[Digestion] cellulosic ethanol process

[Björn Dahlroth]

Hello
The question is the total energy efficiency. People are working on this and
other fermentation processes around the world. Bacteria are not good at
breaking down lignin so you must find a market for the residue. This is
however not impossible as lignin can be turned into pellets and be used for
fuel. However thermal gasification and production of synthesis gas ( Mainly
CO and H2)followed by other processes can produce methanol, DME and also
ethanol at a higher total energy efficiency but it is said that the plants
must be rather big and it is very good for the economy to use the waste heat
for district heating. So in the future we have the competition between the
two ways - fermentation for ethanol and thermal gasification etc for
methanol, DME and ethanol. In the very long run I will not be surprised if
not methanol (may be with some ethanol mixed in) and DME will be the
winners. Ethanol from just the grain is from long term point of view a dead
end as the total yield per hectar is low, and it has a disturbing smell of
agricultural politics. 
Regards
Bjorn Dahlroth

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org] För Robert Taylor
Skickat: den 15 december 2007 03:09
Till: digestion at listserv.repp.org
Ämne: [Digestion] cellulosic ethanol process

This from New Scientist magazine 
(technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13026)
Biofuel bug
An alternative energy company called SunEthanol [www.sunethanol.com] based 
in Massachusetts, US, hit the headlines earlier this year when it claimed to

have found a naturally occurring organism called "Microbe Q" that could 
convert waste biomass such as corn stalks, sawdust and grass cuttings into 
ethanol.

This is important because bioethanol could replace petrol as a fuel for 
internal combustion engines. Ethanol can already be made from biomass, but 
requires a multistage process employing enzymes to break down the cellulose 
before the biomass sugars can be fermented.

Now the company has filed a patent application for an industrial process 
that employs a microbe called Clostridium phytofermentans. The organism was 
discovered by company co-founder Susan Leschine 
[bwww.bio.umass.edu/mcb/faculty/Leschine.html] and colleague Tom Warnick 
from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, US, in soil near the 
Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.

They say this naturally occurring anaerobic microbe can produce ethanol in a

composting tank, in which biomass is fermented in the presence of the 
microbe. The process works without the need for enzymes of any kind, making 
it potentially cheaper than other approaches.

The company has already attracted funding from several investors.

Read the full Q microbe patent application.

[(WO/2007/089677) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRODUCING BIOFUELS AND RELATED 
MATERIALS]

[http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/] (WIPO search page)

[http://tinyurl.com/358jdt] (the patent application)


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