Cheap Cellulosic Ethanol using Immobilised Enzymes...

posted by Sumukee @ 10:12 AM | Monday, October 19, 2009 0 Comments

As discussed in my previous posts, cellulosic ethanol has got bright prospects and is definitely going to be the best replacement for fossil fuels. The reason behind this is the fact that the cellulosic biomass is abundant in the planet. This also has the advantage of being a non- crop when compared to other food crops from which ethanol can be derived.

Conventional method of cellulosic ethanol production involved the plasmification of the organic matter resulting in the mixture of hydrocarbons. Organisms such as the bacteria are then added to the bacteria, which produces ethanol. This method is employed by many of the companies working on cellulosic ethanol commercialization.

Yet another method which was used is to directly digest the cellulosic biomass using enzymes to produce ethanol. This method is a bit more expensive than the first method and most importantly, a lot of by-products are lost during cellulose degradation.

To commercialize the cellulosic ethanol and to overcome these bottlenecks faced currently, researchers from the Louisiana Tech University have patented and discovered a new approach of immobilizing enzymes which digest the cellulosic biomass. This nanotechnological approach of immobilizing enzymes makes use of a charged particle which gets attached to the non-catalytic domains of the enzymes or uses extracellular matrix proteins to bind the enzymes.

This method of using immobilized enzyme is expected to drastically reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol production. It is expected to save about $32 million and is capable of producing about 16 billion gallons of cellulose based ethanol, claims the LTU. Apparently, the cellulose ethanol commercialization has the capacity to reduce the carbon emissions to about 89 % when compared to gasoline based fuels.

Interestingly, the cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in LTU is the first of its kind and they are very sure that Louisiana will be one of the main contributors in the cellulosic ethanol production.

For those of the scientific bent and those willing to decipher how the whole thing works can attend the Louisiana Tech’s Energy Systems Conference on November 5 at the Technology Transfer Center in Shreveport.

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Labels: Bioenergy Enzymes, carbon emissions, cellulosic ethanol, Enzymes

Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstock Infrastructure is Slowly Developing

posted by Sumukee @ 12:00 AM | Tuesday, September 29, 2009 0 Comments

POET has secured a funding of about $6.85 million for producing 700 tons of cellulosic biomass. POETS with its research team are finding ways to curb the barriers faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry.

The feedstock of choice are the “Cobs” by this American cellulosic ethanol company. As discussed earlier, the major advantage with cellulosic ethanol is the fact that it can use multiple feedstock . Any feedstock which has contains cellulose can be used.

The work of this cellulosic ethanol company is that they are going to redesign the cobs to make it economically viable . Research efforts are underway to find the best harvesting methods to produce cellulosic ethanol commercializing.

This company will secure few more millions next year, and this will be widely used to develop the feedstock infrastructure for cellulosic ethanol production.

Apparently, POET is also taking considerable efforts to go hand in hand with the equipment manufacturers to make the cob-harvesting technology easier than before.

They have also planned to encourage the farmers and other people by giving away incentives to those who are early adopters of this cob-harvesting technology.


About POET

POET is proud to be a pioneer in unlocking the power of cellulosic ethanol. They have been in this field for the past 20 years and they have started turning biomass into fuel with a remarkable efficiency. Earlier, they were produicing ethanol from corn, however, now they are concentrating on cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on earth. It is more difficult to breakdown cellulose to its basic components in order to convert them into ethanol, but our ability to do it efficiently will radically expand the range of materials that can be used for ethanol production.

Although cellulosic ethanol is chemically identical to the ethanol, the processes for handling the raw material feedstock, breaking it down and fermenting it pose serious biochemical and engineering challenges. POET‘s research team has set out to curb away the bottlenecks faced by the growing cellulosic ethanol industry.

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Labels: Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

A Thermophilic Microbe - Solution to make Cellulosic Ethanol a Reality!

posted by Sumukee @ 9:04 AM | Friday, September 25, 2009 0 Comments

TMO Renewables, a world leader in cellulosic ethanol production, in late June, developed a fermentation technique using a thermophilic bacterium, which can digest the cellulosic biomass rapidly to produce ethanol. This will be more useful in warm countries as they bacterium thrive well. The new process helps to produce ethanol from any cellulose-based material, most notably corn, domestic waste (paper, food) and second-generation feedstock such as leftovers from agriculture and industry such as straw from cereal crops, doing so in a highly-economical way that is practically carbon neutral.

The funny thing here is England, because of its weather might not be able to use this heat-loving bacterium in their country. There are better prospects for this in countries such as the U.S and representatives from this British company claim that about 25 ethanol plant owners have expressed interest in TMO’s process, TMO has also invited the attention of China, who are also interested in converting the rice husks and forest waste in their country into biofuels.

Apparently, TMO has not received any public support from their own country, wherein the government policies in UK haven’t offered enough support because of which the biofuel industry has not shown considerable improvement in neither growth nor investments.

The advantage offered by this bacterium is that, it very easily digests the cellulosic biomass and converts it rapidly into bioenergy.

