It is clear that much work remains in finding a suitable alternative to corn-based ethanol production. The issue is that corn is so heavily subsidized, that ideally alternatives should compete without these subsidies and stand on their own. It also doesn’t help that the production of petroleum is also heavily subsidized.
Glycerol is commonly called glycerin or glycerine, it is a sugar alcohol and fittingly is sweet-tasting and of low toxicity. Glycerol is a 10% by-product of biodiesel manufacture (via the transesterification of vegetable oils). It is used in medical and pharmaceutical products as well as personal care and additives in food.
However researchers at Rice University in Houston Texas lead by Ramon Gonzalez, the William Akers Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering:
Gonzalez and a group of students, for instance, have identified a process in which Escherichia coli, in an oxygen-free environment, will convert glycerol into ethanol.
This is important to the economics of bio-diesel production because if ethanol is a by-product of the production then the numbers work more favorably.
Ethanol produced from glycerin could also be more economical than producing it out of corn, the main feedstock for ethanol in the U.S., or than cellulosic ethanol, which is made out of wood chips and waste vegetable matter. Gonzalez hopes a prototype production process for making glycerin ethanol will be in place by the end of the year, meaning it could come to market earlier than cellulosic ethanol. Mascoma will try to open a small cellulosic plant by early 2008 and New Zealand is investing in the concept. But most believe cellulosic ethanol is still at least a few years away.
It is good news to see the amount of research that is going into developing new technologies. A combination of public private capital is the correct approach. We look forward to more break through technology like this.
