Côte d'Ivoire's agriculture minister Amadou Gon has visited the biofuels section of the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris, one of the largest fairs of its kind. According to his communication office, the minister is looking into drafting a plan for the introduction of biofuels in the West African country.
Japanese researchers develop membrane for more efficient ethanol production
Increasing the efficiency of biofuels production is an important challenge to improve the energy balance of green fuels, but from Brazil comes the proof that much can be achieved. Agronomists and engineers there succeeded in increasing processing efficiencies and reducing production costs by 75% over 3 decades (earlier post). The trend is set to continue and may once again double the ethanol yield for a hectare of sugarcane (earlier post).
Recently, process engineers in the U.S. used the sheer power of mathematics and of advanced modelling to optimise the way biomass feedstocks are transformed into ethanol in production plants. The result: a reduction of 60% of the ethanol plant operating costs (earlier post). Many different aspects of the biofuel production chain are still open to similar efficiency increases.
Researchers from Japan’s National Food Research Institute and the University of Tokyo have now made an interesting contribution by developing a membrane that supports a more energy-efficient production of high-concentration bioethanol.
Conventional ethanol production typically uses a two-stage distillation process to deliver the final ethanol output at a concentration of nearly 100%. The process can consume the equivalent of 55% of the energy that the bioethanol provides as a fuel.
The new membrane uses less than 70% of the energy normally required. The material has a two-layer structure. The underlying membrane allows ethanol to pass like a selective filter, while the upper membrane acts like a gatekeeper, only allowing the ethanol to pass when it is present in a sufficiently high concentration. As a result, the distillation process only needs to be conducted once.
The gatekeeper membrane is made from a sheet of polyethylene with tiny holes that are coated with a special polymer. The polymer blocks the holes until the ethanol reaches sufficient concentration. At that point, the polymer contracts and allows the ethanol to pass. Use of the membrane can produce ethanol at 90% concentration [entry ends here].
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: efficiency :: Japan ::
Recently, process engineers in the U.S. used the sheer power of mathematics and of advanced modelling to optimise the way biomass feedstocks are transformed into ethanol in production plants. The result: a reduction of 60% of the ethanol plant operating costs (earlier post). Many different aspects of the biofuel production chain are still open to similar efficiency increases.
Researchers from Japan’s National Food Research Institute and the University of Tokyo have now made an interesting contribution by developing a membrane that supports a more energy-efficient production of high-concentration bioethanol.
Conventional ethanol production typically uses a two-stage distillation process to deliver the final ethanol output at a concentration of nearly 100%. The process can consume the equivalent of 55% of the energy that the bioethanol provides as a fuel.
The new membrane uses less than 70% of the energy normally required. The material has a two-layer structure. The underlying membrane allows ethanol to pass like a selective filter, while the upper membrane acts like a gatekeeper, only allowing the ethanol to pass when it is present in a sufficiently high concentration. As a result, the distillation process only needs to be conducted once.
The gatekeeper membrane is made from a sheet of polyethylene with tiny holes that are coated with a special polymer. The polymer blocks the holes until the ethanol reaches sufficient concentration. At that point, the polymer contracts and allows the ethanol to pass. Use of the membrane can produce ethanol at 90% concentration [entry ends here].
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: efficiency :: Japan :: 
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