Home＞Fermentation that save the world＞4．Energy made by fermentation
Section4 Energy made by fermentation
Bioethanol
Bioethanol which used for fuel is made by fermentation. Let’s know how to make it.
1.Prepairing, Saccharification
First, make wood or corn’s fiber soft. There are water heat processing and sodium hydroxide processing to make soft.After this, do saccharification. Saccharification means decompose a fiber by enzyme. To make bioethanol more efficient, we have to prepare accurately and choose the best combination of enzyme.
2.fermentation
Next of saccharification process is fermentation. Put the liquids and microbes into the tank and wait for few days. They may be alcoholic fermented. Yeast mainly used at this process. (Alcoholic fermentation is done by yeast. Look “Basic knowladge3”)
3.Distillation
Eliminate ethanol from fermented liquid.
Basically, use some distillation machine and improve accuracy of distillation.
Finally, 99.5% or more of absolute ethanol for fuel is completed.
Usage example
These days, hybrid car is being popular. In America and Brazil whose amount of ethanol production is top class, the number of ethanol-gasoline hybrid car is being larger and larger.
Bioethanol emit carbon dioxide when they burn. However, them will used for plant’s photosynthesis, and plant will be material of ethanol. In conclusion, the amount of carbon dioxide won’t increase. This phenomenon called ”Carbon neutral”.
Get hydrogen from waste by microbe power
These days, using fuel cell to daily life is being topic. When hydrogen and oxygen be water, they make energy. Fuel cell changes its energy to electronic, so it’s clean fuel.
This reaction is opposite of electrolysis.
By the way, how to gather required hydrogen?
There is the way to ferment waste and make hydrogen. That way is good for environment because it can remove waste. The microbe which good for this way is discovered more and more. Moreover, someone trying to use not only one kind of microbe and use many kinds of microbe, and improve the efficient of providing. They will use the school meal center and restaurants’ waste for this project.
Summary
・Bioethanol made by fermentation of wood and corn, and it being popular for clean fuel.
・When we use Bioethanol, “Carbon neutral” will happen.
・The project that make hydrogen by fermentation of waste is held. It can remove waste,
so very eco-friendly.
Column
Make fermentation’s material by fermentation
It needs enormous amount of bioethanol to use it instead of gasoline. Bioethanol needs corns and potatoes to make. However, corns also being needed for foods for people and livestock. We shouldn’t use them at food crisis period. So, someone is trying to use cone’s stem which have thrown. However, we can’t get sugars from them because of cellulose and hemicellulose. But, we can change stem to sugars by fermentation. After that make ethanol from it by fermentation.
