Ethanol Archives – The Green Optimistic

New Ethanol Conversion to Deliver More Energy

Samantha Joe — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 09:43:37 +0000

Researchers have found a new method of ethanol conversion that may be applied to the development of renewable fuels. Ethanol, a corn-based product, is traditionally added into engine fuel. You may see signs when filling up your vehicle with gasoline that it contains ethanol. Though it is added to fuel to help decrease emissions, the […]

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Hardwood Genes Improve Softwood Biofuel Potential

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 07:00:54 +0000

Yesterday researchers from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Center and University of Wisconsin-Madison published evidence that the environmental impact associated with processing softwoods into biomass can be greatly reduced by bio-engineering. The addition of two hardwood genes to their counterparts, softwoods, may be able to alter the weak environmental tradeoff of creating softwood-derived paper, pulp and biofuel, according […]

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Research to Boost Biofuel Capacity of Switchgrass – Michigan State University

Benji Jerew — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:18:44 +0000

As a biofuel feedstock, switchgrass is fairly well-suited to the task of carbon sequestration, but it could be even better, says Michigan State University (MSU) As a biofuel feedstock, harvested switchgrass is fermented to produce ethanol (C2H6O), a type of alcohol. Ethanol can then be blended with gasoline, up to 85% for flex-fuel vehicles, reducing […]

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Big Oil Behind Blocking Use of Ethanol? Say It Isn’t So!

Benji Jerew — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:43:39 +0000

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), higher percentages of biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are to be blended in the national fuel supply, but it seems that Big Oil might play a part in making it difficult. While fuel-efficient vehicles use less fuel overall, one might think this is […]

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Ethanol’s “Hidden Risk” is More Big Oil Nonsense

Benji Jerew — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 20:29:22 +0000

Ethanol is a biofuel which, when added to gasoline in concentrations up to 15%, or up to 85% in the case of flex-fuel vehicles, helps to reduce emissions and reduce gasoline consumption, but did you know it is also poisonous? Say it isn’t so! For the non-chemists, ethanol (C2H6O) is actually one of the oldest […]

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EPA Proposes Reduction in U.S. Biofuel Requirements

Danny Harper — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:12:01 +0000

When ex-President George W. Bush signed an expansion of The Renewable Fuel Standard program into law, requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of the biofuel ethanol to their gasoline each year, he predicted that it would make America “stronger, cleaner and more secure.” Fast forward six years and the expansion has proven to […]

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Research Finds Gas Prices Unaffected by Ethanol

Adele Hall — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:44:04 +0000

New research from MIT has found the use of ethanol in gasoline does not significantly lower the price of gasoline. Former research had suggested a significant decrease in the price of gasoline due to ethanol, but it was found to be “a correlation being interpreted as a causal relationship.” The research had suggested the use […]

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Big Oil Trying to Stop Gas Retailers From Selling Ethanol Blends (E15)

Benji Jerew — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:27:20 +0000

In order to reduce emissions, all gasoline in the US is blended with 5% to 10% ethanol, but with the increasing fuel-economy of the light vehicle fleet, petroleum companies are feeling the pinch. When consumers buy ethanol-blended gasoline, E5 or E10 [5% and 10%, respectively], only 90% to 95% of that ever trickles back […]

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Ethanol From Farm Waste Cuts Down Fuel Costs and Emissions In Japan

Mila Luleva — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:02:29 +0000

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. from Japan claims to have produced car fuel from farm waste, which can compete in cost with imported ethanol. Recently, the use of ethanol as an environmentally friendly alternative to polluting fossil fuels, has gained popularity amongst “green” drivers. Unfortunately, the cost of producing this biofuel has presented a limitation. For this reason, the […]

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Next-Gen Biofuel Progresses Slowly, Could Match Corn-Based by 2016

Benji Jerew — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:34:34 +0000

Setbacks could probably be the best way to sum up the advance of the next generation biofuel production, but these things take time. Ethanol is a major biofuel used here in the US, and is produced from corn. Of course, there could be better uses for agricultural land used to produce corn simply for use […]

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Marginal Lands Deemed Perfect for Sustainable Bioenergy Production

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 07:46:30 +0000

Last week, University of Maryland faculty members and a Ph.D. student from U of M’s Department of Geographical Sciences published research detailing the possibility of using marginal lands for biodiversity research and alternative fuel production. The study, titled “Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest”in the January issue of Nature, describes how […]

