Great News for the Heartland - in fact it comes from the corn-belt, but will certainly cause the collapse of high corn prices eventually, possibly as early as next year if subsidies for ethanol are removed.
The end of food-grain derived ethanol now appears to be firmly on the horizon ! Yesterday, an alternative fuel developed by U of Wisconsin prof. James Dumesic was announced which looks a lot like the gasoline and diesel fuel used in vehicles today. That's because the new fuel is identical at the molecular level to petroleum-based fuel. The only difference is where it comes from. The process creates transportation fuels from unedible plant material, even waste and especially sawdust. Dumesic's paper is published in 'Science' (copyrighted) but the feedstock is said to be any kind of lignocellulose. Lignocellulose refers to nonedible sources of biomass instead of corn, and includes ag waste, corn stovers (leaves and stalks), switchgrass and forest and yard residue. The process begins by converting lignocellulose into raw sugars to which a solid catalyst in an aqueous solution is added, leading to the an organic oil-like solution floating on top of the water. The oil layer, which is easily separated, contains molecules of ketones and cyclics which are "functional intermediates." These molecules are the precursors to fuel. No distillation will be required since these, like gasoline are not water soluble. No distillation means a *Big difference* in the net energy balance, so that even if the yield per ton is lower, the end-result is far better. Corn is now selling at the equivalent of 18 cents per pound - an all-time high and triple its historic range. Most ag waste is unused and costs around 2 cents per pound, or is free - if you will remove it. Therefore even a 50% lower yield means the relative cost of feedstock goes up to 4 cents versus 18 cents. Due to changes in supply and demand, this gap will close - but there are other great reason NOT to use corn. Plant sugars contain equal numbers of carbon and oxygen atoms, making it difficult to create high-octane or cetane fuels. The solution was to catalytically remove the oxygen. The reactive molecules then can then be "upgraded" into different forms of fuel, and that is why the yield is lower. Dumesic's team demonstrated three different upgrading processes- meaning that this is fairly robust and could be in pre-commerical prototype stage soon. This is fantastic news! Here is the good professor's homepage: http://jamesadumesic.che.wisc.edu/ BTW - there have been at least two announcements by others of something similar but less advanced - so this is not the only possible way to end the used of food grain for fuel. Jones
