Posted on 06/25/2007 3:41:59 PM PDT by nypokerface
HOUSTON, June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a technology designed to convert waste glycerin from biodiesel plants into ethanol, another popular biofuel.
Rice University Assistant Professor Ramon Gonzalez and colleagues identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a strain of E. coli to convert glycerin into ethanol.
"It's also very efficient," said Gonzalez. "We estimate the operational costs to be about 40 percent less that those of producing ethanol from corn."
U.S. biodiesel production is at an all-time high, but the industry is also facing a significant problem in how to deal with waste glycerin. One pound of glycerin is produced for every 10 pounds of biodiesel, Gonzalez noted.
The research by Gonzalez, research associate Syed Shams Yazdani and graduate students Yandi Dharmadi and Abhishek Murarka is reported in the journal Current Opinion in Biotechnology.
Now we know what to do with all that glycerin we remove from the Biodiesel!...........
YIPPEEEE!!!!!!
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished....... If you want on or off the DIESEL KnOcK LIST just FReepmail me........ This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......
Yay! This means Archer Daniels Midland can make even more money from using food to make diesel. /sarc
I have dentures..........
Just another example of why Ehrlich was wrong and Julian Simon was right. Something that was a hazard and worthless yesterday is now a “resource”.
Trust in human initiative unfettered by government to find solutions to problems...
This is a significant leap forward for bio-diesel, because while glycerin certainly has a lot of uses, most all the glycerin coming off bio-diesel production is some pretty scabby stuff — not what you’d want to put into any food-like product at all.
With a profitable use for the glycerin (which had sorta been piling up in the market), bio-diesel will see more capital investment.
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