Now that ethanol has become common in gas tanks, two Iowa State University professors are working to get it into martini glasses.
The professors are researching how to easily, and cheaply, turn fuel ethanol into food-grade alcohol to be used in beverages, pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
I'm not sure I want to know what they're making the olives out of...
In one sense, this is good business. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Why find another use for ethanol at a time when demand for the fuel has skyrocketed?
Because while the demand for fuel ethanol could wane if the automotive industry embraces other technology, “the demand for liquor and mouthwashes and cough syrups will always be there,” said Hans van Leeuwen, a civil, construction and environmental engineering professor who is working with Koziel (Jacek Koziel, an assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering) on the project.
On the other hand, it could be a while before demand becomes great enough to make it profitable.
...the research is focused on perfecting technologies that purify fuel ethanol, a grain alcohol most often made from corn and used as a gasoline additive. Like beverage alcohol, fuel ethanol is yeast-fermented and then distilled. However, it has many more impurities that must be removed, Koziel said.
That's going to take time, and some convincing.
Monte Shaw, a spokesman for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said the future of food-grade alcohol produced from fuel ethanol depends on its profitability. Right now, ethanol used in gasoline blends is in demand, but as more plants are built and production climbs, producers could take advantage of extra capacity and turn food-grade ethanol into a premium business, he said.
“So today that interest probably isn’t as high, but we’ve got a lot of production coming on line,” Shaw said Thursday as he drove to a groundbreaking of a new ethanol plant in St. Ansgar, Iowa. “It’s not unreasonable to assume some time in the future that something like this might be very attractive.”
Yeah, but I see too many words like "could" and "assume" and "might". I'm probably not alone in my cautiousness.
Van Leeuwen said the multiple distillations needed to make food-grade alcohol raise production costs by about 50 cents per gallon more than it costs to make ethanol. The system the ISU team is working on aims to put purifying costs at less than a penny per gallon, he said, adding that retrofitting the purification process would cost little for ethanol plants.
But ease in retrofitting plants is no guarantee of future sales. I can't imagine the current providers of food-grade alcohol will stand by and do nothing.
Now, I'm not down on this at all. I love innovation. I'm sure this will be fascinating to watch. There are just no guarantees.
.jpg)
Comment Preview