Research Reveals New Biofuels Link (A Two-fer!)

ethanolproducer.com ^ | 11/01/2007 | Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

[Red Badger]

Crude glycerin is a low-value byproduct of the growing biodiesel industry. But one company, Glycos Biotechnologies Inc., sees potential for the product as a feedstock for ethanol production.

Last year, a way to connect the ethanol and biodiesel industries was revealed when it was determined that biodiesel could be a value-added product for ethanol plants through corn oil extraction technology. This year, researchers at Rice University in Houston have discovered yet another link. This new concept is centered on a technology that converts glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel production, into ethanol.

Ramon Gonzalez and Syed Shams Yazdani have identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of Escherichia coli to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process. Gonzalez is currently the William Akers assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University, and Yazdani is a postdoctoral research associate.

In a comparison of feedstock and operating costs, Gonzalez found that ethanol from glycerol is 39 cents cheaper to produce than ethanol from corn. Feedstock costs per gallon were 53 cents for corn, versus 30 cents for glycerol. Per gallon operating costs were 52 cents for corn and just 36 cents for glycerol (see table above). "The main reason for the difference in costs is that there is no preprocessing," Gonzalez says. In feedstock operations, the corn must be ground and cooked, and the sugar extracted. "It is a process that is both capital and process intensive," Gonzalez says. "You need to work all the way from the corn grain until you get sugar, and then you start fermentation." Meanwhile, glycerin doesn't require those steps because it comes preprocessed. This means no enzymes to buy and less equipment.

[Swiss]

150 years of basic ag economics.

If the price of something is high, farmers overproduce until there is a glut and the price is low for them. That then causes farmers to produce less which leads to a shortage which causes a price hike and the cycle begins again.

[southland]

bttt

[beef]

I just read your story about Haiti. It’s sad but true. We send them food to keep them from starving. We send them medicine to save them from disease. We try to teach them how to better their lives. All it does is enable them to increase their numbers and when the inevitable happens, it’s all the more tragic. Then in some quarters, we get blamed for all the misery because our help was “culturally inappropriate” or some such nonsense. You have to wonder if it would not be better to just stand back and let nature take it’s course.

[MSF BU]

Ditto with thermaldepolymerization

[Doohickey]

Why would farmers grow beans when the government mandates that we should ferment and burn corn?

[Mr. Lucky]

Because soybeans are trading at $10.02 per bushel.