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Sorghum-Derived Ethanol Cuts Down Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 50%

Mila Luleva — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:38:43 +0000

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently added ethanol made from grain sorghum to the group of advanced biofuel. This news was particularly welcomed by companies in Kansas. The Western Plains Energy plant near Oakley is already developing strategies for making their ethanol become ‘advance biofuel’. The company invested in a methane digester utilizing waste. […]

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Fast-Food Lobbyists Fight Biofuel Law

Leigh Hutchens — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 06:29:08 +0000

American fast-food lobbyists are pushing back again an alternative fuel policy that requires gasoline to contain ethanol, a fuel produced from corn, and are asking Congress to repeal the law. Fast-food customers consume corn in two ways. The hamburger and chicken they eat in their meals come from an animals raised on corn. The fuel […]

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Ethanol-Based Biofuel Spills Could Pollute More Than Ordinary Fuels

Mila Luleva — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:24:39 +0000

Outcome Magazine released a report last week, stating that when the biofuel component ethanol is mixed with regular petroleum gas it gives it different fluid-like properties. Researchers at the University of Mitchigan discovered that ethanol-based liquids mix much more actively with water. In case of a possible oil spill, this combination of ethanol-based biofuel and […]

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New and Improved Biofuel Production from Agricultural Wastes

Maria Reyes — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:57:07 +0000

Researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) develop a new biofuel production process that generates 20 times more energy than currently known methods. The process highlights a novel use of microbes to produce ethanol and hydrogen from agricultural wastes. Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist, is the co-author of the study along with Allison Spears, MSU graduate student. […]

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Bacterium Living in Yellowstone’s Hot Springs Studied for Ethanol-Producing Abilities

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:11:10 +0000

Caldicellulosiruptor obsidiansis, a bacterium that can normally be found in Yellowstone’s hot springs has opened new horizons for scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) who were studying how to produce ethanol from switchgrass in a more viable manner, without relying on plant material-breaking enzymes. A comparative analysis of proteins found in Caldicellulosiruptor obsidiansis grown on four […]

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Burning Sugarcane Fields Bad for Ethanol's Carbon Footprint, Researchers Find

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:35:20 +0000

Ethanol is already established as a good biofuel source and is being blended with gasoline to make the fossil fuel cleaner-burning. But ethanol that is made from sugarcane crops has been found dirtier than previously thought, if the fields are burned prior to harvesting. The discovery has been made by a team of researchers from […]

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Renmatix Uses Supercritical Water to Turn Biomass into Biofuels

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:29:19 +0000

Wood chips, switchgrass and other non-edible parts of crops, also known as “agricultural waste” have been touted recently as good biofuel sources. However, extracting the necessary sugars that would further on get converted into fuels had been proven hard to accomplish. Renmatix, a Georgia-based company, has found a new process to quickly extract the sugars […]

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Discarded Watermelons Could be Used to Make Ethanol

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:23:31 +0000

Did you know that up to a fifth of all watermelons grown each summer go discarded, only because of their non-uniform shape? It’s not that they’re not good tasting, but us, customers, simply choose not to buy them. Well, it seems they can be used for making ethanol. Wayne Fish, a chemist at the Agricultural […]

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Cheap Hydrogen Obtained By Using Ethanol and Sunlight

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:58:23 +0000

Not only one time had ethanol been tested as a reliable source of hydrogen. Now, a multi-national team of scientists from Spain, Scotland and New Zealand have devised a method to use ethanol and sunlight to extract hydrogen for use in fuel cells to generate electricity.

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Startup Proterro Engineers Bacteria For Higher Ethanol-Producing Sugar Yield

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:04:18 +0000

Princeton-based startup Proterro has announced the development of a technology that can produce sugar, the main source for ethanol, by using engineered cyanobacteria, photosynthetic organisms that can produce sucrose through a normally-occurring defense system.

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Genetically Modified Switchgrass Offers Bright Perspective on Bioethanol

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:11:43 +0000

Ethanol is already being used to supplement gasoline, as you may already know. Still, researchers are trying to find methods to produce bio-ethanol from plant sources that are both less costly to grow and to process, while at the same time keeping the efficiency into account. Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers found how newly-modified prairie grass may be the perfect candidate.

