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Ethanol Production Faces Growing Pains

New feedstock found, but bacteria could lead to problems.

Compiled by staff

Published: Apr 12, 2010

Agricultural Research Service chemist Badal Saha is studying whether wheat straw, a crop residue left over after the grain has been harvested, could have commercial potential for cellulosic ethanol production. Working at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Saha found he could access and ferment almost all the plant sugars in the biofeedstock when it was pretreated with alkaline peroxide and then broken down by enzymes. This process boosted overall ethanol output to around 93 gallons per ton of wheat straw.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the same environments that facilitate fermentation can also nurture microorganisms that infect ethanol production facilities and disrupt output. ARS geneticist Tim Leathers collected bacteria from samples at two commercial ethanol facilities. He found that most of the bacterial isolates he collected from both facilities were different types of lactic acid bacteria.

Meanwhile, ARS microbiologist Ken Bischoff developed a model for simulating bacterial contamination and infection. He found that when test cultures were inoculated with Lactobacillus fermentum, one of the most common sources of bacterial infections in ethanol plants, ethanol yields decreased by 27%. Sometimes the infection could be cured with antibiotics, but he also found one bacterial strain that was already resistant to treatment.

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Tagged: ethanol, wheat, cellulosic ethanol

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Ethanol Production Faces Growing Pains

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