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| Rite and Honda develop technology to produce ethanol Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, RITE, and Honda R&D announced that their cooperative research has resulted in ethanol production technology from soft-biomass, a renewable resource of plant-derived material. Carbon dioxide released by the combustion of bio-ethanol is balanced by the CO2 captured by plants through photosynthesis and, thus, does not increase the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Bio-ethanol, therefore, has attracted attention as a carbon-neutral fuel, an energy source effective as countermeasure to global-warming. Existing bio-ethanol production, however, 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. RITE-Honda process reduces the harmful influence of fermentation inhibitors. The RITE-Honda process succeeds through utilization of RITE strain, a microorganism developed by RITE that converts sugar into alcohol, and by application of engineering technology of Honda, enabling a significant increase in alcohol conversion efficiency, in comparison to conventional cellulosic bio-ethanol production processes. The process consists of the following operations: I. Pretreatment to separate cellulose from soft-biomass; II. Saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose; III. Conversion of sugar into ethanol using microorganisms; IV. Ethanol refinement. RITE and Honda will pursue research for mass production, including development of systems to integrate four operations, currently operated independently, into a continuous flow within one plant, recycling energy to pursue energy conservation and cost reduction. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |