CattleNetwork.com, KS
09-27-06
Iowa Researchers Seek Alternatives For Ethanol Production
CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Iowa State University researchers are looking into
alternative fuels to natural gas for use in ethanol production and hope to create a
renewable and cost-effective energy source.
Natural gas is an important component of ethanol production as plants need heat
to liquefy corn starch, distill alcohol and dry the distillers grain by-product. The
natural gas costs are the second-largest expense for ethanol plants, only behind
the cost of corn used in production.
As such, ISU researchers are working jointly with a company to gasify biomass to
create a mixture of flammable gases to replace natural gas in an ethanol plant's
heaters, the university said in a press release Tuesday.
By taking biomass, which is essentially material like corn stalks and distillers
grain, the researchers plan to partially combust the material to produce a mixture
of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and other flammable gasses into an
energy source called producer gas.
Besides use in ethanol plants, the producer gas can be converted to syngas,
which then can be converted to other transportation fuels, alcohols, hydrogen,
ammonia and other chemicals, the release said.
To make producer gas, biomass is injected into a thermal system that pumps air
through a bed of hot sand. That creates bubbles and a sand-air pseudo fluid, the
release said. The flammable gases are created during a reaction between the
biomass and the hot sand-air mixture. The reaction is sustained because the
process generates its own heat.
Frontline BioEnergy, an Ames, Iowa-based company, is working with the ISU
researchers and is providing the biomass gasification systems. The goal is to
produce a gasifier large enough to produce energy for an ethanol plant and for
the system to be integrated into a plant's existing natural gas operation.
ISU said 16% of the state's natural gas demand is tied to the 1 billion gallonsplus annual ethanol output.
Source: Debbie Carlson; Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4072;
debbie.carlson@dowjones.com