ISU to study biomass gasification for ethanol, process heat

Ethanol Producer Magazine March 2009
By Susanne Retka Schill

Iowa State University’s research on gasification technologies for the ethanol industry got a boost this winter in the form of a $2.37 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund. The research aims to create systems that produce process heat from clean biomass-derived synthesis gas. Ethanol plants could use these sytems to replace natural gas usage. Another dimension of the research aims to improve the process of making ethanol from the syngas produced by biomass gasification.

Song-Charng Kong and Robert Brown, professors in mechanical engineering at ISU, are leading the project with Frontline BioEnergy LLC and Hawkeye Renewables LLC as partners. “This is a commercially driven project,” Brown said. It seeks to refine gasification technologies in order for ethanol plants to reduce energy costs and improve their carbon footprints. A rule of thumb is that replacing natural gas with syngas for process heat in ethanol plants will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 90 percent, he said.

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