Advanced Technologies for Converting Corn Grain to Ethanol
- Pictured here is cellulase. The Advanced Corn-to-Biofules team seeks to understand lignocellulose metabolism and cell wall assembly in corn grain and stover so that it can be efficiently taken apart.
The objective of this project is to find new technologies to improve the efficiency of ethanol production. The amount of energy needed to produce a gallon of ethanol from corn grain has been controversial with some alleging that more energy is needed to make ethanol than is produced. Recent studies estimate that ethanol plants produce ~40% more energy than consumed; but, today’s plants still consume far too much energy. These limitations can be alleviated and the overall efficiency and profitability of converting corn grain to ethanol can be improved by modifying corn traits for enhanced ethanol production, developing new processing technologies requiring less energy and allowing water recycling, achieving more complete conversion of sugars to ethanol, improving process/reactor design, and increasing revenue streams.
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