Connecticut Inventor and Entrepreneur, Eric Knight, Publishes Paper on “Free” Biofuel Energy Source

Additional information contained in the Thought Paper:

* The potential exists for a wide-ranging “Leaves-to-Energy” industry.

* Tree leaves can be an ultra-low-cost and perpetually renewable energy resource.

* Tree leaves don’t have to be mined (like coal), pumped from the ground or ocean (like oil or gas), fertilized and grown (like corn or soybean), or specially processed, refined, transported, and disposed of (like uranium for nuclear reactors).

* As a biofuel feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production, the advantages are numerous. Tree leaves are essentially free to harvest, are naturally renewable, and are a carbon-dioxide-neutral feedstock.

* As a secondary fuel in coal-burning power plants, tree leaves would require minimal processing and preparation for use as a fuel. Mother Nature dries tree leaves automatically and efficiently. Tree leaves are already being “packaged” (in paper lawn bags) by consumers, then collected and transported by municipalities. Bagged leaves could be re-routed from landfills to power-generating facilities where they could be blended in with the municipal solid waste that is already being used as a secondary fuel source.

* If the very labor- and equipment-intensive coal industry can be profitable at mining and selling its product for $34 per ton, it would seem that a profitable business model could be conceived for a massively abundant and perpetually renewable energy source. This premise seems particularly possible, given that tree leaves have similar physical and calorific characteristics as paper — an already commonly-used secondary fuel source at power plants.

* Additional benefit: The elimination of 30 million tons of annual landfill waste, greatly reducing municipal landfill costs and requirements.

* Forests are the “mother lode” of fallen tree leaves — and energy.

* The vast majority of fallen tree leaves occur in forests. If a profitable business model could be established, and there was a concerted effort to harvest tree leaves that fall in wooded areas, the availability of tree leaves could rise by 100 fold, maybe more.

* Care would have to be taken to not upset the ecosystem balance created by the fallen tree leaves on the forest floor. The leaves provide nutrients to the plant life, offer shelter to small wildlife, and create a living environment for microorganisms. Scientific and environmental analyses would have to be performed to determine what percentage of leaf removal would be tolerable by the natural ecosystem.

* As a cellulosic biofuel feedstock for ethanol production and / or as a secondary fuel in cleaner-burning, coal-based power plants, the potential seems to exist for tree leaves to emerge as a new, renewable energy source.

The full text of the Thought Paper is available here: