Biodiesel is riding the wave of record production that only looks to get bigger as Americans yearn for the greener fuel to help break the addiction on foreign oil. That’s the good news. The bad news is the industry is facing a glut of a biodiesel by-product called glycerin.
But researchers at Rice University have found a way to make ethanol out of that glycerin. This press release from the school explains more:
“We identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of E. coli to convert glycerin into ethanol,” said chemical engineer Ramon Gonzalez. “It’s also very efficient. We estimate the operational costs to be about 40 percent less that those of producing ethanol from corn.”
Gonzalez said the biodiesel industry’s rapid growth has created a glycerin glut. The glut has forced glycerin producers like Dow Chemical and Procter and Gamble to shutter plants, and Gonzalez said some biodiesel producers are already unable to sell glycerin and instead must pay to dispose of it.
“One pound of glycerin is produced for every 10 pounds of biodiesel,” said Gonzalez, Rice’s William Akers Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “The biodiesel business has tight margins, and until recently, glycerin was a valuable commodity, one that producers counted on selling to ensure profitability.”
Researchers say the process is greener than other methods that use chemicals… and more economical.
Consolidated Biofuels and International Bio Fuels Corp. have announced plans to jointly open a biodiesel plant in Arkansas… one that will be among the biggest in the country.
The refinery will be built on a 65 acre lot on the Mississippi Port of Yellow Bend and will produce 150 million gallons of biodiesel and 70 million bushels of soybean oil crush annually. 
“This technology is a significant milestone in helping increase ethanol output per acre,” said Russ Sanders, Pioneer Director of Marketing. “In FOSS instruments, the Pioneer Ethanol Yield Potential Calibration provides nearly instant prediction of ethanol yield potential in corn grain and provides an estimated yield in gallons per bushel terms.”
Thanks to the 
At the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis on Wednesday, the nation’s largest dry-mill ethanol producer announced the successful production of cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs. 
At a press conference, 
Dr. Mark Stowers, VP of Research & Development for POET, says they expect the use of corn cobs for ethanol production to result in an 11 percent increase in the amount of ethanol per bushel of corn. “And when you look at it on an acreage basis, that’s about 27 percent more ethanol per acre.”
Just a few ethanol industry pioneers were present at the first Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis some 23 years ago.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded three grants of $125 million each to set up Bioenergy Research Centers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Madison, Wisconsin; and near Berkeley, California.
“These Centers will provide the transformational science needed for bioenergy breakthroughs to advance President Bush’s goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012, and assist in reducing America’s gasoline consumption by 20 percent in ten years,” Secretary (Samuel) Bodman said. “The collaborations of academic, corporate, and national laboratory researchers represented by these centers are truly impressive and I am very encouraged by the potential they hold for advancing America’s energy security.”
Just as Imperium Renewables is set to open the nation’s biggest biodiesel refinery with a 100-million-gallon-a-year plant in Washington state, there could be a contender out there that will produce three times as much annually.
Biodiesel giant Imperium Renewables is on schedule to open a 100-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel refinery next month at Gray’s Harbor in Washington state… although there’s been some rumors there might be delays .