Ethanol From Wood

1 Pages 345 Words

Ethanol From Wood,Article Summary

Have you ever thought about how we get the energy to run the things we take for granite every single day? There are many sources of energy that are used for transportation, heat, light, and the manufacturing of goods of all kinds. The development of science and civilization is closely linked to the availability of energy in useful forms. The seven main energy sources are fossil fuels, hydroelectric, solar power, wind power, geothermal, nuclear power, and biomass energy. By harnessing the sun, wind, falling water, plant matter, and heat from the earth, energy planners expect to decrease the environmental impact on energy use. Most of the non-hydro renewable power comes through some form of renewable energy source produced from biomass, such as using timber harvest and sawmill waste to produce ethanol as an alternative energy source. Ethanol from wood can produce a greater output of energy compared to the energy that is produced from solar, wind, and geothermal sources. Other factors that are increasing interest in ethanol research as a renewable energy include cost advantages in niche markets, regulatory pressures, customer service requirements, fuel flexibility, and security compared to those of other alternative energy sources. Merrick Inc. of Southeast, Alaska was the first realize the growing possibilities in converting wood waste into Ethanol to be used as an energy source. Their first test results where unsuccessful because they where very costly and very difficult, as they attempted to separate the lignin and the cellulose in the wood. Merrick Inc. and the research group now use gasification of wood waste to synthesis gas. Now that Merrick has opened the market other energy and oil companies such as Shell are joining the battle for a piece of the action as Shell joins Logen a Canadian company in researching the breaking down of corn stalk enzymes as a alternate energy source. Just i...