Professor researches ethanol as future fuel

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With soaring gasoline prices, a research project focusing on developing an alternative fuel source is being conducted at CMU.
Biology Assistant Professor Joy Doran said ethanol, an alcohol fuel made through the fermentation of plant sugars from agricultural crops and biomass resources, can compete with gasoline if it’s produced more cheaply.
She said biomass is the collective organic matter produced by living organisms, including municipal solid waste, sawdust, cheese and whey.
“Using biomass resources to produce ethanol not only utilizes waste, but also provides a value-added market which increases both farmer’s and industry’s profits,” Doran said.
Ethanol fuel, a renewable energy resource which burns cleaner, can be derived from various biomass products such as corn and sugar cane, she said.
Doran said when she pursued her doctoral program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, she studied how to make ethanol from sugar cane.
“But Michigan is too cold for sugar cane to survive and also it is very hard to break down to produce ethanol, so sugar cane may not be a suitable biomass resource here,” she said.
Although corn is effective, it is used as a food and its cost fluctuates with a market price, so eventually agricultural waste products may be used, she said.
Doran said she found that sugar beet pulp, the leftover of sugar beet, is a good resource to produce ethanol in Michigan because of its abundance and easy availability.
“Sugar beet pulp is used to feed cows, but it can also be utilized to produce ethanol.”
Doran said the big picture of her ethanol research is aimed to convert sugar beet pulp into ethanol for fuel by chemical and enzymatic methods.
Doran received a grant from the Research Excellence Funds to start her research in 1995 and was awarded an energy research grant from the Michigan Department of Consumer and Industry Service in May.
She said the chemical treatment of sugar beet pulp didn’t really help in ethanol products, so the grant from CIS will be used to optimize the amount of ethanol.
Doran said she’ll try to produce enzymes versus using expensive commercially-available enzymes for the conversion of sugar beet pulp to ethanol.
“We are currently growing 40 different fungi strains, among which four have been isolated to produce enzymes that can break down the dried pulp efficiently.
“Later, we will try to grow those fungi in a large scale,” she said.
Doran said this research is very significant because unlike the oil used in the U.S. that comes from foreign countries, ethanol is domestically produced and has many benefits for Michigan.
“Ethanol’s broader use can decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil and retain more dollars in the local community.”
Within the past two decades, demand for ethanol in the U.S. has increased due to its use in gasoline as an octane enhancer and ethanol-filling stations are becoming more popular little by little, Doran said.
“If we can successfully develop large amount of cheaper enzymes that break down the sugar beet pulp, the current production costs of converting ethanol from sugar beet pulp could be reduced.”
Doran said she has also received several grants from the U.S. Department of Energy as well as the Michigan Biomass Energy Program, which helps carry out her research on producing ethanol from sugar beet pulp.
Her total research grant money amounts to approximately $100,000 thus far.
She said some gas combinations include 50 percent ethanol, and if her research is successful, gasoline could contain ethanol levels up to 85 percent or higher. Higher ethanol content could decrease fuel prices, Doran said.
“Because ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and utilizes waste products from a variety of Michigan industries, it is a promising fuel for the future.
“I hope my research can make ethanol better compete with gasoline if the gas price still hikes,” she said.