence of oxygen or where limited quantities of oxygen are present. The resultant gasses produced by the thermochemical reactions can include methane, methanol, and ammonia. These products can be used as chemical feedstocks or they can be used as a fuel for energy production.

Types of Dry Chemical Processes Are:

Pyrolysis: a process in which organic matter is distilled in the absence of oxygen to yield a variety of energy rich products. As a result of pyrolysis, oils / gasses and char are produced.

Gasification: a process in which organic matter is converted into a gaseous energy carrier by means of partial oxidation at elevated temperatures. As a result of gasification methanol or ammonia are produced.

Hydrogasification: a process where dry cattle manure and cellulosic substances are reacted with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures. As a result of hydrogasification methane and ethane are produced.

Aqueous Processes:
Biologically-mediated aqueous reactions (in most cases) in which organic matter is broken down and / or transformed. Since the water content of organic matter can be substantial, aqueous processing is used when the energy required for drying the material would be inordinately large as compared to the energy content of the product formed.

Types of Aqueous Processes Are:

Chemical Reduction: a reaction where electrons are gained (or the chemical addition of hydrogen takes place) by purely chemical and physical means. Chemical reduction is used to yield fuel oil or natural gas substitutes.

Alcoholic Fermentation: a type of metabolism (transformations by which energy and matter are made available for uses by an organism) in which organic substances are degraded to provide chemical energy as ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate -- a chemical compound which stores large amounts of energy for very short periods of time). Alcoholic fermentation does not require chemical oxygen. Fermentation is a biologically-mediated reaction performed by certain yeasts, bacteria, and fungi. An important example of the alcoholic fermentation process is the production of ethanol. In such an aqueous process, a six-carbon sugar (glucose) is degraded to pyruvic acid by the process of glycolysis (a sequence of reactions present in all living cells in which glucose is converted to two molecules of a 3-carbon sugar, pyruvate, with the production of ATP). Subsequently, carbon dioxide and a two-carbon alcohol are produced via decarboxylase (a reaction in which a carboxyl is removed as a molecule of carbon dioxide) and alcohol dehydogenase (a reaction in which two hydrogens are removed from the substrate and transferred to a coenzyme). The two-carbon alcohol is known as ethanol -- a biomass derived transportation fuel.

Anaerobic Digestion: a process where microbes break down organic matter, in an environment with no oxygen, and release a medium-BTU mixture of methane and carbon dioxide called biogas. In the digestion process, carbon, hydrogen, and, oxygen are removed while lignin and lignin protected organics, microbial organics, and soluble inorganics are preserved. The products of digestion consist of biogas (methane and carbon dioxide) and sludge.

No wonder California’s and others are excited about the many possibilites that exsist for manure -- what was once thought of as a waste product can now be thought of in terms of an alternative source of energy.