The utility of ethanol as a practical fuel is limited today because the corn and sugar cane used to produce the alcohol are prized as food and animal fodder, and it takes a lot of energy to process the alcohol and get it to market. The holy grail of alcohol production has been cellulostic alcohol, alcohol made from the stalks and stems of the source plants rather than the seeds, fruits & nuts. Though it's long been known that bacteria exist that can break down the roughage parts of plants, these bacteria have stubbornly resisted efficient cultivation.
Until now, that is, at least according to Honda. According to a press release reported at zdnet.com, Honda and its research partner, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, or RITE, have come up with a breakthrough process allowing efficient production of alcohol from cellulose stock. Here's a quote:
Current technology for converting cellulosic biomass yielded impractically low levels of ethanol due to the interference of fermentation inhibitors with the function of microorganisms that convert sugar into alcohol. The fermentation inhibitors are formed primarily during the process of separating cellulose and hemicellulose from soft biomass.
The new process uses a microorganism developed by RITE that helps reduce such interference, enabling far more efficient ethanol production.
"This achievement solves the last remaining fundamental hurdle to ethanol production from soft biomass," Hideaki Yukawa, chief researcher at RITE's molecular microbiology and genetics lab, said during a news conference in Tokyo.
When this technology spreads, the Beverly Hillbillies can move back from Beverly Hills to the hills of Tennessee, put their knowledge of corn-squeezins to work, and get rich all over again.
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