NREL team to help improve process engineering

Under a co-operative research and development agreement, the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is teaming up with Broin and Associates, Inc., a major ethanol producer, to develop new technologies to improve the efficiency of US ethanol production.

The co-operative research and development agreement, known as a CRADA, calls for a one-year, $446,000 effort jointly using Broin and NREL expertise to develop improvements in process throughput and water management for dry mill ethanol plants and to evaluate proprietary yeast strains developed by NREL for improving ethanol yields.

The agreement also calls for a complete overall process engineering model of dry mill technology to identify new ways to increase efficiencies and improve economics.

Dry mills produce about 55% of the 1.8 billion gallons of ethanol currently produced in the United States for use as an octane-boosting oxygenate additive in about 15% of US gasoline.

'The advanced research capabilities and process engineering discipline thatNREL can bring to bear should be of tremendous value in identifying additional improvements to the ethanol production process,' said Jeff Broin, CEO of Broin and Associates

The company plans to directly implement economically valuable improvementsidentified by the co-operative project, Broin said, adding that the co-operative agreement is suited to advancing beneficial new technologies in an industry that lacks the in-house research capabilities of larger, more established energy sectors.

Eric Vaughn, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, the national fuel ethanol trade association, praised the NREL-Broin collaboration as an example of a necessary and mutually beneficial public-private partnership.

NREL is said to be a leader in research to develop new technologies for producing ethanol from fibrous, cellulosic plant material such as corn stalks and husks, which the DOE sees as a promising way to meet future needs for transportation fuel with domestic, renewable energy.

'Our primary research focus is on developing technology to expand potentialfeedstocks for future ethanol production to the huge variety and volume of cellulosic plant materials,' said Robert Wooley, DOE Biofuels Program Manager at NREL.

Wooley said the corn grain ethanol industry is already making substantial contributions by providing the United States with domestically produced, renewable, environmentally friendly and beneficial fuel additives.