To get the fermentation done you need to start with sugars. Cellulose and hemi-cellulose are long polymeric sugar (ex: glucose and xylose). If you have a technology that could use the entire plant and to make sugars then you would make a difference. At 20ton/ha and year producing biomass you could make 10+ton sugars/year and after fermentation you would have 7ton of "fuel". That is 7 ton fuel per hectare and year. So if Nebraska:s 20.000.000 hectares would be used (just as an easy calculation example - not the real thing ok?) you would get 140.000.000tons of fuel per year. No more corn but fuel only. That would cover a fair pice of what is needed.

What is missing here? Making sugars from cellulose/hemi-cellulose! That technology at the right sugar price is being done by several companies. My favorite is REAC Fuel....but there are others that can do the trick.

Going back brom big data to small shared data is the way to go. There are many ways that this could be done. The discussion of distributed trust could be an long (and good) and be taken from any Bruce Schniders latest books. If you read them then you have a good start on how the problem can be solved. TIP: Technology is not always the answer.

Dear Steve,

What is the best pipe organ that you have played on?

All the best
Anders

Dear Steve,

Do you have a feeling for when the AI or RI (restricted intelligence - not self aware) will start to become mainstream? Is it coder knowledge, CPU power or social restrictions that are going to hold this development back?

This [matrix of needs and knowledge] applies to almost any area where technical expertise and complex deliveries are delivered to customers. I'm doing work within BioChem and it is a good way of moving forward to get a top preforming team to meet deliverables and deadlines.