Jul 2, 2008

New Tech Could Create Biomass More Efficiently

Ethanol has gotten a bad rap in some circles because most of the ethanol produced in the United States today is derived from a staple food crop: corn. Now a new cellulosic preprocessing system has been unveiled that is designed to reduce sorghum and other biomass into a fine powder that can be processed into ethanol more efficiently. This could be the key toward efficient cellulosic (nonfood-crop-based) ethanol production.

Some estimate that U.S. energy consumption will grow over 18 percent by 2030, and many hope that cellulosic ethanol, made from nonfood feedstock, will play a significant role in the diversification of our nation's energy sources to help meet our growing demand for energy. The new technology from Gulf Ethanol demonstrates the efficiency of cellulosic materials as the basic feedstock for ethanol production.

Today, on a life cycle basis, ethanol produced from corn results in about a 20-percent reduction in so-called greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline, according to one estimate. With improved efficiency and use of renewable energy in the production process, this reduction could be as much as 52 percent.

In the future, ethanol produced from cellulose has the potential to cut life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 86 percent compared to gasoline. Additionally, ethanol readily biodegrades without harm to the environment and is a safe, high-performance replacement for fuel additives such as the now-discredited MTBE.