New Technology To Produce Ethanol From Cellulosic Biomass
RITE and Honda Jointly Develop New Technology To Produce Ethanol From Cellulosic Biomass
TOKYO, Japan, September 14, 2006–Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) and Honda R&D Co., Ltd., the Honda Motor Co., Ltd. subsidiary responsible for research and development, today announced that their cooperative research has resulted in ethanol production technology from soft-biomass, a renewable resource of plant-derived material.
What is soft-biomass you ask?
It is a renewable organic resource of plant-derived material, excluding fossil resource.
What are some examples of soft-biomass?
Livestock excreta
Waste wood
Plant residue (after the removal of edible parts)
Biomass represents organic materials that plants produce through photosynthesis from atmospheric CO2 and water, and thus does not increase atmospheric CO2 when burned.
Bio-ethanol, therefore, has attracted attention as a carbon-neutral fuel, an energy source effective as countermeasure to global-warming.
Why is this method of Bio-ethanol important?
Existing bio-ethanol production, faces supply limits, as it is produced primarily from sugar and starch of sugarcane and corn feedstock, which are also utilized as food.
In its collaborative research, RITE and Honda have established the basic technology to produce ethanol fuel from cellulose and hemicellulose, both found in soft-biomass, including inedible leaves and stalks of plants, such as rice straw. Until now, such soft-biomass represented a challenge to convert to ethanol. Thus, the new process represents a large step forward for practical application of soft-biomass as a fuel source.
Importantance to Farmers
Economically and environmentally speaking I can predict that this new method of making bio-ethanol has caught the attention of farmers especially. With this technology farmers now have the freedom to diversify their crops and have another source of income (as in the production of bio material to produce bio-ethanol).
Technorati Tags: honda, biomass, ethanol, rice straw
Written by steve on September 28th, 2006 with
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