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10 November 2010

How to Convert Switchgrass to Ethanol

By Joshua Smyth, eHow Contributor
updated: October 18, 2010


This field could fill your gas tank.
field image by Marek Kosmal from Fotolia.com


Biofuels such as ethanol are compounds derived from plants that can be used to fuel internal-combustion engines such as those in cars and small machinery. Creating these fuels from plants can reduce the environmental and political problems caused by a reliance on oil. Although much ethanol production, especially in the United States, comes from corn, switchgrass is a promising alternative. It is a North American native grass that can grow on marginal land without the extensive inputs that corn or sugar cane require, and it produces a much better energy yield. Making ethanol from switchgrass, though, is a challenging process.

Things You'll Need:
  • Switchgrass seeds
  • Field
  • Harvesting machinery
  • Refining tanks
  • Cellulase enzymes
  • Yeast
Plant switchgrass seeds during the spring planting season. Unlike many other crops, switchgrass is a wild grass that doesn't need special care or fertilizer inputs. It can be planted on marginal land that wouldn't support food or staple crops.

Harvest the switchgrass in the autumn after the first frost kill. The switchgrass must be mowed down and then baled. Since producing enough switchgrass to usefully refine involves large fields of the plant, the harvest must be done with farm equipment. This involves using a tractor with a mowing attachment to cut down the switchgrass, and then using a towed or self-propelled baler to gather it into bales.

Process the switchgrass for refining. The bales of harvested grass must be chopped into smaller pieces to accelerate the process of enzymatic hydrolysis (adding water and special enzymes) that will convert the cellulose in the switchgrass to sugars.

Mix the chopped switchgrass with water in a large tank and add cellulosic enzymes that can digest the cellulose into sugars that can be refined to ethanol. The major source of these enzymes is Novozymes, a Danish company that specializes in agricultural biochemistry. The cost of these enzymes is the major stumbling block to economically viable switchgrass ethanol production. To be economically viable, a refining operation needs to be able to handle 5,000 to 10,000 tons of grass each day.

Remove the processed cellulose from the water and add special yeasts, which should be available from the same supplier as the enzymes. The yeast will refine the sugars in the water into ethanol, in a process similar to wine production.

Distill the ethanol from resulting liquid by boiling the water off and collecting the ethanol in a separate tank. To distill pure ethanol, benzene or cyclohexane must be added to the mixture. These chemicals bind to and remove the last small bits of water from the distillate. Some processing operations use special microscopic filters instead. If trying this on your own, always check local regulations on home alcohol distillation, as ethanol is a type of alcohol.

Tips /Warnings
  • Producing economically viable ethanol from switchgrass involves large planted areas and large refineries. Doing this at home will likely produce quantities too small to be useful, but can be an interesting experiment.
  • Governments and private companies are researching cheaper and better enzymes to refine switchgrass; until a better one is found, commercial production beyond test plants is unlikely.

References
Harvest Clean Energy: Creating Cellulosic Ethanol: Spinning Straw into Fuel
Wired Magazine: Cellulosic Ethanol: One Molecule Could Cure Our Addiction to Oil
Iowa Switchgrass: Harvesting
Home Distillation of Alcohol: Theory

Read more: How to Convert Switchgrass to Ethanol | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7356509_convert-switchgrass-ethanol.html#ixzz14tPAHVqB

09 November 2010

How to Make Ethanol Alcohol

By Amanda Kondolojy, eHow Contributor
updated: August 20, 2009




Make Ethanol Alcohol


Agrospace
Ethanol alcohol is a great gasoline additive that will help you increase your car's fuel efficiency. If you own a car that can handle E-85, then ethanol alcohol can be used as 85% of this gas alternative. However, before you attempt to make ethanol alcohol for your own personal use, make sure to consult your local law professional, as it is illegal in many states to produce your own ethanol for automotive use without a special permit.

Things You'll Need:
  • Ethanol distiller
  • Water boiler
  • Alpha amylase
  • Glucoamylase
  • Yeast
  • Grain
  • Water
  • Plastic barrel
Decide on a commonly available feedstock for the ethanol. This can be any type of grain, including rice, corn or soybeans. Once you have decided on the feedstock, grind it up and then weigh it.
Find out how much water your boiler can handle. Then go to the ethanol materials calculator at The Ethanol Source (see Resources) and plug in the weight of your materials as well as your boiler's capacity to find out how much yeast and sugar you will need.

