Honda working on technology to extract ethanol from inedible plants
September 17th, 2006 Leave a comment Visited 36 times, 1 so far today
Honda working on technology to extract ethanol from inedible plants
Japanese automaker Honda is working with a Japanese research group on developing ways to make ethanol from inedible plants.
Ethanol is usually extracted from corn and sugarcane. Honda and the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth have reportedly developed a way to make the fuel from leaves and stalks of plants.
Honda had recently announced in June that they are planning to introduce vehicles that run on ethanol in Brazil by 2007.
The company claims that the ethanol produced from inedible plants will produce 70-90% less carbon dioxide than gasoline. They were one of the first automakers to sell autos powered by a combination of gasoline and electricity and they now want to become a leading player in the segment of cars which runs on ethanol.
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February 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Ethanol is produced using the following process:
1. Wheat or corn kernels are ground in a hammermill to expose the starch.
2. The ground grain is mixed with water, cooked briefly and enzymes are added to convert the starch to sugar using a chemical reaction called hydrolysis.
3. Yeast is added to ferment the sugars to ethanol.
4. The ethanol is separated from the mixture by distillation and the water is removed from the mixture using dehydration.
A new process is under development for making ethanol from the cellulose and hemicellulose components of cheaper biomass feedstocks such as wood and agricultural residues. The method is similar to the traditional process that uses the starch component of grain or corn. However, this method is more difficult because these types of feedstock require more complex pretreatment and hydrolysis steps that use acid or enzymes before the sugars can be fermented to ethanol.