The Illinois Corn Growers Association today unveiled two landmark studies on ethanol that conclude production of the biofuel leaves a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline and has substantial room for growth without affecting corn supply to the food and feed sectors. Dr. Steffen Mueller, principal research economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Energy Resources Center, studied the carbon …
Clemson Gets Ethanol Research Grant
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Clemson University in South Carolina to assess the potential of switchgrass and sweet sorghum as feedstocks to produce ethanol in the southeast. The grant also will fund development of a small-scale biofuel processing plant at Clemson University’s Restoration Institute in North Charleston. The South Carolina Bioenergy Research Collaborative …
USDA Studies Ethanol From Farm Waste
Leftovers from fields, orchards, and vineyards could be combined with other household garbage to make ethanol and other kinds of bioenergy. USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists are investigating the possibilities at the agency’s Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. Agricultural wastes like rice straw, almond hulls, and the oversize outer leaves of iceberg lettuce – as well as municipal …
First Step for Ethanol-Producing Microbes
A team of researchers from Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and Mascoma Corporation say they have found a way to produce genetically engineered bacteria that ferment cellulose to produce ethanol more efficiently. The group reported last week that, tor the first time, they have been able to genetically engineer a thermophilic bacterium, capable of growing at high temperatures, and this …
Wal-Mart Donation to Fund Ethanol Research
Wal-Mart Foundation recently donated $369,000 to the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University to help fund biomass to ethanol research. According to a university news release, the donation will be used to meet the cost share requirement for a U.S. Department of Energy grant awarded to the university. The Arkansas Biosciences Institute is researching the commercialization of biobased product …
Process Could Improve Ethanol Efficiency
A process used in breweries and wastewater treatment facilities could make corn ethanol more energy efficient. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are exploring the use of oxygen-less vats of microorganisms that naturally feed on organic waste produced from the ethanol fermentation process. According to a university release, a WUSTL team has tested anaerobic digestion on waste from ethanol …
Turning Ethanol Into Hydrogen
Researchers at Ohio State University say they have found a way to efficiently convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen. According to OSU professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering Umit Ozkan, a new catalyst can makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients. Ozkan says the catalyst could help make the use …
Poll Finds Bipartisan Support for Ethanol
By a margin of 2 to 1, American voters believe increasing the use of renewable fuels like ethanol should continue, according to a new poll conducted by the Democratic firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. The survey of 1,200 registered voters conducted June 23 – July 1 also revealed that nearly half of …
From Ethanol Plants to Potted Plants
A team of Agriculture Department researchers may have found a new use for a by-product of ethanol production – controlling weeds in potted plants. Rick Boydston and his team with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service recently completed a study on the use of dried distillers grains, or DDGS, as a weed deterrent in container-grown ornamentals. The study was published in the …
What We Need To Know
What we know and what we need to know was Peggy Caswell’s, USDA-ERS, topic here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She says we need to know things about how farmers or the providers of biofuels and feed stocks are going to have to change the way they do business. She used the example of having …