Ethanol from algae production a amazing success

Professor Makoto Sato, researcher of the Tohoku University's Department of Agricultural Sciences, and the Tohoku Electric Power Co., Ltd. have jointly developed a technology to efficiently produce ethanol from algae.

Ethanol, which is attracting increasing attention as an alternative to fossil fuel energy, can be obtained from corn and soybeans. But issues such as soaring food prices are prompting the development of techniques that do not require the use of food products as raw materials.

The new technology improves the efficiency of ethanol production from brown algae on a large scale.

Even though crushing, pulverization and drying processes consume large amounts of energy, the fermentation process to produce bio-ethanol according to the continuous multi-stage complex components may be effective. This would make it possible to construct algae ethanol plants, which is expected to contribute to world energy problems.

source: fis