Like a Cellulosic Cake

Lately, I’ve been reading up on the processes and procedures that go into making a bioethanol. 

A very interesting part of the procedure is the initial process, called the pretreatment. The pretreatment is the step that begins the process of breaking down cellulosic biomass by using a chemical solution of  an acid or alkali. After using the chemical solution on the feedstock, you wash it with water and treat it with a number of other solutions. I haven’t done this process yet, but I am apprehensive due to the likelihood that I will be handling a caustic substance with little between me and it. 

The pretreatment fits into my work by kicking off the process of making bioethanol, where it dissolves the feedstock into a substrate to be digested by enzymes and fermented by microorganisms. There are many steps to making a bioethanol, but the process is comparable to a recipe once written out in detail. All you need is the ingredients and equipment, and then you can rinse and repeat.

Progressing Progressively

In the photo, I am starting a new entry for my research.

These past few weeks, I’ve been solidifying my research background information into a solid foundation for an experiment. I had been rushing myself too much in my research previously, resulting in a sparsely ordered amount of background information and constant slowdowns. As of such, I’m now performing research in a far more efficient manner than previous, as my research template is visible on the left screen in the photo.

 One of my recent successes was developing and enacting the research template itself, as it demolished any worries about super slow and mind-numbing research, as well as speeding up my general progress immensely.

A challenge that has come up would be that I don’t exactly know the straightforward processes for making Cellulosic Bioethanol, seeing how many researchers perform different processes with additional steps at their own leisure.

A question I have would be “How do you take a cellulosic biomass and turn it into a feedstock?” This is a very crucial question, as a multitude of papers I have read left out the process they used for this important step.

All in all a very progressive couple of weeks, and I can’t help but look forward to my next blog post.

Probably wouldn't fit on a tool belt

 As I move into true scientific research, the question of what equipment will I be using for an experiment has come up. As I am lacking a trained mentor and unpaid internship, I simply do not know all of the equipment necessary for bioethanol production, but here's what I do know.

• High Tech
• Chromatograph (For high performance liquid chromatography or gas chromatography)
• pH Sensor (A high tech alternative to testing strips, with variations for more than just pH)
• Computer (For research, analysis, recording and publication)
• Centrifuge (To separate ethanol from impurities or by-products)
• Distiller (To actually begin the process of creating Bioethanol)
• Grinder (To grind a biomass into a feedstock)
• Filter (To separate feedstock from irrelevant materials and wastes)
• Mass spectrometer (For use in conjunction with chromatography for Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
• Bioreactor (Where fermentation takes place)
• Low Tech
• Glassware (Easiest to sanitize and reuse)
• Chemical Testing Strips (Nitrogen, Copper, pH, etc.)
• Chemicals (For use as a solvent and more)
• Enzymes (For enzymatic methods of bioethanol production)

 Not a very big list, but looking into each one will provide additional options and alternatives, while also providing me with much more information to use in planning my research.