http://www.albertafarmexpress.ca/2014/06/06/scientists-make-ethanol-without-corn-or-other-crops/
[Emmm, OK, but where does the carbon monoxide come from? From engine
exhaust? Or as suggested in the article, by cracking CO2 from the
atmosphere? Breaking CO2 to CO takes energy, and presumably we don't
want to combust the end product to make more CO2. Seems to me, if you
are starting from renewably sourced electricity to power the CO to
ethanol step (of a multi-step process), wouldn't it be simpler - and
likely more cost-effective - to use that electricity to power whatever
the ethanol was going to be used for? E.g., transportation.]
Will Dunham in News Reuters
Scientists have developed a new way to make liquid ethanol efficiently
without using corn or other crops needed in the conventional method for
producing the biofuel.
The scientists said April 9 their process turns carbon monoxide gas into
liquid ethanol with the help of an electrode made of a form of copper.
They said the new technique may be more environmentally friendly and
efficient than the current method.
Critics say that growing crops for biofuels is energy intensive and
takes up vast tracts of non-agricultural land, using too much water and
fertilizer. They also say diverting corn and sugar to make biofuels
pushes up food prices.
The United States leads the world in ethanol production, with 13.3
billion gallons in 2013, followed by Brazil’s 6.3 billion gallons,
according to the Washington-based Renewable Fuels Association, which
represents the U.S. ethanol industry.
A group of scientists led by Stanford University chemist Matthew Kanan
described the new method in research published in the journal Nature.
Kanan said a prototype device could be ready in two to three years,
enabling an assessment on whether the process can become commercially
viable.
“I emphasize that these are just laboratory experiments today. We
haven’t built a device,” Kanan said. “But it demonstrates the
feasibility of using electricity that you could get from a renewable
energy source to power fuel synthesis — in this case ethanol. There are
some real advantages to doing that relative to using biomass to produce
ethanol.”
Ethanol fuel generally is produced at high-temperature fermentation
facilities that chemically transform corn, sugar cane and other plants
into liquid fuel.
Kanan and his colleagues built an electrochemical cell — a device
consisting of two electrodes that were put in water saturated with
carbon monoxide gas. One of the electrodes was made of a material they
call “oxide-derived copper.”
When voltage was applied across the electrodes, the carbon monoxide gas
was converted into ethanol, they said.
The researchers hope to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
convert it to carbon monoxide, which then would be fed into the
copper-oxide catalyst. The researchers hope the catalytic cell would be
powered by a renewable energy source such as solar or wind.
Chemist Aaron Appel of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a U.S.
Department of Energy government research lab, said that the work from
Kanan’s group demonstrates “a remarkable improvement in selectivity and
energy efficiency” for the production of ethanol from carbon monoxide.
Appel was not part of the study but wrote a commentary in Nature on the
findings.
Advocates call ethanol a green energy source that, compared to gasoline,
reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Ethanol last year directly supported more than 86,000 U.S. jobs in fuel
production and agriculture, the Renewable Fuels Association said.
Last November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed cutting
the amount of ethanol required to be mixed with the gasoline supply,
responding to pressure from the petroleum industry. It marked the first
planned cut to renewable fuel targets written into a 2007
U.S. law.
_______________________________________________
Sustainablelorgbiofuel mailing list
Sustainablelorgbiofuel@lists.sustainablelists.org
http://lists.eruditium.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel