Kudzu Moonshine?

[shocker1]

Kudzu could be da vine

Saturday, June 30, 2007
Doug Mizell - Download MP3- By Randall Higgins
Cleveland Bureau
CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- "The vine that ate the South" might some day fuel the Dynamo of Dixie.
Doug Mizell thinks so.
Using "Moonshine 101," he turned a pile of smashed kudzu into a batch of ethanol. He calls it "kudzunol."
Mr. Mizell has a long and turbulent history with kudzu. Since 1999 he has battled it on Lake Enid, Miss., vacation property. Like any Southerner who took on that fight in the past hundred years, he lost.
The Kudzu vine, which was introduced into this country in 1876, can grow up to 60 feet a year, smothers other plants, and has claimed an estimated 7 million acres of land in the southeastern United States, according to www.kudzufree.org.
Mr. Mizell, a locksmith who has spent most of his 54 years tinkering, was not about to throw in the towel in his fight, not into a patch of weeds anyway.
Kudzu is a plant. It's full of natural sugars just like corn. It thrives in the South. So, what if you distilled the stuff?
On a Cleveland hillside, Mr. Mizell and wife, Sue, harvested lots of kudzu.
"Oh, yes, we got some strange looks," his wife admitted.
The vines went into a chipper and then home and into a food processor. Then "Moonshine 101" came in. Mr. Mizell rigged a still on his mother's patio. The resulting 80-proof liquid, he said, smells like rum.
Five gallons of kudzu mash equals a half gallon of ethanol. But Mr. Mizell thinks he can improve the yield with some better equipment.
"That thing over there," he pointed to the still, "is much like the African Queen, leaking and belching steam."
While kudzunol might be a green fuel for internal combustion engines, foresters view green kudzu as an indicator of insufficient fuel for wildfires.
"When the kudzu gets green, that's the end of fire season," said Steve Blackwell, chief ranger of Dade and Walker counties for the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Mr. Blackwell said that when the frost kills the kudzu in the winter, fire season starts.
Just as computer chips made Silicon Valley in California, Mr. Mizell figures the smothering vine can turn East Tennessee into Cellulose Valley and help keep corn in the food chain.
He and business partner Tom Monahan attended the state's first BioTenn Conference earlier this year. Now that he has proven kudzu can become ethanol, Mr. Mizell is looking for a grant, or an investor, to build a more sophisticated distillery.
"With a brush cutter, a wood chipper and a homemade still I can produce a barrel of fuel for under $80."
Mr. Mizell said it seems to him that a "state-of-the-art industry of American ethanol refineries" ought to be able to out-produce the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries "in no time at all."
On Friday, Mr. Mizell poured kudzunol into a lawnmower gas tank, along with a few drops of gasoline to prime the engine, and pulled the starter cord. It purred right away.
Now he would like to put a "test vehicle" on the streets, he said.
In the long battle of the Mississippi kudzu, Mr. Mizell came to the conclusion that "the only people who seemed to like it is goats."
Chattanooga, after all, made news by turning goats loose to clean out a kudzu patch.
If Tennessee Agro*Gas Industries (the company Mr. Mizell and Mr. Monahan have started for their kudzunol) has any say about it, kudzu is not just for goats anymore.
Mr. Mizell already is thinking beyond kudzu.
What about those watermelon vines?

http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolu...7538&zoneid=77

A good thread on kudzu and goats.
http://militaryphotos.net/forums/sho...ighlight=kudzu

[Aerosoul]

Oh man...sounds great.

[ed316]

I'll drink it.

[shocker1]

Originally Posted by ed316

I'll drink it.

I heard that!

[ed316]

How's it been shocker?

[shocker1]

Been rough of late, tranny in my truck went out, water heater flooded the basement, moms car blew a head gasket, boat won't idle(still won't)!, retaining wall of brick gave way last night in a huge storm and my printer took a crap.

Otherwise healthy and the bills are paid so really all is good. Thanks for askin! How you been a doin?

[ed316]

All is good. Can't complain.

[shocker1]

Good to hear, me either really all the stuff that I listed was due for breakdown or collapse anyway. They just motivated me to get busy.

[zonk]

damn shocker sounds like the world is crashing down on you like it seems to be with my car and i. i went to put the two front tires back on and stripped the lug key...so now i have to figure out how to get four locking lugs off. the good thing is that they are honda locking lugs so i may ride to the honda dealer on monday and see if maybe they can help me take them off

[Niels]

Originally Posted by zonk

damn shocker sounds like the world is crashing down on you like it seems to be with my car and i. i went to put the two front tires back on and stripped the lug key...so now i have to figure out how to get four locking lugs off. the good thing is that they are honda locking lugs so i may ride to the honda dealer on monday and see if maybe they can help me take them off

[zonk]

hahaha good one niels

[shocker1]

Originally Posted by zonk

damn shocker sounds like the world is crashing down on you like it seems to be with my car and i. i went to put the two front tires back on and stripped the lug key...so now i have to figure out how to get four locking lugs off. the good thing is that they are honda locking lugs so i may ride to the honda dealer on monday and see if maybe they can help me take them off

Go by Autozone and ask for a wheel lock remover from their loan a tool. If they don't have it try NAPA or buy one at Harbor Freight. It will be much cheaper than paying someone.

Oh yeah when you work on your own stuff it all seems to break at the same time. Don't know why.

[zonk]

i hate kudzu stuff is like trying to gt rid of a bad case of herpes

[schwarz]

5gal mash=half gallon of ethanol, thats horrible and for 80$ a barrel thats even worse. I dont see this taking the place of oil or corn for that matter any time soon. However I think its a good idea to deal with the kudzu problem **** it a pain in the ass.

[zonk]

i tried to kill kudzu and ivy vines and it just wasn't happening, there is no stopping that mess