[Rhodes22-list] The Hydrogen Economy - (Was: My Interview With Broin & Associates, Inc.)

[Roger Pihlaja]

Ron,

Thanks for the article & the encouraging words.

Given all the formidable technical, logistical, safety, and political
challenges associated with switching to a hydrogen economy, I don't see why
anyone has any enthusiasm for any programs beyond basic research at the
national labs and certain technical universities.  We still need to be
discussing whether the many hurdles standing in the way of a hydrogen
economy can be surmounted and if they should be.  Any talk of large scale
commercial implementation at this point is way premature.  Yet, that's
what's going on.  If we switch over to hydrogen in a big way without the
technology in place to generate the hydrogen from water using a renewable
power source like biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, or hydroelectric; then,
our fossil fuel usage and net greenhouse gas emissions will only increase.
If we start generating hydrogen by catalytically reforming any fossil fuel
or using fossil-fuel-generated electricity to make hydrogen from water on a
large scale; then, OPEC will be celebrating our foolishness & the planet's
ecosystem will be worse off!

Sometimes, I think we are spending big R&D money on hydrogen because it's
sexy technology and diverts attention away from technologies like biofuels,
solar, geothermal, wind, and nuclear that are doable right now.  A big R&D
emphasis on hydrogen guarantees the present stutus quo for big oil & the big
auto companies will continue indefinitely.  It allows government and
industry to present a "good public steward" image without spending too much
profit or taxes on a technology that will, very likely, never be practical
on a large scale.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald Lipton" <rlipton at earthlink.net>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] My Interview With Broin & Associates, Inc.


> Roger,
>
>    Again, best of luck, I am glad to hear that the ice is breaking.
> There is another interesting hydrogen economy article at:
> http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-12/p39.html
> which discusses some of the detailed technical issues.
>
> Ron
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 5:56 AM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] My Interview With Broin & Associates, Inc.
>
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I figured you might be curious about my telephone interview for the
> Technical Manager position at the Michigan Ethanol plant in Caro, MI.
>
> Well, there's good news & bad news.  I was on the phone for about 75
minutes
> with Jerry Baker from Broin & Associates, Inc. yesterday, which is a good
> long interview.  Jerry started out by apologising regarding no interview
> back in September, 2004.  There was apparently some sort of missed
> communication between the Michigan Ethanol plant in Caro, MI and the Broin
> corporate headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD.  The information packet about
me
> never reached the decision making managers at the corporate headquarters.
> So, it would appear my strategies to send a thank you letter to the hiring
> manager back in October, 2004 as well as send a packet directly to Sioux
> Falls, SD this time around were correct.  I was also able to find out the
> person they hired back in September, 2004 never showed up.  The Technical
> Manager position at the Caro, MI plant has been vacant all this time!
Broin
> sounds like a wonderful company to work for.  To date, they've engineered
> and built 20 corn-to-ethanol plants and they operate 14 of these plants.
> Two more of their ethanol plants will start-up and come on-line in 2005
and
> they will start construction of three more this year.  So, business is
> booming for them!  Broin is #2 in their industry, behind Archer Daniels
> Midland.
>
> We discussed my biowaste to energy recovery ideas and my Bio-Energy Corp.
> business plan.  Jerry probed me with some technical questions designed to
> determine my in-depth knowledge of the dry milling route for the
> corn-to-ethanol process.  I think I handled those pretty well.  I asked
him
> if Broin was disappointed that the energy bill didn't make it thru
congress
> last fall.  He said Broin was sort of glad it hadn't passed despite all
the
> subsidies in it for corn-to-ethanol.  It seems Broin ethanol plants are
> already profitable without the federal subsidies.  The subsidies would
just
> keep a lot of inefficient competitors in the game!
>
> Two issues came up that didn't go as well as I would have liked.  For the
> Technical Manager position in Caro, MI; Broin seemed to be looking for
> someone with experience in running and troubleshooting industrial scale
> fermentation reactors.  The Dow Chemical Co. doesn't run any fermentation
> type chemical processes.  At Michigan Tech University, I took a class in
> industrial microbiology, which discussed the theory & practice of these
> types of processes.  I pointed out my formal training; but, I had to admit
> I've never actually run a commercial scale fermentation process.  I asked
> if, as Technical Manager at the Caro plant, would I be able to call on my
> counterparts in the other 14 ethanol plants that Broin operates as well as
> the central engineering dept. at the corporate headquarters for
> troubleshooting assistance with the fermentation section of the process?
Of
> course, those resources would be available to me.  Aren't there also some
> lead operators with years of experience at the Caro plant?  I told Jerry
> that with all the resources available to back me up and my own expertise
in
> process design and troubleshooting, I thought I could come up to speed on
> the fermentation reactors pretty quickly.  Other than the fermentation
> reactors, I've had direct experience with all the other unit operations in
> the plant.
>
> The other issue that came up was my relative lack of management
experience,
> despite my long career.  Just as at MRI in Kansas City, MO, I tried to use
> my experience as Chief Engineer at the ceramics market development plant
in
> Russellville, AR as well as my Boy Scout Wood Badge management training.
> The experience in Russellville was from 1987-1990, which is not very
recent.
> Jerry didn't seem to react very favorably to the Wood Badge management
> course either.  I e-mailed him some supplemental information on the Wood
> Badge program, which may help.  I used the same strategy at MRI when the
> issue of my management expertise came up & it seemed to work much better
> there.  I don't know, it's much easier to judge reactions and body
language
> when you're sitting across a desk from the interviewer vs. over the phone.
>
> Jerry also told me they were looking to hire some folks for their central
> engineering group in Sioux Falls, SD.  He told me my background made me
> sound like a much better fit for their central engineering group.  But,
the
> hiring decision hasn't been made on those positions yet.  Jerry said he'd
be
> contacting the rest of the candidates for the Technical Manager position
in
> Caro, MI this week.  The next steps would be face to face interviews in
> Sioux Falls, SD and Caro, MI.  I should know one way or the other by next
> week.  Naturally, Deb is rooting for the position in Caro, MI and dislikes
> the thought of a move to Sioux Falls, SD even worse than Kansas City, MO.
> But, stay tuned!
>
> FYI, for those of you that follow this subject, the January, 2005 issue of
> Popular Science magazine has an interesting article on the hydrogen
economy.
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
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