Doug Bizell is the mad scientist of the South. Turning something no
one wants into something everyone needs. He makes a product called
Kudzunol, made from Kudzu. Kudzu is a weed that grows 12 inches a
day, every single day. It will reach 66 – 98 feet in trees.
Used for erosion control in the 1930s, it now covers anything and
everything in the southern U.S. Since Doug lives in Tennessee, he
has no problem finding it. It covers 7 million acres in the American
South.
You cannot kill it, highway departments are trying to control it
which is a neverending and often losing battle. It will grow out in
the road if you are not careful.
Inventor or moonshiner? With a kitchen grinder, some old hose and an
old milk can, Bizell ferments the Kudzu into moonshine, alcohol or
better known as ethanol. The test for good moonshine is that it is
clean and a nice blue flame when set on fire.
Researchers have found numerous other viable products to make
ethanol besides corn. An acre of Kudzoo will ferment into 10
gallons of Kudzunol which only costs a buck a gallon and it works.
This process will certainly put all of that overgrowth to good use.
Doug runs his truck and lawnmower with it. Along with that he
is trying to put together a small demonstration plant to show how
he does it. And all of the Kudzunol that he has made is already
sold.
He wants to turn Tennessee and Georgia into the Saudia Arabia of
America.
