http://antidepressionguide.org depression symptoms - depression treatment - depression help - Depression Causes, Symptoms, Types, Signs, Facts, Medication Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:16:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/11/green-tech-biofuel-bug/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/11/green-tech-biofuel-bug/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:25:00 +0000 Will SunEthanol based in Massachusetts, US, hit the headlines earlier this year when it claimed to have found a naturally occurring organism called "Microbe Q" that could convert waste biomass such as corn stalks, sawdust and grass cuttings into ethanol.

This is important because bioethanol could replace petrol as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Ethanol can already be made from biomass, but requires a multistage process employing enzymes to break down the cellulose before the biomass sugars can be fermented.

Now the company has filed a patent application for an industrial process that employs a microbe called Clostridium phytofermentans. The organism was discovered by company co-founder Susan Leschine and colleague Tom Warnick from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, US, in soil near the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.

They say this naturally occurring anaerobic microbe can produce ethanol in a composting tank, in which biomass is fermented in the presence of the microbe. The process works without the need for enzymes of any kind, making it potentially cheaper than other approaches.

The company has already attracted funding from several investors.

Read the full Q microbe patent application.

Justin Mullins]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/12/11/green-tech-biofuel-bug/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/04/green-tech-faster-biodiesel-production/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/04/green-tech-faster-biodiesel-production/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:43:00 +0000 Will Making biodiesel involves a reaction called transesterification in which the triglycerides and free fatty acids in oils from plants such as corn or linseed react with methanol to form methyl esters of 16-18 carbon atoms in length. Purified methyl esters can then be used in place of diesel fuel.

The problem is that transesterification is a slow process and currently the only way to speed it up is to cook chemicals in batch reactors at high temperatures and pressures. But having to produce fuel in batches also limits the rate at which biodiesel can be made.

Now Christian Fleisher and colleagues at Cornell University have developed a way of making biodiesel continuously, without the need to fill and empty batch reactors.

The trick is to produce the transesterification reaction as the necessary chemicals mix and flow through a pipe. The result is a system – known as a "plug flow" reactor – in which plant oil and methanol is added continuously at one end, while biodiesel flows out of the other.

Fleisher achieves this speed increase by using a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide. So, instead of taking hours, the transesterification reaction then takes place in under three minutes. Fleisher has even set up a company called Biodiesel Technologies to commercialise the idea.

See the full continuous transesterification patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist contributor]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2007/09/04/green-tech-faster-biodiesel-production/feed/ 0