Bioethanol is one of the most popular substitutes for the conventional petroleum based fuel. The advantages of bioethanol are manifold. Being produced from renewable sources, i.e. from energy crops like cereals, sugar beet and maize, it could be produced anywhere on the planet. Bioethanol being biodegradable is far less toxic than fossil fuels. Use of biofuels is perhaps one of the best ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the biocrops absorb the carbon dioxide that is emitted by burning of bioethanol, through growing. Bioethanol is produced from biomass by the hydrolysis and sugar fermentation processes that require diluted sulphuric acid or enzymes to break the cellulose and the hemicelluloses to produce sucrose sugar that is fermented into ethanol.
Gekkeikan General Research Institute has developed a new production method for producing bioethanol that is safer and more environment friendly than the popular methods of production. The researchers from Japan have developed a “super yeast” which is sake yeast genetically modified with koji mold genes. Instead of using chemical agents, the new method pretreats plants for fermentation with water at subcritical region or high-temperature and high-pressure water. At the subcritical region, water becomes acidic but as temperature and pressure declines, water retains its neutral state. Cellulose pretreated with subcritical water is then treated with super yeast to produce ethanol.
Image:greenergy
Source:nikkeibp
