The POET biofuel facility in Emmetsburg, IO received 61,000 “bone-dry tons of corn cobs and high cut material” to convert into biofuel this harvest season. This is the left-overs from harvesting and processing corn and thus was not grown solely to create biofuel. Farmers now have extra income from that which used to be [...]
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The Iowa plant will process corn leftovers that pass through combines during harvesting and will produce up to 25 million gallons of ethanol a year. In addition, it will use biogas created during processing to run itself and a nearby plant. Nice. “The enzymes found in the stomachs of cows and other cud-chewing cattle are able to breakdown tough plant material, and researchers are hoping that they could also be used to turn tough plants and trees” into cellulosic ethanol. From Sen. Udall: America no longer needs taxpayer subsidies for corn-based ethanol. It is a mature technology and the Renewable Fuels Standard already ensures that we use ethanol to displace foreign oil. “The debate in the Senate over the past several days has shown that Congress must signal that we’re prepared to deal with [...] Construction has started on a cellulosic ethanol plant in Italy which will produce 13 million gallons of ethanol a year from Arundo Donax, a giant reed which can reach 30 feet in height and which is classified as invasive by California. Much as we need alternative fuels, using amounts of crop land to grow plants [...] Using a genetically engineered microbe, researchers have developed a method to produce isobutanol directly from plant material. The method is both cost effective and does not require crops be grown, as it can use any woody material like agricultural and lumber waste. Plus, isobutanol can be blended with gasoline and even sometimes be used as [...] Ineos Bio plans to open a factory in Florida that will convert plant waste and garbage into electricity and ethanol. First they will gasify the waste then use a recently discovered bacterium that lives in chicken waste to convert the resulting carbon monoxide and hydrogen into ethanol. Remaining gases will be used to create [...] These loan guarantees are specifically for cellulosic ethanol not made from corn, and that’s a good thing. Instead the ethanol will be made from leftovers like woody biomass, animal fat, crop processing leftovers, and trash. Thus, they are turning a liability into an asset. This is way better than dumping the waste into a landfill [...] Biomass has low energy density relative to fossil fuels, and thus a conversion facility must have easy logistical access. In most cases, this means that biomass must be sourced close to the facility. This puts some limits on the size of biomass facilities, so they suffer from the lack of economies of scale. Algae [...] A Department of Agriculture reports suggests that after two decades of research into cellulosic ethanol with no technical breakthroughs, that algae biofuel and oil crops should get the funding. One problem with cellulosic is the logistics in getting hundreds of tons of agricultural waste (or crops grown specifically for ethanol) on a daily basis to [...] |  | ||||
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