Researchers Seek to Maximize Corn Ethanol Production with New Catalysts
10 March 2006
Iowa State University researchers are working to create chemical catalysts that would increase the yield of fermentable sugars from corn, with the potential to boost the production of corn ethanol by 10% to 15%.
The idea is to create the chemical catalysts that create single, simple sugars from molecules made of several simple sugars linked together. The simple sugars are the ones that can be fermented to produce ethanol. Such a process would allow ethanol producers to use all the sugars in corn, resulting in the production boost.
Current ethanol production technology uses enzymes to convert the starch in corn kernels into simple sugars. The simple sugars are fermented into ethanol. That process uses about 80% of a corn kernel, according to Brent Shanks, an Iowa State University associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, and the leader of the research effort.
The remaining 20% of a kernel contains sugar chains that can’t be fermented. Shanks and his research team are working to develop a chemical catalyst that will break those sugar chains into the simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol.
The team is focused on synthesizing and testing catalysts made from a hybrid of organic and inorganic materials.
Pulling out those sugars would also boost the protein level of the distillers dried grains left behind by ethanol production. That would make the byproduct more valuable as an animal feed.
This research is in an area that makes a lot of sense for Iowa. I think our interest in alternative sources for energy and chemicals is very important to our entire society. We need to come up with alternatives. But I worry about coming up with them fast enough.
—Brent Shanks
Shanks, who worked for the Shell Chemical Co. for 11 years, said the petrochemical industry has been developing catalysts and other technologies for working with fossil fuel molecules for about 80 years. Researchers working with corn and other bio-based molecules are just starting to develop catalysts and technologies to improve production of fuels and chemicals.
The research is supported by grants of $305,000 from the National Science Foundation, $200,000 from the US Department of Agriculture through the Iowa Biotechnology Byproducts Consortium and $162,000 from the US Department of Energy through the Midwest Consortium for Biobased Products and Bioenergy.
Assuming it would be economically viable to retrofit existing facilities, this sounds very promising. Ethanol yields up 15% AND more value to the primary byproduct - sounds like a win-win situation.
Hopefully, this isn't all talk and the time to market could be swift. Otherwise, by the time this is deployed, we'll be well down the path of allocating less land to corn and more to better energy crops like switchgrass. This is something that needs to happen now so we can make better use of our current resources.
Posted by: Angelo | 10 March 2006 at 12:09 PM
Angelo:
Switchgrass can be grown on non-food producing land, I think. One farmer on the BiodieselNow.com forum noted that it's good for land reclaimation, it's a perennial, and doesn't require much energy to cultivate.
My question about the getting more ethanol from corn is wondering how much this will affect the energy return. Right now it's only barely positive, about 1.2:1. Will the energy used to do this pretreatment negatively or positively impact that? Even a small improvement would help.
Posted by: Cervus | 10 March 2006 at 12:23 PM
If this process raises the 2.66 gal/bu conversion rate by 20% (to 3.2), it will still not get corn ethanol anywhere close to where it would have to be to constitute an effective alternative to petroleum.
Absurd agricultural subsidies have made it economically attractive to burn grain, but it's ultimately a dead end. This effort would be best aimed at converting xylose and lignin to simple carbohydrates.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 10 March 2006 at 04:30 PM