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June 4, 2006
Researchers Use Ultrasonics to Boost Yield of Corn Ethanol Production
I really love to see advancements like this happening. Basically the good folks out at Iowa State University were trying to make the corn into smaller sizes so it could be processed more easily. If you didn't know, the first step of the corn conversion process is to grind the corn up and then expose it to enzymes that turn it into Ethanol via a fermentation process. Well the enzymes can only eat what they can get to and if the pieces are too big they can only eat the outside of it, leading to a great deal of wasted potential. So the Iowa State team came in and they used ultrasonic technology on the corn slurry to break it. This is basically the same way that kidney stones are broken up inside the human body with ultrasonic technology. The result was a massive decrease in particle size inside the slurry, then when it was fed to the enzymes they were able to get to a lot more of the particles and more importantly they were able to get them processed much quicker! The result was a 30% increase in sugar yields by just adding the ultrasonic equipment to existing ethanol production lines. They are in the process of moving the technology into a larger facility to make sure the results are consistent and to see how much Ethanol that the process gives from the process.
Read more over at Green Car Congress.
Posted by Jamison at June 4, 2006 1:51 PM
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Comments
How long from the lab to the plant??
Posted by: Royal at June 4, 2006 2:32 PM