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Turning A Glycerin Glut Into Ethanol Helps Biofuel Industry
By Mr Ethanol | November 6, 2007
A Texas biotech firm plans “within a matter of months” to begin producing ethanol from glycerin using technology that significantly cuts production costs and could solve one of the biggest problems facing the biodiesel industry.
The process uses a non-pathogenic strain of E. coli to convert glycerin into ethanol, a method its developers say is easier and cheaper than using corn or sugarcane and more viable than using grass and other plants.
But the discovery’s greatest impact could be on the biodiesel industry by creating demand for what has become its Achilles’ heel — the millions of gallons of glycerin produced each year as a by-product of biodiesel.
“There is a big glut of glycerin, and if they keep producing biodiesel, they will keep producing glycerin,” said Ramon Gonzalez, one of the two Rice University professors behind the process.
The worldwide overabundance of glycerin poses one of the biggest challenges to expanding biodiesel production. Refiners operate on narrow profit margins and often sell glycerin to subsidize production. Last year, they produced 250 million gallons of biodiesel and 25 million gallons of glycerin, according to the National Biodiesel Board. (That’s a huge increase from 1999 when refiners made just 500,000 gallons of biodiesel and 50,000 gallons of glycerin.)
Glycol Biotechnologies, a firm founded by the Rice researchers and funded by DFJ Mercury, plans to begin producing ethanol at a pilot plant in Houston by the middle of next year.
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Topics: Biofuel, Ethanol, Industry, Science |
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