Honda and RITE develop new cellolosic ethanol technology
Honda announced today that it, along with Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), has developed a new way to produce cellulosic ethanol. We're all pretty aware of the benefits cellulosic ethanol would give, but it has proven difficult to make lots of it cheaply and easily. Honda and RITE now say they have figured out the "basic technology" to use cellulose and hemicellulose to make ethanol. The process, in Honda's own words, consists of four operations:
- Pretreatment to separate cellulose from soft-biomass
- Saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose
- Conversion of sugar into ethanol using microorganisms
- Ethanol refinement
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[Source: Honda]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex Kovnat 9:19AM (9/14/2006)
As an alternative fuel enthusiast since the 1970's, I was delighted to read the September 14 article on how Honda is teaming with RITE to develop cellulosic ethanol technology.
It has long been known that breaking down cellulose and hemicellulose in wood (but not lignin) into 5- and 6- carbon sugars for subsequent fermentation into ethanol was doable. Unfortunately, it has not been easy to develp microbes capable of fermenting 5-carbon sugars.
Also: we have all heard accusations, true or not, that making ethanol from corn uses more energy than you finally get in the ethanol output. Those accusations would apply even more to ethanol from sources such as trimmed tree branches, owing to the difficulty of breaking cellulose and hemicellulose into simple sugars.
Every year when I trim tree branches around my home, I notice the wood is very green and therefore not easily burnable at that point. But I think this green wood would make a good input into cellulose-to-ethanol production facilities. So I really wish Honda and RITE all the best in their efforts.
With Highest Regards,
----Alex Kovnat
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Stphane Dumas 3:46PM (9/14/2006)
Does Honda did a 180 degrees turn? Compared to this article dated from late August
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/08/28/honda-says-no-to-ethanol-cites-not-efficient/ it seems they had changed their minds.....or they might have others plans in head. I guess I'm a bit dazed and confused.
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fawgcutter 7:10AM (9/15/2006)
It's interesting to see how effective some PR groups works compared to others. I see that Honda and RITE develops a process and it's big news. While Royal Dutch Shell and Canada's IoGen are already building a PLANT in the US, using a similar process and I barely see it in the news.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11273318/
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fawgcutter 7:16AM (9/15/2006)
Whoops ol' eyes not reading things right they are trying to get financing to build a plant in US or Canada.
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