Boston Globe
10-15-06
Tenn. stills fire up for new home brew
Company taps thirst for ethanol
By Theo Emery, Globe Correspondent
ESTILL SPRINGS, Tenn. -- Inside a cinderblock shed, in a room with dusty
Mason jars lining the shelves and a bag of potting soil on the floor, Mark Hanson
brews his future in 55-gallon drums.
In one of the drums next to the wall, corn mash ferments for Hanson's new
ethanol still, which he bought earlier this year and set up beneath an overhang
outside the door. He's begun making experimental batches of ethanol, and hopes
that by next year, he'll be using it to fuel his rototiller , his lawnmower, his
chainsaw, and his jeep.
The nation's energy woes have brought new attention to an old power source,
attracting fervent advocates like Hanson who see limitless possibility in ethanol,
which can be blended with gasoline for fuel.
A small Tennessee company has tapped into that thirst for alternative fuel, selling
kits and blueprints for home ethanol stills to people like Hanson, 44, who worry
about the nation's dependence on foreign oil, fuel efficiency, and the
environment.
``That is a goal of mine, to be independent," Hanson said. ``I like knowing that I
don't have to rely on someone else for me to live my life the way I want to live it."
The stills made by Dogwood Energy, which make between 2 1/2 and 5 gallons of
ethanol an hour, are essentially the same as the moonshine stills that were once
common throughout the Southeast. Dogwood's offices, ironically, are just a few
miles down the road from the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg. To make fuel
ethanol, still owners must get a federal permit and agree to make the ethanol
undrinkable by putting in additives.
Among those interested in Dogwood's stills, some lean Democrat, others
Republican. Few are obviously counter cultural or entirely conformist, and some
go out of their way to describe themselves as patriots. A common thread is a
libertarian, do-it-yourself streak, along with deep-seated frustration with the
country's energy policies.
And the number of home ethanol producers is growing quickly. The federal
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which grants permits for fuel
ethanol production, gave out just 34 permits nationwide for small-scale ethanol
production in 2003. Last year, the agency issued 202 permits, and so far this
year, 470 have been granted -- more than 10 times the number just three years
ago, according to bureau spokesman Art Resnick.
``It's a trend, and a lot of it has to do with the increase in fuel costs we saw this
past year," he said. ``A lot of people think they can do it on their own. It's not as
easy as people think, though."
On a recent weekend, Bill Asbury, 75, and his wife Barbara, 72, sat in the front
row of a seminar on ethanol at Dogwood's Tullahoma, Tenn., conference center,
where the company has begun holding Saturday classes on how to make
ethanol. About two dozen people -- some from the next county over, others from
across the country -- attended.
Bill Asbury said he'd been mulling the possibility of making ethanol for years, but
finally decided to buy a still last spring. A retired teacher and farm owner from
Readyville, Tenn., he said he bought the still as a kind of protest against ``big oil,
oil companies, OPEC."
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``And the high cost of gasoline," added his wife.
``I thought about it for a while, and every time gas went up, I thought about it a
little more. Finally, when it hit $3, I said enough is enough," Bill Asbury said.
The ethanol from the stills is grain alcohol made from corn, switch grass, or other
crops, and can be mixed with gasoline to fuel cars and other vehicles. Ethanol
referred to as E10 -- 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol -- can be used
in any car, while E85 ethanol -- 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline -- is
used in so-called ``flexible fuel" vehicles.
Asbury and other home ethanol makers compare today's fuel problems with
those of the 1970s. In those years, high prices, long gas station lines, and fuel
rationing led many people to consider alternative energy sources, including
ethanol, solar power, and wind power.
The difference today, said Dogwood's president, Bill Sasher, is that oil scarcity
and high prices are likely to become permanent features of the economy. The
sharp fall in prices in recent months is temporary, he said, adding that he
believes gas prices have been artificially deflated because of the upcoming
midterm elections.
Sasher blames both Democrats and Republicans for the nation's energy
problems.
``I think they've all loved foreign oil for a long time, so I'm really basically against
both Democrats and Republicans in that area. I think they both sold us out," he
said.
The company has gone from one employee to more than 10, selling about 200
stills and more than 600 sets of blueprints. It's also doing a brisk business selling
home biodiesel plants, which make diesel fuel out of vegetable oils.
The company has a fierce, do-it-yourself ideology, with slogans on its website
such as ``Taking back America one gallon at a time!" and ``Don't Be at the Mercy
of Rising Fuel Costs."
Professor Robert C. Brown, director of Iowa State University's Office of
Biorenewables Programs, said there's no technical obstacle to making one's
own ethanol and it may provide a degree of satisfaction that one can't get from a
gas pump. But, he said, ``I'm not sure that it's going to save you money."
``Small is beautiful," he said, ``but it's expensive."
That's especially true with gas prices hovering around $2.25 per gallon nationally.
Under current prices, it would cost $2.12 to make a single gallon of E85 ethanol,
and $2.23 for a gallon of E10 using Dogwood's stills. And that doesn't include the
cost of the still itself and startup materials, which total a little over $2,000.
For Bill Asbury, the cost isn't the issue. ``I've done a lot of things that didn't pay
off," he said. ``It isn't always a matter of dollars and cents."
During the Saturday seminar, the group gathered around a still behind the
building. The propane heater boiling roared as an employee filled a beaker with
ethanol and passed it around for everyone to sniff.
Lonny Harden, 66, and his wife, Alice Harden, 65, of Alexander City, Ala., stood
close to the still as it pumped out ethanol, asking how it worked.
The trip to Tennessee, Lonny Harden said, has persuaded him to buy a kit and
start making his own ethanol.