U.S. university developing new biomass technologies for ethanol
GRAND FORKS, North Dakota, US, January 17, 2007 (Refocus Weekly) A U.S. university will partner with an ethanol company to improve the production process for ethanol.
The Center for Renewable Energy and the Center for Biomass Utilization at the University of North Dakota will partner with ICM of Kansas, to develop a new technology to produce ethanol from grasses, wood and straw. The goal is to advance the use of ethanol use through non-traditional feedstocks beyond corn.
“Biomass ethanol is the future of ethanol production because biomass feedstocks, like wheat straw or switchgrass, require less fossil fuels to grow, harvest and produce,” says Chris Zygarlicke of the University’s Energy & Environmental Research Center. “It also allows us to utilize more marginal land, such as grasslands, rather than precious acreage devoted to food crops like corn or soybeans. In this way, ethanol production from biomass does not negatively affect the livestock and food industry.”
Most of the ethanol currently produced in the U.S. is made by converting corn into sugars and then into alcohol. EERC’s technology uses thermochemical conversion to heat biomass to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, creating a gas that can be converted to ethanol and other products such as methanol and butanol.
In recent years, the EERC has developed small-scale biomass gasification systems which produce gas that can be burned to generate electricity. Research will refine the system to produce a clean gas with low contaminants that can be converted to ethanol, using additional new technologies that are simple and economically feasible.
“Because of the increased demand of ethanol for transportation fuel, efforts to increase supplies are necessary,” adds Tom Erickson of EERC. “It will be crucial to increase levels of biomass ethanol production, which requires new technologies.”
The Biomass Research & Development Technology Advisory Committee, established by Congress to advise the U.S. secretaries of agriculture and energy, has set a goal to replace at least 30% of current petroleum consumption with biomass by 2030. This level would equate to 60 billion gallons of ethanol, while current corn-based ethanol production is 5 billion gallons.
“Developing domestic sources of renewable energy is essential to ensuring our national energy security,” explains EERC director Gerald Groenewold.
EERC recently demonstrated a biomass gasification power generation system to turn waste material into heat and electricity at the Grand Forks Truss Plant in North Dakota. The system converts sawdust and wood waste from the building plant into a combustible gas to produce heat and electricity, and is designed to generate between 10 kW and 1 MW of power.
“This power system provides unique energy solutions to industrial clients by producing heat and electrical power from a variety of fuels, including waste materials and other organic feedstocks," explains Darren Schmidt of EERC. “The power generation and consumption of the lumber scraps ultimately provide cost savings for the Truss Plant.”
“We are very excited and proud to host a project involving renewable energy,” adds Shaun Johnson of Grand Forks Truss. “We have a vast supply of biomass waste and continue to produce more than we can utilize in our current heating system.”
The project is conducted under EERC's Center for Renewable Energy (formerly the Center for Biomass Utilization) and the National Center for Hydrogen Technology, two of EERC's ten Centers of Excellence. The technology has potential applications in the production of hydrogen from other renewable energy sources.
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