Add alpha amylase enzyme in the proper proportions to the measured water and feedstock. Boil this mixture for an hour to kill any bacteria. Remove the mixture from heat and then add glucoamylase.

Add yeast to the mixture and store in a covered plastic barrel. Leave it for 3 to 5 days to ferment. Because Ethanol is flammable, it is best to leave this outside is a protected area.

After fermentation is complete, put the mixtrure through a distiller to remove excess water from the mixture. Once the distillation process is complete, store the ethanol in a plastic container in a protected area.

Tips / Warnings
  • It is very important to obtain an ethanol-producing license before attempting these steps.
  • Make sure you have proper containment facilities before you make the ethanol, as it is very flammable.

Resources
Resource Calculator at The Ethanol Source



Japanese Institute Succeeds in Extracting 'Green Crude Oil' from Blue-Green Algae

JFS/Japanese Institute Succeeds in Extracting 'Green Crude Oil' from Blue-Green Algae
Copyright Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry

As a project funded under NEDO's "Grant for Industrial Technology Research Program", NEDO and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Japan announced on March 17, 2010, that Hideki Kanda, Chief Scientist of CRIEPI, successfully developed a method to extract a high yield of "green crude oil" from blue-green algae at room temperature using liquefied dimethyl ether (DME).
Green crude oil is a general term for oily substances in the cells of microalgae, and there has been some ongoing trial utilization of the substance as an alternative to petroleum for fuel. Traditional methods to extract green crude oil pose some problems because of their complex steps, such as drying, breaking cell walls, and using and removing toxic solvents, which require considerable energy.
The method was developed to overcome these problems by taking advantage of liquefied DME's unique ability to mix with water and oil. Because it can dewater blue-green algae and extract oils from it concurrently at room temperature, the amount of energy required for dewatering and drying can be reduced drastically when compared to conventional methods. In addition, with no organic solvents required for extraction, the process has the potential to be a low-cost and environment-friendly method of extraction. CRIEPI successfully extracted over 60 times more green crude oil (based on the dry blue-green algae weight) in its experiments than traditional methods.
The practical application of this liquefied DME extraction process needs further basic experiments using various algae and development of the technology that can concentrate green crude oil in DME. CRIEPI plans to conduct further experiments and improve this new method.
Successful Extraction of "Green Crude Oil" from Blue-Green Algae
http://criepi.denken.or.jp/en/activities/pressrelease/
2010/03_17.html

http://criepi.denken.or.jp/en/activities/pressrelease/
2010/03_17.pdf

Hemicellulose-Degrading Bacterium Isolated from Livestock Feces

JFS/Hemicellulose-Degrading Bacterium Isolated from Livestock Feces
Copyright NILGS
Japan's National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS), National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, announced on August 4, 2010, that it had successfully isolated an extremely thermophilic anaerobic xylan-degrading bacterium from sheep feces through joint research with the University of Georgia in the United States. This bacterium can even grow at temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius and degrade xylan, a component of hemicelluloses included in straw and other agricultural waste. This is the world's first isolation of thermophilic anaerobic bacterium whose growth rate is highest at or above 65 degrees Celsius, from livestock feces.


The research group inoculated sheep feces into a culture medium containing xylan, cultured it at 74 degrees Celsius in anaerobic conditions, and then isolated the new xylan-degrading bacterium. Growing on xylan as a source of carbon and energy, the bacterium can degrade various kinds of xylan such as xylans from beech or oak trees to xylose which can be used in making biofuel. Its growth ranges are 44 to 77 degree Celsius (70 degrees Celsius is the optimal temperature) and pH 5.9 to 8.6 (optimum 7.2) in anaerobic conditions.
The bacterium was named Caldicoprobacter oshimai and certified as a new family. A family is positioned above a genus, which is above a species. The bacterium strain was sent to the ATCC and DSMA, located in the USA and Germany, respectively. The strain can be used for nonprofit purposes.
NILGS expects that the new bacterium will promote the use of previously unused biomass such as straw as biofuel, and also be used as a new genetic resource.
National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science official website
http://nilgs.naro.affrc.go.jp/index-e.html