Waste produces 500L of bioethanol a day
5 Jan 2015
A project designed to produce biofuel from food industry waste has been developed in Mexico.
Scientists from the Centre for Research and Assistance in Technology and Design of the State of Jalisco (CIATEJ) have used waste generated in the processing of cereals to produce bioethanol via a prototype plant capable of generating up to 500 litres of fuel a day.
“With the information from this research, the engineering of the ethanol production process was carried out
CIATEJ specialist Lorena Amaya Delgado
To process the waste, the CIATEJ team developed a method of hydrolysis of carbohydrates followed by the establishment of precise fermentation conditions to produce bioethanol at both the centre’s laboratory and pilot plant.
A hydryolsis reaction is designed to separate a compound through the addition of a water molecule.
According to the researchers, the project was designed using hydrolytic enzymes and yeasts with a high tolerance to ethanol which implied that “fermentations were performed with high concentrations of sugars to generate more efficient processes”.
Lorena Amaya Delgado, a research specialist from the Department of Industrial Biotechnology at CIATEJ, said: “With the information obtained from this research, the basic engineering of the ethanol production process was carried out, as well as advice for installing a pilot plant focused on the production of bioethanol from grain waste from the food industry.”
Delgado said that the technology is relatively adaptable and different types of food waste, such as dairy and fruit products, could also be used to create bioethanol.
