Researchers Will Work With Cellulosic Ethanol Plant (NY)

Energy Daily ^ | December 27, 2006 | Staff Writers

[cogitator]

Burn, baby, burn.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[GSlob]

good idea. Strange that only two pilot projects are mentioned, one'd think there are more.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Latest Scientific American has an article on Ethanol....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

....glancing thru it....says we have to figure out how to distill cornstalks,,,,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Article mentions this company in Canada:

Iogen Corporation is a leading industrial biotechnology company specializing in EcoEthanol™

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Based in Ottawa, the company has built the world's first and only demonstration-scale facility to convert cellulose material such as wheat straw into bioethanol using its patented enzymes manufactured in an adjacent enzyme manufacturing facility. It employs about 140 people and generates revenues around $10–12 million per year, mostly from the sale of its industrial-use enzymes.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And:

Mascoma Corporation is a cellulosic biomass-to-ethanol company with corporate offices in Cambridge, MA, and R&D labs in Lebanon, NH

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Wired Magazine recently had an article on fuel from ethanol processes....source was a west Coast venture capatialist who was doing some pilot plants in Nebraska ....as I recall....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found it:

My Big Biofuels Bet

The road to energy independence starts in a cornfield in Nebraska. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla explains why he’s betting on biofuels.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A company called E3 Biofuels is about to fire up the most energy-efficient corn ethanol facility in the country: a $75 million state-of the-art biorefinery and feedlot capable of producing 25 million gallons of ethanol a year. What’s more, it will run on methane gas produced from cow manure. The super-efficient operation capitalizes on a closed loop of resources available here on the prairie – cattle (fed on corn), manure (from the cows), and corn (fed into the ethanol distiller). The output: a potential gusher of renewable, energy-efficient transportation fuel.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Link:

E3 BioFuels will be the first company to implement a patented, closed-loop system designed to dramatically reduce the cost of ethanol production.

[Uncledave]

Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

[Red Badger]

Cellulosic ethanol ping!........

[VOA]

Cha-Ching!

I hope there is real return on these investments.

[chuckles]

I would be interested in finding out the volume of enzyme needed for a barrel of ethanol. I think this will be the key. We have known for a while now HOW to do this, but making the enzyme in commercial quantities was the problem. If it requires 40 gallons of enzyme for 40 gallons of product, just imagine the scope of converting to ethanol. If it requires a quart, then we are in Nirvana. Converting sugars with yeast works because the yeast self replicates. These enzymes must be manufactured.

[gleeaikin]

ping

[ASOC]

500,000 gallons a year. About 12,000 BBL a year.

We *import* between 12,000 and 15,000 BBL of crude and refined product *A DAY*. Add to that domestic production. (FedGov figures here.)

We got a very long way to go if etoh is ever going to make even a dent in imports.

[larrysav]

This is not a closed loop system. They are ignoring the corn input needed to provide 60% of the cattle's feed needs (hay would be better). The ethanol plant also needs input corn. This does seem to be a very efficient way of processing corn, cattle and ethanol. There should be aspects of this near every feedlot in corn country. However, it is not a closed loop nor would a closed loop be desirable in food production.

[cogitator]

Gotta start somewhere -- and it's probably a lot better than wind power.

[cogitator]

If it requires 40 gallons of enzyme for 40 gallons of product, just imagine the scope of converting to ethanol.

I'm not sure how much you know about chemistry, so forgive me if you know what I write next. Enzymes are catalysts, and catalysts are reaction facilitators -- they don't get used up by a reaction, they are constantly renewed. (However, lots of stuff can end up inhibiting enzyme activity, "fouling" the system, so that's why there might be a need for constant additions at some level.) So a quart for 40 gallons is quite possible. But they are likely to be quite expensive.