Mascoma Corp to build cellulosic ethanol plant in Michigan
And now, what many of our readers have been waiting for: cellulosic ethanol. As can be seen from the comments on posts dealing with ethanol production, many people want to take food, specifically corn, out of our gas tanks and back into ourselves. A new plant has been proposed by the Massachusetts-based Mascoma Corp that would create cellulosic ethanol in Michigan. Not only would corn not be used for ethanol at the new plant, the resulting ethanol would most likely be cheaper to produce. Of course, subsidies and tax breaks are part of the plant's proposal, of course. Speaking as somebody who lives near Detroit, the resulting jobs are sorely needed, and the plan also includes developing new technology from local universities.
The technology in question will be needed because the source of the ethanol will be wood. As of this writing, there are a few competing technologies which can use biomass for ethanol, and they need more tinkering to get it all just right. The process uses, in Mascoma's own words, "enzymes, microbes and processes for economical conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol. " This is new technology that we are talking about, as opposed to the long-standing tradition of making moonshine from grains. But, if they do get it right, the payoff could be worth it. It is also probably worth mentioning here that after the biomass is broken down, it could be used in more ways than just producing ethanol.
Related:
- Termites could be the next frontier in cellulosic ethanol production
- Makin' ethanol from the old poplar tree
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Charles O 10:56AM (9/28/2008)
Ethanol from wood chips sounds like a good idea. But a 40 million gallon per day facility in Michigan is going to need a lot of wood chips. Even if the ratio is 1 to 1, how many gallons could 1 truck load of wood chips represent? Maybe the equivalent of 5,000 gallons? That's 8,000 truck loads per day! How much fuel will these trucks burn traveling hundreds of miles? Will they cut down trees specifically for wood chips? Have seen the price of lumber lately?
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Bill 5:15PM (7/20/2007)
No way is this cheaper than corn-based ethanol.
Wood breaks down into cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
Not all of those can be made into ethanol.
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Chris M 6:04PM (7/20/2007)
For conventional corn based ethanol, only the starch in the kernals is converted, and that is a small fraction of the corn plant. The ratio of starch to "everything else" for corn is less than the ration of cellulose to "everything else" in wood.
But for cost, it isn't the relative ratios that is critical, it is the cost of the feedstock. Wood scrap, sawdust and wood pulp is a lot cheaper than corn!
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Bill 9:02PM (7/20/2007)
It's also the cost of the enzymes.
Transforming cellulose into sugars requires a lot of expensive enzymes compared to breaking starch down into sugars.
I've not yet seen a cellulosic ethanol company that would admit what it cost them to produce cellulosic ethanol, only words to the effect "we expect to be cost competitive with corn-based ethanol in the future"
Expect these companies to ask for MORE subsidies than corn-based ethanol producers.
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Max Merak 2:04AM (7/21/2007)
Remember Jimmy Carter's plan for shale oil?
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Chris M 12:12AM (7/22/2007)
Yes, the enzymes could be expensive, but each enzyme molecule will continue to break down cellulose into simple sugars until it is either destroyed or lost in the waste stream. They may have developed methods to recover the enzymes.
Or, they may simply use bacteria that produce the cellulase enzymes almost for free, costing only a little sugar as feed for the bacteria.
A similar process could be used to produce butanol, which is a better fuel for existing IC engines - higher energy density than ethanol, and unlike ethanol, no special modifications needed.
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