Ethanol research looks at soybean

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

From an article by Nathan Leaf in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Over the past few years, ethanol plants have sprung up all over Wisconsin and much of the Midwest as the biofuel has been touted as the solution to America's energy woes. And so far, corn has been the undisputed king.

C5-6 Technologies of Middleton is working to change the landscape of the biofuel industry. It plans to do this with newly developed enzymes - proteins that catalyze chemical reactions - that will not only make production of corn ethanol more efficient but also expand the raw materials, or feedstocks, that can be used to create the fuel. . . .

Not only will the enzymes break down the [soybean] meal into ethanol, but they will create a valuable soy protein concentrate that can be used as a petroleum substitute in products such as adhesives and plastics.

"We could have a process that is by far the most profitable ethanol process out there," Biondi said.