1. This bacterium produces ethanol rapidly; it doesn’t require much of heating or cooling, hence the energy required is very less. Most importantly, this organism can maintain itself at a very high temperature and to distill ethanol from the beer doesn’t require any additional input of energy.

2. This organism has the ability of digesting the longer chain sugars of the cellulosic biomass, thereby reducing the pre-treatment costs to a considerable extent.

3. Interestingly, the fermentation process is so rapid that the capital costs on fermentation vessels can also be minimized .On the whole the entire process can be made economically viable.


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Labels: Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol, Thermophilic Microbe.

The Cellulosic Ethanol Story...

posted by Sumukee @ 7:04 AM | 0 Comments

Fuel ethanol produced from substances like Cellulose can contribute significantly to reducing the use of petroleum and will help a great deal in solving the energy crisis. Developments in science and technology in a number of disciplines are required to make cellulosic ethanol dream come true.

Cellulose is the most abundant biological molecule in the world. Cellulose is a polymer of sugar. Polymers are large molecules made up of simpler molecules bound together much like links in a chain. Cellulose is a polymer of glucose, a simple sugar that is easily consumed by yeast to produce ethanol. Cellulose is produced by every living plant on the earth, from single-celled algae in the oceans to giant redwood trees. This means that cellulose is the most abundant biological molecule in the world.

The way it works is as follows:

The cellulose chains are broken down into individual links thereby releasing which can be further used to produce ethanol to be used as a fuel. Many companies like Iogen, NREL, Mascoma are employing their own enzymes to make this industry reach great heights. You can refer to my previous post, if you wish to know more details about the technology employed by the top leaders in the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry.

Conventional Ethanol Vs Cellulosic Ethanol:

Cellulosic Ethanol has a number of advantages when compared to the conventional ethanol. Differences between conventional ethanol and cellulosic ethanol have also been highlighted in my previous post. They share a lot of similarities as well . The technology for fermentation,distillation and recovery of the ethanol are the same.

Challenges faced by the Cellulosic Ethanol Indusry :

The major challenges are linked to reducing the costs associated with production, harvest, transportation, and up-front processing in order to make cellulosic ethanol competitive with grain-based fuel ethanol and gasoline.

The major processing challenges are linked to the biology and chemistry of the processing steps. Plant genetics research and biotechnology are giving researchers the tools to increase agricultural yield of cellulosic plant material that is tailor-made for conversion to biofuels.Advances in biotechnology and engineering will help a great deal in achieving the goal of making CE a reality

Issues with the Pre-treatment technology:

This is done to soften the cellulosic material to make the cellulose more susceptible to being broken down. There are some issues in pretreatment of cellulosic ethanol.. Better understanding of the chemistry of plant cell walls and the chemical reactions that occur during pretreatment is leading to improvements in these technologies which lower the cost for producing ethanol. The leading pretreatment technologies under development use a combination of chemicals (water, acid, caustics, and/or ammonia) and heat to partially break down the cellulose or convert it into a more reactive form.

I, along with companies like Iogen, TMO renewables ,Mascoma and many other sustainable minds believe that Cellulosic Ethanol will soon definetely solve the enrgy- crisis.

Full report

Labels: bioenergy, Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulosic Biomass to Ethanol – Iogen Technology

posted by Sumukee @ 3:36 AM | Thursday, September 24, 2009 0 Comments

This post explains the technology employed by Iogen, the world leader in Cellulose Ethanol. I have highlighted the technology employed by this sustainability minded company and the technology they have employed to commercialize cellulosic ethanol.

Generally, the conversion of cellulosic ethanol involves three steps. The technology employed by Iogen has been explained briefly in the preceding paragraphs.

Activation step
Biological conversion
Product recovery

The first step involves converting the raw cellulosic biomass into reactive intermediates. This is either by pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, acid hydrolysis or gasification. Studies reveal that pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis serves to be the cheapest method in the activation step.

Companies like Iogen, who are world leaders in cellulose ethanol, have developed an efficient pretreatment method such as steam explosion. This method increases the surface area and the accessibility of the plant fibre to enzymes. This modified steam explosion process has not only improved the ethanol yields over the years but also has increased the pretreatment efficiency as well as reduces the overall cost.

Iogen produces some highly potent and efficient cellulose enzyme systems by themselves and those are tailored to the specific feedstock. This is followed by fermentation. Iogen has also developed reactor systems which have proved to fabricate high productivity and high conversion of cellulose into glucose. They have been able to do through a multi-stage hydrolysis process.

Again, I would like to highlight the fact that companies such as Iogen uses advanced microorganisms and fermentation systems which convert both C6 and C5 sugars to ethanol. This results in what is called “beer”. Further distillation is required to produce cellulose ethanol to be used as a fuel.

The last step involved is the process integration wherein energy efficient heat integration,
water recycling, and co-product production are performed to make the overall process economical as well as efficient.

For those of the scientific bent - Full article

Labels: Acid hydrolysis, Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Fermentation