This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
October 08, 2003
NREL and DuPont to Design and Build a Pilot "Biorefinery"
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and DuPont announced on October 6th that they will work together to develop the world's first integrated "biorefinery" that uses corn or other organic materials to produce a variety of fuels and chemicals. Under a $7.7-million agreement, the two organizations will collaborate to develop, build, and test a pilot-scale biorefinery that will make use of the entire corn plant, including the stalks, husks, and leaves. Those parts, which currently go to waste, will be converted into fuel-grade ethanol and electrical power. Purified sugars from the corn kernel will be converted into chemicals such as Sorona, DuPont's new corn-based polymer. See the NREL press release and, on the DuPont Web site, the descriptions of the biotechnology and technology platform used for Sorona.
DuPont's efforts to convert corn into a polymer follow the earlier advances made by Cargill Dow LLC, which produces its NatureWorks PLA, a polylactic polymer, from cornstarch. The process seems to have appeal for Toyota Motor Corporation, as well: the company announced in July that it plans to build a pilot plant for producing polylactic polymer from sugar cane. Toyota's pilot plant will be capable of producing 1,000 tons of biobased plastic per year. See the Cargill Dow Web site and the Toyota press release.
Despite new techniques to turn corn waste into ethanol and other products, researchers continue to perfect the current industry techniques of converting corn kernels into ethanol. The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) announced in late September that a new National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center has opened at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The new research center is the only facility in the world that fully emulates both wet-mill and dry-mill processes for converting corn into ethanol. See the RFA press release and the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center Web site.
