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News and Trends
http://www.genencor.com/cms/connect/genencor/media_relations/news/frontpage/gen_businessupdate_393_en.htm An enzyme preparation which is said to be the first commercially available enzyme product “specifically developed for the cellulose ethanol market”, has recently been launched by Genencor, a subsidiary of global food ingredient and consumer products company, Danisco. The product, called, “AcceleraseTM 1000”, has been described as a complex enzyme preparation containing a “potent combination of enzymes which can break down lignocellulosic biomass (containing cellulose and hemicellulose) into simple sugars for ethanol fermentation. According to the product information website, the enzyme product (obtained from a genetically modified fungus, Trichoderma reesei) can be used for a wide spectrum of pretreated lignocellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover, sugar cane bagasse, and wood chips. The enzyme preparation is said to have the following main enzyme activities: endoglucanase (“cuts” the cellulose polymers into smaller fragments containing glucose units), beta-glucosidase (ultimately cuts the glucose-glucose fragments, called “cellobiose” into the basic monosaccharide for ethanol fermentation, glucose). More information on the commercial enzyme preparation can be obtained from the product website above..
http://biopact.com//10/gs-cleantech-to-produce-biodiesel-from.html A technology for oil extraction from distillers dry grains (DDG) (by an American company, GS Clean Tech), can potentially provide “two fuels from one corn kernel”: ethanol and biodiesel. A typical material balance for corn ethanol production would show that 10 kg of corn would yield about 3.3 kg ethanol as the main product, and 3.3 kg of distillers dry grains (DDG) as by-product. Distillers dried grains are produced by drying the liquid residue remaining after distilling-off of ethanol from the fermentation broth. Presently DDGs are commonly used as animal feed. DDGs are oil-rich residues which can be extracted to obtain a higher value-added product in the form of biodiesel. The “patent-pending” corn extraction system from GS Clean Tech has the ability to extract 75% of the oil entrapped in the DDG. The company announced the implementation of an agreement with the company, Northeast Biofuels, to “extract about 10 million gallons per year of crude corn oil from the distillers grain co-product from NEB’s new 114 million gallon per year dry mill ethanol plant”. The plant is scheduled to begin operations later this year”. Biodiesel is produced from the extracted oil via the chemical route, known as “transesterification”; the oil is added with methanol (often with a catalyst) and allowed to react to produce the biodiesel. From the product website, a thermochemical route for producing biodiesel directly from DDG (via BTL, or biomass to liquids technology) is also shown..
http://biopact.com//10/uganda-to-get-gelfuel-and-ethnol-plant.html There are plans in Uganda for the construction of a local ethanol and gelfuel production facility for domestic lighting and cooking uses. The production facility which is planned by a local investor, will utilize starch/saccharine crops as feedstocks. The production plant is expected to be completed by June 2008. According to the Biopact website, gelfuel is a “clean-burning,non-poisonous, biobased fuel” made from a simple technology using ethanol and a biomass-based thickening agent as raw materials. Gelfuel is seen as an alternative replacement to wood fuels, which is used by majority of African households. By reducing demand for wood fuels, forest resources in the region can be conserved. The product has received support from the World Bank (Millennium Gelfuel Initiative).. http://biopact.com//09/pro-cana-to-invest-510-million-in.html The Government of Mozambique, through its Agriculture Minister, H.E. Erasmo Muhate, has confirmed the signing of an agreement with Central African Mining and Exploration Company worth US$510-million, for the establishment of a sugarcane plantation and production of 120 Megaliters of cane ethanol per year. A 30,000 hectare area in the southern province of Gaza is eyed for the plantation. Mozambique is said to have attained the realization of its potential as a “biofuels superpower”, by virtue of its agro-ecological resources which “allow the production of a wide variety of energy efficient crops” that includes cassava, sugarcane, grasses, jatropha. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates Mozambique’s bioenergy potential to be about 7 Exajoules (1 exajoule = 1 billion Gigajoules), or roughly equivalent to 3.1 billion oil-equivalent barrels per day.. Energy Crops and Feedstocks for Biofuels Production
http://genetics.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0030179&ct=1&SESSID=226c2a2ac65cbec7ce99b22f32cb8356 American scientists reported a technique for the introduction of an entire "cassette" of novel genes into a plant that is both structurally stable and functional, via their “maize mini chromosomes” (MMCs). Their findings are published in the open access journal, PLoS Genetics (URL above). The MMCs, which can be considered as “artificial plant chromosomes” or “autonomous chromosomes”, were constructed from “small rings of naturally occurring plant DNA, and can be used to transport multiple genes at once into embryonic plants” (Biopact website). Once introduced, the MMCs are said to behave like ordinary chromosomes, distinct, and structurally stable, with the genes expressed during plant duplication and transmitted through mitosis and meiosis. In contrast, traditional methods for creating transgenic plants involve methods that integrate DNA fragments into a host chromosome. University of Chicago professor and paper co-author, Daphne Preuss, says that the technology can have many useful agricultural productivity applications, including the production of improved biofuel crops. Related information on artificial chromosomes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_chromosomes Biofuels Processing
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/114292441/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 A review article from the journal, “Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining”, presents a relatively good and compact review of the concepts needed to understand the technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (often called “second generation biofuel feedstock”) into biofuels. The major routes for lignocellulosic conversion to biofuels are: (1) biochemical/chemical route: involving the breakdown of cellulose/hemicelluloses from the plant biomass into sugars for subsequent transformation to ethanol by fermentation, and (2) thermochemical route: involves (a) pyrolysis (heating in the absence of air) of the biomass to produce oil, gas and char, or (b) biomass gasification followed by the Fishcer Tropsh process (thermochemical conversion of gasification products into a mixture of hydrocarbons, often referred to as “synthetic biofuels”). The economic issues related to the above conversion routes are also discussed.. Biofuels Policy and Economicshttp://biopact.com//10/putin-encourages-farmers-to-produce.html Despite its being a global oil and gas exporter, Russia is set to join the global transition to biofuels. In a national television program, Russian President Vladimir Putin, told farmers that they stand to “benefit from capturing part of the emerging market for bioenergy”. Together with “next-generation” biofuel technologies, the country has the potential to harness its vast territory of “taiga and tundra” areas for bioenergy crop plantations particularly lignocellulosic biomass, into biofuels. Taiga and tundra areas are not suitable for food farming, and can be used to plant a diverse range of “herbaceous and woody biomass crops” as bioenergy feedstocks. According to the International Energy Agency Task Force 40, the region (former Soviet Union and Baltics) has a maximum sustainable energy capacity of 199 Exajoules by 2050, or about 89 million barrels per day. This is roughly comparable to the present global oil consumption. (1 Exajoule is 1 billion Gigajoules) Related information on taiga and tundra: |
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