by Al Costa (Biofuels Digest/Alkol) … So, the idea I’m spreading here is that we should produce ethanol from many sources? No, that is only PART of the idea. And a small one, in fact. The larger part of the idea is that we need to move to a model which closely resembles the oil industry. There, there is a refinery which produces in a single “distillation column” a myriad of products. Gasoline, diesel, asphalt, jet A, methane…you name it . In our model however, the same column produces just ONE product: ethanol . Doesn’t that sound like a big waste of machinery?
In fact, so far, our machinery is nothing more than a distillation column for a broth fermented by some kind of micro-organism which is in something like 99,999% of cases Saccharomyces cerevisiae, AKA plain old Baker’s yeast. Again, doesn’t that sound like a big waste of machinery? Couldn’t we ALSO grow other microorganisms such as maybe Deinove’s Deinococcus? Or maybe that genetically modified Saccharomyces by Amyris which also produces Farnesene? Or even that bug LS9 used to produce diesel?
Well, you’d say. We also produce DDGS, CO2, oil in some cases, etc. Well, a sugarcane one also produces electricity (11 GW is produced by all plants in the state of São Paulo), vinasse, bagasse, etc. However, in all those those are really products which offer low prices. We need to go for the high end molecules.
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That will rid us from the shackles of “blend walls”, EPA’s 15% limit, Europe’s 5% limit, and what not. That because we will be able to tackle markets which have nothing to do with fuel, such as plastics, paints, etc. Exactly like the oil industry does, btw.
We love to say we are here to REPLACE oil. Well, let’s do that, … READ MORE