While many scientific studies have focused on reducing the cost of ethanol production by crop selection/improvement (i.e., crops with low agricultural inputs) or innovative bioprocessing methods, chemical engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have looked into ways for making the ethanol distillation process (the final step in ethanol production) more energy efficient. According to a Carnegie Mellon University press release, the technology involves redesigning of the distillation process by using a multi-column system, combined with mathematical optimization techniques. The project is in collaboration with Cargill, a food, agriculture and risk management solutions company. The improved technology ultimately decreased steam consumption (a major energy requirement in the ethanol production process) and reduced the ethanol manufacturing cost by 11%..