Posted on 03/11/2008 12:13:11 PM PDT by Red Badger
S. Degradans is the source of the Ethazyme mixtures.
University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer’s mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.
That process, developed by University of Maryland professors Steve Hutcheson and Ron Weiner, is the foundation of their incubator company Zymetis, which was on view today in College Park for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and state and university officials.
"The new Zymetis technology is a win for the State of Maryland, for the University and for the environment,” said University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. "It makes affordable ethanol production a reality and makes it from waste materials, which benefits everyone and supports the green-friendly goal of carbon-neutrality.
“It also highlights the importance of transformational basic research and of technology incubators at the University. Partnership with the State enables University of Maryland faculty and students to commercialize new discoveries quickly.”
“Today, Marylanders are leading the nation in scientific discovery and technology innovation,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “We must continue to invest in Marylanders like Steve Hutcheson and in their revolutionary ideas to protect our environment, create jobs, and improve lives.”
75 Billion Gallons a Year
The Zymetis process can make ethanol and other biofuels from many different types of plants and plant waste called cellulosic sources. Cellulosic biofuels can be made from non- grain plant sources such as waste paper, brewing byproducts, leftover agriculture products, including straw, corncobs and husks, and energy crops such as switchgrass.
When fully operational, the Zymetis process could potentially lead to the production of 75 billion gallons a year of carbon-neutral ethanol.
The secret to the Zymetis process is a Chesapeake Bay marsh grass bacterium, S. degradans. Hutcheson found that the bacterium has an enzyme that could quickly break down plant materials into sugar, which can then be converted to biofuel.
The Zymetis researchers were unable to isolate the Bay bacterium again in nature, but they discovered how to produce the enzyme in their own laboratories. The result was Ethazyme, which degrades the tough cell walls of cellulosic materials and breaks down the entire plant material into bio-fuel ready sugars in one step, at a significantly lower cost and with fewer caustic chemicals than current methods.
Hutcheson projects a $5 billion enzyme market for biofuels. The energy bill passed by the U.S. Senate in December mandates oil companies to blend in 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol with their gasoline by 2022.
Source: University of Maryland
Bump
Actually, I understand that goats are very effective against kudzu.
It causes seals and gaskets to deteriorate faster than with gasoline.
I have often looked at the mountain our landfill has made, and thought of the billions of dollars that lay waiting there for someone to mine. A process like this, that would be able to float all the bio-waste out in a usable form is a really good first step.
There are literally billions of tons buried landfill waste, mostly plastics from the last 70 years of overpackaged, cheap, disposable trinkets and gadgets we’ve produced. All that plastic can be turned into diesel fuel using the thermal depolymerization process......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
I'm not sure it was bogus, I think they just hadn't figured out how to do it on a large scale.
Ha! I love that picture! When I was visiting friends in Tokyo in 2005, we saw kudzu growing up the walls of highway embankments, and on everything out in the country. Looked like back home, in MS, where if something didn’t move for a couple of hours, kudzu started growing on it.
Convince the govt. agency in charge of ethanol $$$ allocation that whatever product or food source you are working on can be converted into Ethanol then thats a fast track to the Govt. $$$ earmarked for ethanol production.........
I predict in 10 years, oil to gasoline will be replaced by something else, maybe blogs-—>gas or grass-—>gas, but whatever it is, it will end our dependency on foreign oil.
Ethazyme/U of MD/ethanol ping.
KUDZU, yes, the roots are the source of a very good starch like arrowroot which is used in Japan. It makes nice jell type desserts. At Whole Foods Market, it was selling for almost $1 per oz. So the roots could certainly be used for ethanol production perhaps in the way that corn is used. And all that green stuff, great for cellulosic ethanol. Incidentally, the fibers in Kudzu vines can be used for cloth manufacture. In fact if I had a lot of land overrun by Kudzu I would check out the potential economic value. The refining processes for food and fiber are not that complex.
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