A blog from University of Borås

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

A shortcut to commercial second generation ethanol using fungi

Ethanol is produced today by the 1st generation processes, e.g. from sugarcanes in Brazil or grains in the USA. It is now about 3 decades with intensive research and development on the 2nd generation ethanol from lignocelluloses, but the process is not commercial yet.

We have a concept to integrate the lignocelluloses into the 1st generation ethanol plants from grains by filamentous fungi, a concept that we are developing since 1999. It means, several hundreds of dry mils (ethanol from grain processes) can already start producing ethanol from lignocelluloses with principally very low investment. By this integration, ethanol and animal feed are produced from stillage (wastewater of the process) and also added lignocelluloses materials. The concept is now examined in large fermentors in the large ethanol plant in Sweden (Agroetanol) and can hopefully make the lignocelluloses ethanol closer to commercial market. You can download the scientific publication about it here!