Technocrat

Make the Ethanol, but Leave the Food Alone

zogger
Sat Apr 01 18:09:29 -0800 2006
Chemistry.
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One of the more controversial aspects to biofuels is that it uses "food" in a lot of cases for the raw feedstock. In the case of ethanol production, this means corn, which is used primarily as inexpensive and nutritious animal feed. Diverting it to ethanol production drives up costs for both purposes. With this in mind, researchers at Virgina Tech have developed a way to only use the non-kernel parts of the plant, leaving the food part alone, and still producing ethanol efficiently.

....."Zhang's cost-effective pretreatment process that integrates three technologies – cellulose solvent pretreatment, concentrated acid saccharification, and organosolv, and overcomes the limitations of existing processes. Instead of a high pressure system that operates at between 150 and 250 degrees C, Zhang's "modest reaction" operates at atmospheric pressure and 50 C (120 F) to pretreat corn residue to free the solid polymeric sugars. In a several-step pretreatment system, Zhang uses a strong cellulose solvent instead of highly corrosive chemicals, high pressure, and high temperature to breakup the linkages among lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose."..more at Virginia Tech link

Make the Ethanol, but Leave the Food Alone
Technocrat.net Editor
Sat Apr 01 19:01:46 -0800 2006
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Wouldn't this work on sawdust and chaff in general? Or do they contain a different form of cellulose? What about the enzymes that termites use to digest cellulose? And what metabolic processes do cows use for grass in their four stomachs?

    Bruce
Make the Ethanol, but Leave the Food Alone
ehrichweiss
Sun Apr 02 08:46:04 -0700 2006
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Sawdust is wood which would give you a better alcohol for fuel, methanol, but if you were looking to make methanol, there are much better, albeit less legal, sources for that. Hempanol anyone?

Though I would like to see a bunch of local communities get together and allow distillation of alcohol by individuals if it is used for cars(actually, I don't see the problem with 'stillin' for drinking purposes but that's another story). I know this is probably regulated by the federal government but IIRC States' Rights come first.
Make the Ethanol, but Leave the Food Alone
BioConversion Blog
Sun Apr 02 10:32:40 -0700 2006
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All enzymatic pre-processing of cellulosic feedstock (corn stover, switchgrass, etc.) does is reduce much of it to a fermentable sugar. It is complicated and costly to developed specific enzymes for each. The process takes the high end of 2-3 days. While Zhang's formulation might be an improvement on other enzymatic processes (commericalized by Iogen, Novozymes), there are other simpler ways to unleash the energy in biomass.

Check out "cellulosic ethanol" in Wikipedia and you will find a description of "synthesis gas fermentation" which, simply put, involves gasification of a much broader array of feedstock (other ag waste, forestry waste, and urban waste including tires, auto fluff, MSW and sewage). The syngas is converted to ethanol and water using bacteria - microsieve the water and you end up with 98% ethanol. Less than 10 minutes. And the heat involved can be used to generate green electricity. BRI Energy has the most published information on the process but Future Fuels, Inc. is already at the deployment stage for a tires-to-energy facility in New Jersey using an undisclosed catalyst instead of bacteria.

My BioConversion Blog is devoted to this Biomass Conversion issue.

Yes.

bill_mcgonigle
Sun Apr 02 20:04:09 -0700 2006
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These guys are commercializing those kinds of processes to make ethanol more feasible for gas tanks in areas where corn isn't widely grown.
 

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