Energy News  
Turning Fuel Ethanol Into Beverage Alcohol

Iowa State University researchers Hans van Leeuwen, left, and Jacek Koziel are developing a process to quickly and cheaply convert fuel ethanol into the purer alcohol used in beverages, mouth washes, cough syrups and the like. Photo by Bob Elbert, Iowa State University.
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles (SPX) Aug 30, 2006
Fuel ethanol could be cheaply and quickly converted into the purer, cleaner alcohol that goes into alcoholic drinks, cough medicines, mouth washes and other products requiring food-grade alcohol, say Iowa State University researchers.

But there's still a lot of purifying and studying to be done before fuel made from corn is turned into your next vodka or mixed into your morning mouth wash.

Jacek Koziel, an Iowa State assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, is leading a research project that's attempting to develop and refine two technologies that work together to efficiently purify and remove bad-tasting components from fuel ethanol. The project is partially supported by a $79,900 grant from the state's Grow Iowa Values Fund.

Koziel is collaborating on the project with Hans van Leeuwen, the vice president of MellO3z, a Cedar Rapids company that has developed technology for purifying alcoholic beverages. Van Leeuwen is also an Iowa State professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.

Iowa certainly has an abundance of fuel ethanol for the researchers to work with. Iowa is the country's leading producer of fuel ethanol. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board says the state has 25 plants capable of producing 1.5 billion gallons per year with more plants on the way.

Van Leeuwen said the fuel produced by those plants and the alcohol produced for the beverage industry are very similar. But alcohol produced for fuel isn't made with the same care and purity as alcohol for consumption, he said. The multiple distillations required to make food-grade alcohol raise production costs to about 50 cents per gallon more than it costs to produce fuel ethanol.

Van Leeuwen said the researchers are working to develop technologies that can purify fuel into beverage alcohol for less than an additional penny per gallon.

"That's the whole point," van Leeuwen said. "And based on my experience treating water and wastewater with these technologies, this could cost a lot less than a cent per gallon."

The potential to cut costs has one large producer of ethanol and food-grade alcohol interested in the research project, van Leeuwen said.

Koziel said the researchers are using two purification technologies: they're bubbling ozone gas through the fuel to remove impurities and they're filtering the fuel through granular activated carbon to absorb impurities. A patent for the process is pending.

Underpinning the research is sophisticated chemical and sensory analysis of the raw fuel and the purified alcohol. Koziel will use a technology called solid phase microextraction to collect samples of the compounds in the alcohols. He'll also use a technology called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify and quantify all the compounds in the samples. And he'll use his lab's olfactometry equipment to separate and analyze the smells created by the various compounds.

"If this is viable," Koziel said, "we are looking at adding a lot of value to relatively cheap fuel-grade ethanol."

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Iowa State University
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Oil Prices Tumble On Easing Hurricane Fears
London (AFP) Aug 30, 2006
World oil prices tumbled below 70 dollars on Tuesday on forecasts that tropical storm Ernesto, which had threatened US Gulf Coast oil facilities, would remain below hurricane force, traders said.







  • Turning Fuel Ethanol Into Beverage Alcohol
  • Oil Prices Tumble On Easing Hurricane Fears
  • Australian PM Dismisses Business Calls For Climate Action
  • Gulf Oil And Gas Output Trails Pre-Katrina Production

  • Iran Plans New Light Water Nuclear Reactor
  • Argentina Launches Multi-Billion-Dollar Nuclear Initiative
  • Swedish Nuclear Shut-Down Most Serious Ever
  • New Check On Nuke Power

  • NASA Experiment Finds Possible Trigger For Radio-Busting Bubbles
  • California's Model Skies
  • ESA Picks SSTL To Develop Atmospheric CO2 Detector
  • Faster Atmospheric Warming In Subtropics Pushes Jet Streams Toward Poles

  • NASA Satellites Can See How Climate Change Affects Forests
  • Papua Logging Industry Riddled With Corruption, Rights Abuses: Report
  • Small-Scale Logging Leads To Clear-Cutting In Brazilian Amazon
  • Debate Continues On Post-Wildfire Logging, Forest Regeneration

  • EU Orders Imports Of US Rice To Be Certified Free Of GM Strain
  • Cow Gas Study Not Just A Lot Of Hot Air
  • No Confidence In Organic
  • New Flood-Tolerant Rice Offers Relief For Poorest Farmers

  • British Police Force To Introduce Greener Cars
  • Two New Segway Models Offered
  • Declining Death Rates Due to Safer Vehicles Not Better Drivers Or Better Roads
  • Toyota To Expand Hybrid Car Range In US

  • US Sanctions On Russia Could Hurt Boeing
  • Boeing Puts Aircraft Market At 2.6 Trillion Dollars
  • Innovative Solutions Make Transportation Systems Safer Secure and Efficient
  • Joint Strike Fighter Is Not Flawed Finds Australian Government

  • Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear
  • NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter
  • Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission
  • Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement