Sunday, May 06, 2007

Creating corn for cars

Current ethanol production is primarily from the starch in kernels of field corn. NREL researchers in the DOE Biofuels Program are developing technology to also produce ethanol from the fibrous material (cellulose and hemicellulose) in the corn stalks and husks or other agricultural or forestry residues. Credit: Gretz, Warren, Courtesy of DOE/NRELBOSTON -- A new variety of corn developed and patented by Michigan State University scientists could turn corn leaves and stalks into products that are just as valuable as the golden kernels.

Right now, most U.S. ethanol is made from corn kernels. This is because breaking down the cellulose in corn leaves and stalks into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol is difficult and expensive.
"We've developed two generations of Spartan Corn," said Mariam Sticklen, MSU professor of crop and soil sciences. "Both corn varieties contain the enzymes necessary to break down cellulose and hemicellulose into simple sugars in their leaves. This will allow for more cost-effective, efficient production of ethanol."

Sticklen will co-chair a panel on energy crops for biofuels today at BIO2007, the annual international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

"In the future, corn growers will be able to sell their corn stalks and leaves as well as their corn grain for ethanol production," Sticklen said. "What is now a waste product will become an economically viable commodity." ###

Contact: Mariam Sticklen stickle1@msu.edu 517-230-2929 Michigan State University, Contact: Jamie DePolo, Office of Biobased Technologies: (609) 354-8403 (cell phone), depolo@msu.edu

This research is supported by Edenspace Systems Corp., the U.S. Department of Energy, the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan and the MSU Research Excellence Program.

(Editor’s note: Mariam Sticklen can be reached May 6-9 at BIO2007 on her cell phone at (517) 230-2929. Jamie DePolo can be reached on her cell phone at (609) 354-8403.)

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Posted by sookietex at 4:13 PM || ||

1 comment:

Francesco DeParis said...

This will become an area of continued interest for investors as the return-on-crop yield (ROY) becomes more important.

Investors will ally themselves with geneticists more and more as we move to a more regionalized model. The ability crops have to maximize their energy output given different environmental constraints and local market energy production methods will determine category winners.

I comment regularly on the business/investor side of alternative energy on Energy Spin: Alternative Energy Blog for Investors-Served Daily

Cheers,
Francesco DeParis

May 7, 2007 at 9:15:00 AM EDT

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