Iowa State Engineering Professor's has process to reduce Ethanol production costs up to one third.

JohnWxy

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Fri May-20-11 03:11 PM
Original message

Iowa State Engineering Professor's has process to reduce Ethanol production costs up to one third.

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Improving_Ethanol_Production_Economics_122317849.html

Iowa State University's Hans van Leeuwen has moved his research team's award-winning idea for improving ethanol production from a laboratory to a pilot plant.

Now he knows the idea, which produces a new animal feed and cleans water that can be recycled back into ethanol production, works more efficiently in batches of up to 350 gallons than on a lab bench.
"We're learning we can reliably produce good quality and good quantities," said van Leeuwen, Iowa State's Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor of Engineering in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering.

What van Leeuwen and a team of Iowa State researchers are producing is a fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus, that makes a high-quality, high-protein animal feed from the leftovers of ethanol production. The process of growing the fungus also cleans water from ethanol production so that it can be recycled back into fuel production. And the process, called MycoMeal, could one day produce a low-cost nutritional supplement for people.

The project has two patents pending and has won several major awards, including a 2008 R&D 100 Award presented by R&D Magazine, the 2008 Grand Prize for University Research presented by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and a 2011 Honor Award in University Research from the academy. The project also contributed to R&D Magazine naming van Leeuwen its 2009 Innovator of the Year.

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�The process could change ethanol production in dry-grind plants so much
http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfmSection=Industry_News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=69435">that energy costs can be reduced by as much as one-third ,� said Hans van Leeuwen, an Iowa State professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering and the leader of the joint research project with Iowa State and the University of Hawaii."
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...van Leeuwen said that there would be an investment up front to bring this process on line but that the savings to the Ethanol producer would make back his investment in about 6 months (!).

...cutting energy inputs by a third would increase the Net Energy Balance of Ethanol Production by 50%. So the (1.9 : 1) NEB reported by USDA for ethanol industry in 2008 would become (2.84 : 1) by including this process.

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lumberjack_jeff

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Fri May-20-11 03:21 PM
Response to Original message

1. MycoMeal? Yum, I guess. n/t

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JohnWxy

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Fri May-20-11 04:46 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. uh, I don't think I'd be a buyer, but maybe for fido. BTW here's a response to Anaxagoras' comment

Edited on Fri May-20-11 04:48 PM by JohnWxy

"Humans are so smart huh?"

no, they will only make a high protein food item - for people - if they can find people willing to eat it.

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