Chemical Engineering December 2011 - 13

CHEMENTATOR
A car company moves closer to making
cellulosic ethanol ecomomically
U
sing gene recombination technology,
Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC; Toyota City,
Japan: www2.toyota.co.jp/en) has developed
a new strain of yeast that achieves
one of the highest ethanol-fermentation
density levels in the world - approximately
47 g/L with 87% yield (based on the
feed sugar). In addition to the high yield,
TMC's yeast is highly efficient at fermenting
xylose, which is normally difficult to
ferment for naturally occurring yeasts.
The new yeast is also highly resistant to
fermentation-inhibiting substances, such
as acetic acid.
TMC is focusing on cellulosic ethanol,
which is produced from non-edible plants
that have significantly less impact on
world food supplies. Aiming to achieve production-cost
parity with other liquid fuels,
such as gasoline, TMC hopes to achieve a
stable supply of raw-material plant fibers
as well as technologies that reduce production
costs. Napier Grass from Indonesia is
a promising raw material because it not
only thrives on land unsuitable for growing
crops, but has a production volume and
cultivation cost of 50 ton/ha/yr and ¥4/kg,
respectively, which is very competitive compared
to rice straw from Japan (26 ton/ha/
yr, ¥7/kg); Acacia from Malaysia (21 ton/ha/
yr, ¥6.3/kg); and Switch Grass from the U.S.
(7 ton/ha/yr, ¥15/kg).
To reduce the production costs, TMC is
also developing a pre-treatment process
that combines crushing and steaming with
diluted acid, and an integrated, simultaneous
saccharification and fermentation process,
which enables the reduction of equipment
cost and improves the yield. The
company is working to further improve
production yields and to cooperate with
liquid-fuel-producing companies to realize
its goal of commercializing cellulosic ethanol
by 2020.
Raceways and cables
Last month, Bentley Systems,
Inc. (Exton, Pa.; www.
bentley.com) launched the
first and only comprehensive,
integrated software developed
specifically to design,
model and deliver both raceway
and cable systems. The
Raceway and Cable Management
V8i software tool
integrates functional design
with detailed physical design
and includes a wide range
of 2D and 3D design tools.
By providing users with early
and accurate material requirements
via automated intelligent
functions and highly
realistic 3D design simulation,
the software is said
to improve quality, lead to
increased safety in construction
and enhance operations
management through the
integrity of a comprehensive
as-operated model across
constant retrofits.
One tough test. One clear winner. CALFLO AF.
TM
Results from
Severe Oxidative
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Petro-Canada is a Suncor Energy business
TM
Trademark of Suncor Energy Inc. Used under licence.
Circle 24 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.che.com/35072-24
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM DECEMBER 2011 13
7/12/11 3:29 PM

http://www.bentley.com http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en http://www.calflo.com http://adlinks.che.com/35072-24 http://WWW.CHE.COM

Chemical Engineering December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2011