Social Technologies Brief Offers Insight into Future of Biofuels
Social Technologies analyst Mark Justman offers insight into the sixth trend in the company's list of top 12 areas for innovation to 2025.
Advanced Instruments to Introduce 3320 Micro-Osmometer to Ethanol Producers at 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo
Advanced Instruments will officially introduce their Model 3320 Micro-Osmometer to ethanol producers in booth #2302 at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo, June 26 -29, at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Advanced® Model 3320 Micro-Osmometer allows ethanol production plant managers to streamline key control processes and dramatically cut the time to determine Dextrose Equivalence of liquefaction samples by eliminating their manual titrations with automated osmometry instrumentation.
Biofuel Crops: Panacea or Pandora's Box?
While biofuel is the latest buzz word in the energy industry, it must be recognized that many of the plants currently targeted for possible biofuel production are invasive and could wreak havoc with native plants if they escape their cultivated environment, according to a recent whitepaper from the Weed Science Society of America.
Hybrid Cars: List Of Real Drawbacks To Owning A Hybrid Vehicle
As oil prices continue to increase amid depleting supplies and rapid growth in demand, all economies globally are feeling the setbacks of the need to curtail excessive consumption of fuel.
Facts About Hybrid Cars
There are a number of myths and misrepresentations about hybrid cars but there are also a number of clear facts. Certain hybrid cars produce a significant amount less pollutants than conventional cars although the amount depends on the model. The United States Government offers a number of incentives so that citizens will turn to hybrid cars and these include a valuable tax rebate. The cost of hybrid cars can be high initially but the truth about it is that it is an investment as the parts have warranties that provide free replacements. They keep their value as they are so much in demand. They tend to last longer than conventional gasoline cars and do not require more maintenance than other cars. The facts about hybrid cars technology...
Methanol On Nitro Fueled RC Cars
When you have RC cars, the degree of taking care of it and the importance of regular maintenance is high. There are a lot of things needed to take note of and still many things to learn about owning a remote controlled car. Also, the difference between electronic powered cars between a nitro fueled ones has to be mastered accordingly.
New Biodiesel Auction Site Changes the Way Renewable Fuel Is Bought and Sold
In January 2008, a revolutionary new website was launched that will forever change the biodiesel industry. Fillmore Fuels is the first biodiesel related auction website to hit the market. In today's renewable fuel market, there is a great divide between the individual consumer or home-brewer and the large commercial businesses. Fillmore Fuels is leading the way in bridging that divide by not only establishing a marketplace for biodiesel related items to be bought and sold, but also by building a community where everyone can come together to share their knowledge and expertise.
Primafuel Co-Founder to Speak at World Ag Expo on Future of Brazil-United States Biofuel Policies
Co-founder, Rahul Iyer, will educate farmers on the opportunities and challenges of a low-carbon world market.
Ethanol And Hybrid Cars
Hybrid cars are starting to gain a modicum of popularity in the world market and this popularity seems to be growing. Current fears regarding climate change combined with rising costs of gasoline have led to great public interest in hybrid cars although this interest has not entirely yielded huge sales at present. This has led to many people wonder about the future of hybrid cars and this future is based on a variety of factors.
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The Commercial Production Of Ethanol From Corn
This second article by Absolute Futures will explain the commercial production of ethanol. Ethanol is a product of fermentation. Fermentation is a sequence of reactions which release energy from organic molecules in the absence of oxygen. In this application of fermentation, energy is obtained when sugar is changed to ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Changing corn to ethanol by fermentation takes many steps. Starch in corn must be broken down into simple sugars before fermentation can occur. In earlier times, this was done by chewing the corn. This allowed the salivary enzymes to naturally break down the start. Today, this is achieved by cooking the corn and adding the enzymes alpha amylase and gluco amylase.
Once a simple sugar is obtained, yeast is added. Yeast is a single-celled fungi which feeds on the sugar and causes the fermentation. As the fungi feeds on the sugar, it produces alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide. In fermentation, the ethanol retains much of the energy that was originally in the sugar, and explains why ethanol is an excellent fuel.
Most ethanol production in the United States is made in 50 production facilities in 20 different states. Most of these plants are located in the Midwest.
Changing the starch in kernels of corn to sugar and changing sugar to ethanol is a complex process and requires a mix of technologies that include microbiology, chemistry and engineering.
Ethanol is produced from corn by using one of two standard processes: wet-milling or dry-milling. Dry-milling plants cost less to build and produce higher yields of ethanol, but the value of co-products is less. Most of the ethanol plants in the U.S. utilize a dry-milling process. The wet-milling operation is more elaborate because the grain must be separated into its components.
After fermentation, the ethanol is removed from the mix of ethanol, water, yeast, and residue. It is then purified through distillation. The distilling process takes advantage of the low boiling point (78C.) of ethanol. When the temperature of the mix is increased slightly higher than the boiling point, the ethanol evaporates. It is then captured as a gas vapor and condensed back to a liquid. Other chemicals are added and molecular sieves are used to purify the ethanol.
Advances in technology are being made to further reduce the large amounts of energy needed for distillation. These advances help to reduce the costs and make producing ethanol much more economical.
This article has been written by Sandra Case, who is Vice President Commodity Research for Absolute Futures Commodity Brokerage.For further information regarding this article or information on othercommodities or trading of the commodity markets please contactSandra Case 800-935-6494. http://www.absolute-futures.com
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