A company called Genecor has announced a possible breakthrough in the race to develop methods to extract ethanol from cellulose.
Cellulose is all the stuff that grows that cannot we eat (like corn husks, leaves, grass, hay, stems,) and most if it is thrown away or composted. Cellulose is a better source for ethanol than corn for many reasons. It is cheaper, less damaging to the environment, and extremely plentiful Another problem with the corn ethanol solution is that the stuff left over from corn after the ethanol is extracted contains high levels of natural mold products like aflatoxin and fumonisin. Since this material is fed to animals (mostly pigs), there is a possibility of a higher rate of death in the animals due to toxicity.
What the company has done is develop an enzyme that can be used for large scale digestion of cellulose, which would be the first step in producing ethanol. Many animals such as horses and cows have cellulose digesting enzymes, which is why they can eat hay. We don’t, which is why we cant.
The enzyme mixture, called accellerase 1000, breaks down the cellulose in wood and other plant products into sugars which are then easily fermented into alcohol. Part of the development costs were paid by US government contracts from the Department of Energy.
This represents another very positive development on the road to clean reliable alternative energy sources, and is very welcome news. For more good news about trends in the environment and human welfare, see www.wherewestand.net.
