With the high price of gasoline this summer in the Great Lakes region,ethanol has been receiving a great deal of attention. The corn-basedfuel has long been touted as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels anda boon to Midwest farmers. While ethanol use has steadily increased, itstill relies on a heavy government subsidy to remain competitive. Butthere are some scientific developments in the works that could helpethanol become a more economically viable product. The Great LakesRadio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
With the high price of gasoline this summer in the Great Lakes
region, Ethanol has been receiving a great deal of attention. The corn
based fuel has long been touted as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels
and a boon to Midwest farmers. While Ethanol use has steadily increased, it
still relies on a heavy government subsidy to remain competitive. But
there are some scientific developments in the works that could help Ethanol
become a more economically viable product. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.
(Ambient sound of ethanol plant)
Several massive iron cylinders are spinning around in a barn sized building
at ethanol producer Williams Bio-Energy in Pekin, Illinois. The machines
are drying a fluffy substance that is one of the by products of making
Ethanol. The plant produces tons of this fibrous, light weight material
each year. Williams Business Development Officer Jack Huggins says after
the material is dried out, it’s sent overseas.
”And in Europe they blend it into their animal feed
rations. So we get back somewhere between fifty to sixty dollars a ton
right now.”
That barely pays for the shipping. But that’s a part of the economics of
producing Ethanol right now. Producers say it’s hard to make a profit on
Ethanol, and the stuff that is left over after making the fuel is not
bringing in extra income. But that could change soon:
(Ambient sound in the lab)
Researchers at the USDA lab in Peoria, Illinois are using a common coffee
grinder to mince the fibrous by product into a fine fluff. This is the
first step in extracting a sweetener called xylitol from the fiber. The
material contains two sugars — glucose and xylose. Dr. Tim Leathers says
all it takes to change xylose into xylitol is adding a special kind of
yeast. The problem is that the yeast would rather consume the glucose,
leaving it too full to react with the xylose.
“To address this problem, we have developed a two stage
fermentation in which an initial set of yeast strains is used to consume the
glucose. Then those cells are removed and a second team of yeast is
introduced that now more efficiently converts the xylose to produce
xylitol.”
Xylitol tastes like sugar… it’s safe for diabetics and it doesn’t cause
tooth decay. It also sells for about one hundred times more than the
Ethanol by product it comes from. That’s gotten the attention of Ethanol
producers. Bob Scott is a professor of Economics at Bradley University.
He says the biggest challenge facing Ethanol is making it competitive in the
open market. Scott says producing other profitable products from the
Ethanol process could make up for the low margin on the corn based fuel:
“If the price of corn were too high or the price of
gasoline too low, then ethanol was not economically advantageous. But when
there are these other products that could be made from the same corn while
ethanol is being made, it takes some of the weight off of ethanol — makes
it a healthier product economically.”
There may be other benefits to creating xylitol from corn. Currently the
sweetener used in gums, candy, toothpaste, and mouthwash is created by
adding harsh chemicals to birch tree bark at high temperatures. Larry
Cunningham is a vice president at agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.
He says his company is always looking for more natural ways to produce food
products like making xylitol out of corn.
”And I think that has got to be a much more efficient,
and at the end of the day environmentally friendly way to go about it than
taking down forests of birch trees.”
While all of the interested parties seem to be excited about this new the
USDA lab has to prove to companies that it’s cost effective to add the
staff and equipment to make the sweetener. And even if it does prove to be
profitable, ethanol producers say it could take several additional products
like xylitol to make the corn based fuel a strong economic alternative to
gasoline. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl in Peoria,
Illinois.