Ethanol is one of the most promising of the Renewable Fuels and is to be found today blended into many of the available gasolines of North America. Brazil is the most advanced country in the production and use of ethanol. The problem in North America with ethanol is that it is made from corn, a food grade feedstock that is essential to livestock and to the populations in many parts of the world. The price is already at record levels and is forecast to go higher. It is also expensive. The average cost of ethanol production (not its retail price) is now $1.35 per US gallon.
The world scientists are eagerly looking for the next breakthrough in ethanol production; many think it is to be found in the use of cellulose (waste wood and most agricultural wastes) as a much cheaper feedstock. Cellulose also comes without the burden of corn’s political ramifications. Mantra is investigating a new, breakthrough technology to make ethanol from waste wood: the cost of production will be much lower. The North American market can take up many millions of gallons per year, certainly all of the production that Mantra can contemplate building in the next 10 years.
The production process is as follows:
- Chipped wood is processed to extract sugars from the cellulose, the lignin which glues wood together goes to heat the power boiler
- The sugar solution is fermented and the alcohol extracted by a novel process
- This is a closed loop system, there are no waste streams
- The energy requirement is about 50% of the standard process
- The process makes its own power and heat and sells the excess
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 Ethanol from wood waste.  Cellulosic ethanol production plant.  Agricultural waste wood. |
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