Ethanol production can yield some non-fuel uses that have yet to be realized.
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has been researching efforts that produce ethyl lactate from reactive distillation. Ethyl lactate is a general all-purpose solvent as well as a common ingredient in pharmaceutical preparations, food additives and fragrances, and it is typically derived from petrochemicals. The reactive distillation process provides a cost-effective way to produce it from ethanol.
NCGA Vice President for Research and Business Development Richard Glass says they have worked with a team from Michigan State University, including chemical engineering professors Carl Lira and Dennis Miller.
Among the benefits is that reactive distillation can cut the cost of ethyl lactate production in half and provide a significant non-fuel revenue stream for ethanol plants. “If all you produce from a biorefinery is ethanol, that is fine for a nascent industry but, in essence, all you have is a one-trick pony,” Glass said. “My dream is the integrated biorefinery where the only limits are your imagination and the ability to make the system utilize all components of the production output.”
Glass said that at a typical ethanol plant producing 25 million gallons a year, diverting one million gallons to make chemicals like ethyl lactate each year could bring in the same amount of revenue as the remaining 24 million gallons of ethanol produced for fuel. NCGA is currently seeking companies interested in purchasing a license for this ethyl lactate technology, which can be retrofitted into a dry-grind ethanol plant.
An Arizona-based maker solar panels has really taken off, as it has signed a long-term agreement to provide solar panels and its profits have doubled.
Wind energy is a popular alternative energy source… so popular that New York’s Attorney General wants to make sure it’s done legally.
An eco-friendly filter could help purify biodiesel, no matter what is used as a feedstock.
Terrabon CEO Gary Luce addressed the National Renewable Resource Laboratory’s (NREL) 21st Growth Forum meeting this week in Denver. “Terrabon’s MixAlco technology is a cost effective, sustainable solution to the urgent need to produce biofuels and bio-chemicals that satisfy the world’s appetite for renewable energy resources and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil,” Luce said. “MixAlco, which was inspired by the digestive processes of the ordinary cow, is an advanced bio-refining process that employs carboxylic acid fermentation followed by downstream chemistry to convert biomass products such as municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, forest product residues and non-edible energy crops, into industrial chemicals and renewable gasoline.”
Some trains in South Florida will be running on a nearly pure mix of biodiesel.
More than 650 attendees and 50 speakers looked at the future of algae biodiesel at a recent conference in Seattle.
It’s that time of year again… to start making plans to attend the National Biodiesel Board’s Conference & Expo! This year’s event takes place Feb. 1-4th, 2009, in San Francisco. While that is a while off, now is the time to sign up to save some serious money on your registration.