USDA and DOE are issuing this joint funding announcement for several types of projects aimed at increasing the availability of alternative renewable fuels and biobased products. The projects will aim to create a diverse group of economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass.
The funding opportunity is available online at Grants.gov . Pre-applications are due July 13, 2010, and must be submitted electronically.
DOE has also released a video (below) that highlights a new way of producing ethanol from the cellulose fibers in corn cobs, rather than corn kernels. The technology generates a new opportunity for farmers to harvest and sell the cobs that they’d normally leave in the field. The video was shot at a harvesting equipment demonstration in Emmetsburg, IA.
Transcript
00:00:20 I don't think that any of us ever really thought about taking a cob and making it a renewable fuel. I don't know who it was that thought of it or who dreamt this up. But he had a good idea I think. Well, I just think it's a great way for us to have another chance to get something that you're just leaving laying in the field and it's worth something. Everybody's talking about it. In every field this fall that we've harvested we've had people stop and look at the process and just kind of shake their heads
00:00:57 because it's just something that they haven't seen before. It's a good feeling to be harvesting something that isn't good for much of anything else and be able to make fuel out of it. That's a pretty good deal. That's kind of a positive both ways I think. Making cellulosic ethanol is obviously a new technology. We've been working on it at POET for many years. The process is very different from the way that we make grain ethanol today.
00:01:26 We actually have to break down the cellulose to begin with and then we take it through a treatment process we then add some enzymes that break down the cellulose into sugars that can be digested by microorganisms to make ethanol. To think how the technology has changed from cornpickers back when I was young, up to the combines and the cob harvest and the ethanol today. I think you're going to see technology change that's going to just boggle your mind.
00:02:07 I look at this as a way that it produces more income for my farm and hopefuly I can bring somebody else on board. It's nice to see some people looking to come back to the farm.
