Monday, October 27, 2008

Cellulosic Ethanol
at 1:13 PM Posted by Kevin

Many are skeptical over ethanol, which is produced from biomass (commonly corn and soy beans), production fearing increasing food prices. January of this year the cost of soy beans and corn were at an all time high. This results in many countries seeing in an increase of prices of food relating to biomass used in ethanol such as (pork, beef, milk, poultry).  In US almost 90% of ethanol is produced from corn because of its low cost, is converted to glucose, then fermented and distilled to produce ethanol. However, due to the cons many have turned to cellulosic ethanol. 
Cellulose is a hard external wall found within plants. It is more difficult to convert cellulose to glucose, then from the previous sources. However, a major pro is that more sources are made available (in the following sentence). It also interfere with food prices because it can be produced from, cornstalks, wheat straw, trees, wood chips, grass, etc. Ethanol from cellulose is said to have the ability to displace 30% of the US's petroleum consumption. Also, it will stimulate economic growth by producing jobs, and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Natural Resource Defense Council believes that by 2012, cellulosic ethanol will be able to compete with gasoline. 
The following is a good  pictorial representation of the production of cellulosic ethanol. 



3 comments:

  1. October 27, 2008 at 6:02 PM  
    Tommy said...

    Kevin,

    If ninety percent of ethanol is made from corn, is the other ten percent produced with other food products or other non-consumed plants, such as algae? According to my blog post on biofuels, algae-based ethanol is expensive, but algae can produce much more ethanol per acre than corn can. I do believe cellulosic ethanol is more effective than regular ethanol, but can the world use ethanol forever, given the greenhouse gases that still result from burning ethanol? On a side note, though, the photo at the top blended nicely with your background.

    Tommy

  1. October 28, 2008 at 8:44 AM  
    Britney said...

    That is an interesting question Tommy raises..."can the world use ehtanol forever, given the greenhouse gases that still result from burning ethanol?" Eventually, it seems our need for energy will wipe out all of our natural resources. If ethanol continues to produce greenhouse gases that affect climate, agriculture, etc. will there even be corn stalks to produce ethanol from? Are there any other forms of renewable energy sources scientists are researching that would have almost no harmful effect on nature?

  1. October 28, 2008 at 10:28 PM  
    Kevin said...

    Tommy and and Brit,
    I do think the world can use (cellulosic) ethanol if not forever than for a very long time. This is due to its ability to be converted from scraps such as wood chips and debris that would not be used other than for compost. Keep in mind that cellulosic ethanol doesn't use food such as corn.

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