Chemical Engineering June 2014 - 12

ChementatoR
This demonstration plant makes
bioethanol from tapioca residue
n April, a demonstration plant
started up that makes bioethanol
from cassava residue - a byproduct
of tapioca production. The demonstration
plant, located at the cassava
starch plant of EBP Ethanol Co. in Sa
Kaeo Province, Thailand, is part of a
four-year, $7-million project of New
Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization (NEDO)
and Thailand's National Innovation
Agency. The project aims to demonstrate
the effectiveness of technologies
to efficiently produce bioethanol
from cassava residue using newly
developed heat-tolerant yeast, which
can be used for the fermentation of
cassava materials containing more
than 30% fibers at temperatures over
40°C. The process (flowsheet) is able to
treat the highly viscous pulp without
additional pretreatment. The demonstration
plant will operate until February
2016. NEDO aims to disseminate
the new technologies throughout
Thailand, as well as in ASEAN (AssoI
ciation
of Southeast
Asian Nations) countries
where cassava
plants are widely
cultivated.
The project started
Cassava pulp
Milling
Ethanol
in 2012 with the installation
of a pilot
plant at EBP Ethanol
Co. NEDO selected
Sapporo Breweries
Ltd. and Iwata
Chemical Co. as partner
companies, and aims to produce
80,000 L/yr of bioethanol by processing
1,000 ton/yr of cassava pulp (wet).
Thailand is the largest cassava
Liquefaction
starch (tapioca) exporter in the world,
and a large amount of cassava pulp, a
residue obtained after starch extraction,
is normally discarded. The project
aims to contribute to increased
biofuel production in Thailand by
utilizing an untapped resource that
does not compete with food supplies.
It is expected that Thailand's annual
Imitating nature leads to a better catalyst
A
Dehydration
and distillation
Fermentation
cassava pulp generation of 2.0 million
tons (as of 2012) will be utilized to
produce approximately 1.8-billion L/d
(656 billion L/yr) of bioethanol. Thailand's
Dept. of Alternative Energy
Development and Efficiency (DEDE)
announced that the Thai government
has set a target to supply 25% of the
country's energy consumption from a
renewable energy mix, which includes
an increase of daily bioethanol production
capacity from 2.5 billion L/d
in 2013, to 9 billion L/d by 2021.
(Continued from p. 10)
n inexpensive and scalable composite
catalyst that is said to outperform
platinum for oxygen reduction in metalair
batteries and fuel cells has been developed
by a research team led by professor
Jaephil Cho from Ulsan National
Institute for Science and Technology
(Ulsan, South Korea; www.unist.ac.kr).
The team includes people from Pohang
Accelerator Laboratory (Pohang, South
Korea), Los Alamos National Laboratory
(Los Alamos, N.M.), Georgia Institute of
Technology (Atlanta, Ga.) and SRM University
(Kattankulathur, India).
Polarization due to the oxygen-reduction
reaction contributes significantly
to the energy efficiency of fuel cells and
metal-air batteries. Although Pt and its
alloys are the most efficient catalysts
for activation of the O=O bond, their
application is limited by high costs and
scarce reserves.
The new catalyst - iron phthalocyanine
(FePc), with an axial ligand anchored
on single-walled carbon nanotubes
(CNTs) - has shown a higher electrocatalytic
activity for oxygen reduction than
traditional Pt on carbon catalysts. The
catalyst has shown exceptional durability
and electrocatalytic activity in alkaline
media. It has also achieved a long cycle
life, attaining more than 1,000 cycles in a
durability test.
The researchers were inspired by the
unique feature of the active site in cytochrome
c oxidase, which also contains
an active site with an iron(II)-porphyrin
structure. Unlike the synthetic catalysts,
the iron center in biological systems
contains a five-coordinated structure
with an axial ligand from the backside.
The team used pyridine-functionalized
CNTs to anchor FePc molecules and provide
the axial ligand for the iron center.
At the same time, the CNTs provide an
easy pathway for fast electron transfer
from the current collector to the catalyst's
active sites.
■
12 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com June 2014
alternative approach to ePDm
(ethylene propylene diene
terpolymer) rubber processing
aside from the established
sulfur-vulcanization and peroxide
curing, which are the main
crosslinking technologies for
ePDm rubber. and although the
company is focusing on ePDm,
the activation is applicable for
the resol curing of other types of
rubber, including (X)iir (isobutylene-isoprene
rubber), Cr
(chloroprene rubber), (h)nBr
(hydrogenated nitrile rubber),
SBr (styrene-butadiene rubber)
and nr (natural rubber).
Depending on the particular
resol curing system and rubber
investigated, the cure rate
is strongly increased, which
means a reduction of scorch
and vulcanization times up to
75% says the company. The
final degree of crosslinking is
also enhanced by a factor of
two, the company says. ❏
http://www.unist.ac.kr http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering June 2014

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