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SunEthanol Collaborates With MBI to Scale-Up Cellulose BioEthanol Process
26 August 2008
SunEthanol, a biofuels company developing consolidated bio-processing (CBP) technology based on the “Q Microbe” (Clostridium phytofermentans) (earlier post), is collaborating with MBI International to scale-up a fermentation method for producing ethanol from non-food agricultural feedstocks.
MBI is a Lansing, Michigan biotechnology firm specializing in fermentation process development and scale-up. MBI also develops biomass processing technologies. Currently, MBI is actively scaling-up AFEX (ammonia fiber explosion), a biomass pretreatment technology developed at Michigan State University.
We believe that AFEX-treated biomass could be an effective feedstock for our Q-microbe in producing cellulosic ethanol.
—Dr. Sarad Parekh, VP of Research and Development at SunEthanol
AFEX opens up biomass cell-wall structures, thereby increasing the effectiveness of digestion.
Resources
Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory (Michigan State University)
August 26, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: gr | August 27, 2008 at 01:23 PM
The question is, how much energy does it take to create the microwaves? The analysis is usually energy in to energy out. So if it takes me 1 megawatt hours in to get 1.2 megawatt hours out, that is not a bargain.
Posted by: sjc | August 27, 2008 at 02:16 PM
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"AFEX (ammonia fiber explosion)" for predigestion.
The same can be done by sticking your biomass in the microwave. Without explosive results. And while on microwaves - isn't it astonishing how they can break the bonds in seawater?? Need H2?