GlycosBio says it can make ethanol cheaper, months away from commercialization
Glycos Biotechnologies Inc, a company started by two Rice University researchers, say they can make cheap ethanol from glycerin. Glycos' process and the feedstock for making ethanol from glycerin (a byproduct of biodiesel production) is about half the cost of making ethanol from corn. The researchers, Ramon Gonzalez and Syed Shams Yazdani, found the right mix for a known strain of Escherichia coli to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process.
The company's website, if this is the company website, has nothing there. The investor's website, DFJ Mercury, say they are in "stealth mode." According to this article, the pilot is expected to be complete "by the beginning of 2008" and "once we have the pilot running and working properly, (commercialization) is a matter of months," said Gonzalez. So how much ethanol could they make? 168 million gallons of ethanol if every drop of glycerin was used. How much ethanol is produced in the U.S? ...about 5 billion gallons. Nice try anyway, guys.
The process can also produce hydrogen so there might be a fuel cell-usable byproduct.
[Source: Ethanol Producer, United Press International]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 9:42AM (11/04/2007)
@Lascelles -
you may be missing the point here. One of the barriers to increased biodiesel production is that traditional markets for glycerine (soap, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals) are limited. Consequently, prices are low. A process that can turn this by-product into a valuable fuel compound makes renewable fuels more economical to produce. That in turn enables investment into production and distribution capacity.
Any hydrogen produced in the process is best used for other petrochemical processes, such as eliminating sulfur from dino-fuel. FCVs ought to be the last, not the first, application for any surplus H2.
Of course, that still leaves the twin issues of biodiesel feedstock (algae, anyone?) and total diesel demand in the US. Unless T2B5 diesels catch on, any biodiesel produced has to compete against dino-diesel, a natural fraction of crude oil. Thanks to the Clean Air Act and the associated LDV emissions regs favoring gasoline, the US already has a surplus of the stuff. Many families on the East Coast rely on heating oil (=low quality gasoil) to keep warm in winter. What's left is exported to Europe.
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jasonypersonal 11:18PM (11/05/2007)
I wonder how this will affect the Brazilian sugar markets?
Jason Youmans
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