Other Sources Emerge For Ethanol Creation
Topeka Capital Journal:
The federal government is wagering $76 million that the future of alternative fuel production will unfold in a southwest Kansas community synonymous with natural gas.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded grants to six developers — including Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass, which plans to build an experimental refinery in the heart of the massive Hugoton gas field — to help bring ethanol drawn from unconventional sources to market.
Infusion of $385 million in federal funding over the next four years is intended to demonstrate commercial viability of producing ethanol from such materials as crop residue, wood chips and perennial grasses. If cost-effective, these revolutionary methods could relieve price pressure on corn and other food-chain staples now used to distill ethanol.
“All my life I’ve heard about how we’re going to use wheat straw to make something,” said U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican from Hays.
Convincing recalcitrant cellulose, the most abundant naturally occurring organic molecule on the planet, to give up fermentable sugars for biofuels is a challenge. The key is finding the right cocktail of enzymes, or another chemical conversion process, to reach the core of cellulose-packing corn stover and cereal straws, saw dust and paper pulp, or crops such as switch grass grown specifically for fuel production. More.
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