I don’t know about you but I like corn in all its various forms, fuel for my body or fuel for my car. Here’s some new research that shows just how healthy the milled food products can be. Someone please get me a bowl of grits! Corn - a Grain For Life. New research just published in the October issue …
New Technique Could Make Corn Ethanol More Efficient
A process used in breweries and wastewater treatment facilities could make corn ethanol more energy efficient. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are exploring the use of oxygen-less vats of microorganisms that naturally feed on organic waste produced from the ethanol fermentation process. According to a university release, a WUSTL team has tested anaerobic digestion on waste from ethanol …
Researching Food and Fuel Link
The Farm Foundation just concluded a conference in their series titled, “Transition To A Bio Economy.” This one was on risk, infrastructure and industry evolution and all the presentations were on biofuels. I conducted a series of interviews with the presenters which you can find with this link. One of them has done some interesting research on the link between …
E For Ethanol and Enzymes
The word “enzymes” was a key one at the CUTC this year and in fact, one whole session was devoted to it titled, “New developments and efficiencies in the world of enzymes.” One of the speakers on that program was Elizabeth Hood, Arkansas State University. I spoke to her about her presentation. She’s a plant biotechnologist with a small start …
When Ethanol Comes to Town
When ethanol comes to town, things change. The Renewable Fuels Association last week released the results of an economic analysis conducted by John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, a global expert services consulting firm. The report focused on the impact of the U.S. ethanol industry in 2007. The analysis determined that the “increase in economic activity resulting from ongoing production and …
Getting the Genes out of the Bottle
The announcement last week that scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have completed a working draft of the corn genome holds tremendous potential to meet society’s growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel. The accomplishment, which was announced at the 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference, is the result of a $30 million project initiated in 2005 and funded …
Raising Midwestern Cane
With all the cane that is being raised about corn ethanol, here is a potential solution that hopefully won’t fall on deaf ears. It could be called “earless corn” or “Midwestern sugarcane” - but it is really tropical maize, the type of corn typically grown in hot, humid regions. Researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered that when it …