Corrected:
This article originally appeared with the headline Ineos goes down the Fischer Tropsch route to ethanol from municipal waste. The process will use algae to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into ethanol not a chemical catalyst. This has been corrected in the first paragraph.
Ineos is to use municpal waste and algae to make ethanol according to a press release from the company, reported on ICIS news and in newspapers like the Times today.
I like this technology, as you'll know by now and I think that it is important that it is being widely talked about in the press in the UK. It might help move policy in a direction that I'd favour away from using food as fuel.
Ineos looks to be licensing technology based around Clostridium Ljungdahlii a microbe that likes concentrations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and helpfully excretes ethanol.
The technology was reported in Green Car Congress in 2005. It was developed by Bioengineering Resources near Fayetteville, Arkansas. There is a patent about the Biological production of ethanol from waste gases with Clostridium ljungdahlii on Patent Storm. You'll need to work your way down to example 10. Good things clearly come too those who dig around a little.
What's not clear in the releases that I've seen is the level of sorting of municipal waste that is needed and the yields using this bacterium. Or whether it would be possible to use it as a way of dealing with plastics waste. Would it be cost effective to mine landfill? And what are the terms of the relationship with Bioengineering Resources.
This article originally appeared with the headline Ineos goes down the Fischer Tropsch route to ethanol from municipal waste. The process will use algae to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into ethanol not a chemical catalyst. This has been corrected in the first paragraph.
Ineos is to use municpal waste and algae to make ethanol according to a press release from the company, reported on ICIS news and in newspapers like the Times today.
I like this technology, as you'll know by now and I think that it is important that it is being widely talked about in the press in the UK. It might help move policy in a direction that I'd favour away from using food as fuel.
Ineos looks to be licensing technology based around Clostridium Ljungdahlii a microbe that likes concentrations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and helpfully excretes ethanol.
The technology was reported in Green Car Congress in 2005. It was developed by Bioengineering Resources near Fayetteville, Arkansas. There is a patent about the Biological production of ethanol from waste gases with Clostridium ljungdahlii on Patent Storm. You'll need to work your way down to example 10. Good things clearly come too those who dig around a little.
What's not clear in the releases that I've seen is the level of sorting of municipal waste that is needed and the yields using this bacterium. Or whether it would be possible to use it as a way of dealing with plastics waste. Would it be cost effective to mine landfill? And what are the terms of the relationship with Bioengineering Resources.
Comments (5)
I'm Pretty sure this isn't Fischer-Tropsch Technology - that CO & H2 high temp & press catalysed to produce petroleum like products.
Posted by Dave Harcourt | July 22, 2008 10:16 PM
Posted on July 22, 2008 22:16
I'm not personally familiar with either technology, however, I did see that a process for use of Clostridium ljungdahlii was patented in the US back in 2000. Waste gases from industrial processes, and this bacterium ferments "useful" products. Maybe we have promising technology on the near horizon for the many tons of waste we generate every year. I know the US Department of Energy has been very interested in such research and development efforts for years.
I ran across the patent I mention above thanks to the DOE Office of Scientific & Technical Information (OSTI.gov). They have several relatively new systems for searching the web, especially the really deep stuff where Google cannot go. The one I use the most (www.science.gov) searches more than 40 databases of very detailed research reports, plus technical journal articles, with a single query. To my knownledge, no one else is doing this kind of search system work. OSTI even has a similar international program called WorldWideScience.org.
Posted by Gene L. | July 24, 2008 12:11 AM
Posted on July 24, 2008 00:11
Hey Gene, Thanks for the really useful links. I'll be digging around in those when I get some time. Cheers.
Posted by Simon Robinson
|
July 24, 2008 11:11 AM
Posted on July 24, 2008 11:11
What ever the technology is, it is a big step forward. I am constantly amazed at the innovation being shown all over the world as we move into the Age of Bio-Technology.
I see more and more companies going to multiple technologies as they strip every possible energy molecule from their feedstocks. That is the answer to the mix of bio, metals and plastics feedstocks in garbage; use the various fermentation and bacterial based technologies first, then finish with pyrolysis of the remaining mass.
I have been saying for years that we will mine our landfills someday.
larryhagedon
American Flex Fuel Experience.
AmericanFFE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Posted by larryhagedon | July 27, 2008 7:14 PM
Posted on July 27, 2008 19:14
Hey Larry,
There is no point in throwing any thing away if you can find an alternative valuable use for it. I wonder if there is any work on the total mass of landfill in the US/Europe?
Posted by Simon Robinson
|
July 28, 2008 11:19 AM
Posted on July 28, 2008 11:19