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Put In Beer and Pop, Get Ethanol – Example of Canada's Newest Waste Recycling Plant

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:37:26 +0000

A plant that will eat up waste pop soda and beer and will output ethanol good for pouring in fuel tanks will be set up by the end of February in Atlantic Canada. The $500,000 pilot plant, is part of a project led by New Brunswick Community College's bioenergy and bioproducts applied research and technology facility in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, located near the Maine border.

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NASA is Producing Biofuel from Algae Grown in Sewages

Cristi — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:41:12 +0000

NASA has recently been very interested not only in space exploration but as well in the rising energy costs and climate change. NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, has developed a system of growing algae in waste-water for the biofuel production.

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E85 Ethanol Increases Pollution and Risk of Human Diseases

Cristi — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:03:43 +0000

Researches from Stanford University have recently published a study on ethanol fuel and its influence over human health. Compared to pure gasoline usage, ethanol increases health problems because of cancer-chemical formation.

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Researchers Develop Method of Turning Sewage Sludge into Ethanol

Mike Sandru — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:18:06 +0000

According to the researchers this new method can reduce the amount of sludge processed by traditional treatment facilities and turn municipal solid waste into a green fuel.

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Alkol's New System Converts Your Car to Run on E85 in One Hour

Mike Sandru — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:00:25 +0000

The company Alkol Inc located in Brazil has developed a new system called 1HourFlex that can convert your car to run on any amount of ethanol or gasoline(E85) in less than one hour.

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Juice Extracted from Rotten Watermelons to be Used in Biofuel Production

Mike Sandru — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:01:21 +0000

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of tons of watermelons are transformed in garbage because they aren't good enough for marketplace. A new research says that the juice extracted from these watermelons could be used to the biofuel production.

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Crude Glycerin from Biofuel Production has Great Unexpected Uses

Cristi — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:43:50 +0000

Glycerin in its pure form is used to manufacture soap, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and many other products, but the crude glycerin is an impure form that is unsuitable for these products. But what if we could use it putting back biodiesel in its correct position of green alternative power source?

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Thermochemical System Combines Production of Ethanol and Thermal Energy

Cristi — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:24:53 +0000

Iowa State University started a new project of developing a thermochemical system that combines production of ethanol and thermal energy. With a low-emission burner and a new catalyst for ethanol production, the technologies use synthesis gas produced from discarded seed corn, switch-grass, wood chips and other biomass.

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New Catalyst Makes Ethanol Fuel Cells Feasible at Room Temperatures

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:28:22 +0000

I don't know the solution to the perfect energy equation, but as long as we're producing CO2 it's not the final one. Anyway, until a new and better method is found to be feasible enough, this is a good one, too.

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Korean Seaweed Biofuel not Using Usable Lands for Crops

Cristi — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:09:39 +0000

Today, most of the liquid biofuels are sugar or starch based and are obtained from crops of sugar beet, sugar cane, potatoes or corn. A problem in the future could be the lack of lands. These crops use good lands on which food can grow instead. An idea to decrease use of proper agricultural lands would be to use the unproductive lands to obtain biofuels.

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How Termites Help Producing Ethanol From Wood

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:49:25 +0000

Michael Scharf, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his colleague AurÃƒÆ’©lien Tartar describe the way that the enzymes produces by termites and the micro-organisms living inside them, or their "symbionts" could help the scientists produce ethanol from straw or wood by providing some basic chemical processes.

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Toyota Prius Converted to Run on Ethanol

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:34:55 +0000

Recently inspired by public demand and by the conversions made by third party companies to make it a plug-in hybrid, Toyota seriously intends to equip their cars with various fueling systems, so you can charge the batteries at night.

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Algenol Mexico Factory to Produce Ethanol from Algae by 2009

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:58:25 +0000

Algenol CEO Paul Woods said Thursday that the ethanol produced at the farm will cost $1 less than today's gasoline, that is about $3/gallon.

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The MicroFueler – cheap ethanol energy source at your door

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:47:12 +0000

I guess everybody’s complaining about the skyrocketing oil prices these days. This trend is expected to be worse, and it’s expected to reduce the people’s gasoline consumption by big figures. That can be to the benefit of the environment, on one hand, but on the other hand it can be terrifying for the general public, […]

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Do you agree to genetically mutate trees for ethanol production?

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:56:21 +0000

Here we go again. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about some scientists inventing a way to modify the DNA of a bacteria to produce hydrogen. Ok, I didn’t fully agree with that – considering that bacteria is an extremely small microorganism, and you don’t know what ecological disaster it might produce when […]

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