Tue, Feb 19, 2008 page2

• Researchers race to find rice stalk fuel technique

  THE HEAT IS ON While pressure, heat or acid may all be used to process the rice stalks, teams around the world are seeking the cheapest and most efficient method

  • By Meggie Lu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Beginning in 2011 about 3 percent of Taiwan's vehicle fuel may come from biomass fuel alcohol generated from rice stalks, a fuel of the future that not only makes great use of agricultural waste, but is also friendly to the environment, the Atomic Energy Council's (AEC) Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) said yesterday at a press conference.

  The cellulosic ethanol [fiber alcohol] program was initiated last year by the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs in view of the emerging global need for a sustainable source of alternative fuels, program manager Wang Jia-bau (王嘉寶) said, adding that the AEC took over the NT$400 million (US$12.6 million) project this year and will continue to support it until 2010.

  "In 2010 the program is projected to conclude with a mature technique to mass produce rice stalk fuel alcohol," he said.

  "The development of biomass fuel is currently one of the hottest fields of research worldwide -- everyone wishes to find a cheap, clean and sustainable replacement for increasingly scarce petroleum," Wang said.

  Biomass fuel is considered carbon neutral, since the carbon emissions produced by the burning of the fuel are canceled out by the carbon absorbed during photosynthesis by the plants used to make the fuel, he said.

  "Compared to some current biomass fuels made of corn or sugarcane, which are controversial because of their competition for human food, the INER's program aims to distill ethanol fuel from agricultural wastes [fibers] such as rice stalks or sugarcane pulp," he said.

  The resulting alcohol can be mixed into petroleum to make E3 fuel -- which means that the mixture contains 3 percent alcohol and therefore reduces carbon emission of vehicles that use the fuel -- he said.

  Fuels that are under 10 percent alcohol would not require modified vehicles, he said. However more alcohol content is used in some countries, he said.

  "For example, Brazil leads the pack by selling E22 fuel," he said.

  Though the current technology in the labs is costly, the team hopes that once a feasible production method is developed, fuel alcohol will be as low as NT$25 per liter when mass produced, at which point the INER will transfer the technology to businesses, he said.

  Though the raw materials for the alcohol cost less and mass production will be more efficient than for petroleum, the current challenge of these "second generation biomass fuels," is that their production requires more technological advancement, he said.

  "Compared to, say, corn alcohol, the process to make fiber alcohol involves a`pretreatment' -- a method to expose the sugars in the raw materials so that fermentation is possible," he said.

  High pressure, high heat or using diluted acid are all options, but "whoever finds the cheapest and most efficient pretreatment method would come out ahead in the race to make the best fuel alcohol in the world," he said.

  "Now is a good entry point for Taiwan to enter biomass fuel research since the technology that is mature enough for commercial production has yet to be seen in the international market," Wang said.

  "Taiwan's development in this field is almost on par with most other countries -- last year we successfully generated 10kg batches, yielding 2 liters of 99.5 percent fuel alcohol per 10kg of rice stalks, when the most in the field is about 2.5 liters," he said.
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