Posted on 01/29/2007 6:05:08 AM PST by nypokerface
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers have found a way to improve ethanol production, thereby helping ensure biofuels become a significant part of the U.S. energy supply.
Carnegie Mellon University chemical engineers say they used advanced process design methods combined with mathematical optimization techniques to reduce the operating costs of corn-based bio-ethanol plants by more than 60 percent.
The technology involves redesigning the distillation process by using a multicolumn system and a network for energy recovery that ultimately reduces the consumption of steam, a major energy component in the production of corn-based ethanol.
"This new design reduces the manufacturing cost for producing ethanol by 11 percent, from $1.61 a gallon to $1.43 a gallon,'' said Professor Ignacio Grossmann, who completed the research with graduate students Ramkumar Karuppiah, Andreas Peschel and Mariano Martin. "This research also is an important step in making the production of ethanol more energy efficient and economical.''
Although corn-based ethanol once was questionable energy resource, 46 percent of U.S.-produced gasoline now contains ethanol. The federal government has mandated 5 percent of the nation's gasoline supply -- roughly 7.5 billion gallons -- much contain some ethanol by 2012.
Our public schools ensure that all Children get the new math so they can't do math.
So what makes you think the gasoline engine can figure out the "mathematical optimization techniques?"
Meanwhile peasants in Mexico are starting to go hungry because of the rising coat of corn. How long before the third world crowd starts railing against rich yanquis for growing food to burn as fuel.
Funny how the "alternative fuels" crowd hasn't come up with a substitute for the tortilla.
"to reduce the operating costs of corn-based bio-ethanol plants by more than 60 percent."
Somehow I doubt that.
http://www.nysun.com/article/46979
By all accounts, the ethanol industry is overheated, and the bubble is poised to burst.
But rather than let the market correct itself, the industry is seeking a bailout from the firm of Obama, Harkin, Dorgan, Lugar & Biden.
The senators have introduced a bill that would double the amount of renewable fuel that the federal government requires petroleum companies to mix with gasoline.
They are rushing the bill out for an industry that, according to a trade group, the Renewable Fuels Association, has at least 65 new ethanol distilleries under construction at the moment and will soon be producing more than 11 billion gallons of ethanol a year.
This glut is pushing prices down on the supply side, while high prices on corn — the main commodity needed for ethanol production — are pinching the industry's bottom line.
So the only thing that could prevent an ethanol slump is an instant and unlikely surge in demand.
No one in his or her right mind would ordinarily mix that much ethanol with gasoline.
So Messrs. Obama, Harkin, Dorgan, Lugar & Biden are trying to get the Congress to wave its magic wand.
Ethanol Cost Reduction PING!....
Meanwhile, American peasants are beginning to go hungry due to the high cost of gas and other energy resources.
ping
I'm not a big fan of corn based ethanol as a long term solution because it will never be competitive against other ethanol feedstocks. But it is something we have right now.
Let Mexico figure out how to feed its peasants. They've been buying our corn because it's cheaper. They will have to start growing their own, and these things take time. Markets change.
I'm not "saying it"-
I'm just phrasing the inevitable 3rd world rhetoric that will rise as we consume more and more corn (plus use more and more more water and land) for gasoline.
Plus mexico has already figured out how to feed its peasants. Send them here.
The left will always complain about the Yankees.
If we were 100% pc the left would demand a breathing tax. Oh wait, they already are with the carbon footprint bs.
don't like MTBE --> hello ethanol
that's just how things work
There's a lot of hay fields that will be planted in corn come May.
All I know is, I can't figure out your comment....
It may work in theory. But the practical application may not work out as well.
As more Ethanol is blended in, the Miles Per Gallon drops in direct proportion.
It's all an illusion to pretend we are Doing Something. I got 30MPG Highway all the time, so predictably I could use the odometer as a fuel gage. With 10% EtOH I now get 27, just as consistenly.
So in Dollars Per Mile, I am paying more assuming a constant per gallon cost.
Yes, an engine will run on 100% ethanol. It hates it but it will run.
What are you talking about? Perhaps you mean running a high percentage of alcohol in a gasoline engine, but alcohol is a perfectly fine internal combustion engine fuel. It has its drawbacks as a transportation fuel, such as its low vapor pressure. But it runs great in a properly designed ic engine. Lots of race cars run methanol.
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