Ames, Iowa – Now that ethanol has become common in gas tanks, two Iowa State University professors are working to get it into martini glasses.
The professors are researching how to easily, and cheaply, turn fuel ethanol into food-grade alcohol to be used in beverages, pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
“We will be taking relatively abundant and cheap fuel ethanol, and for a very small amount (of money) adding a lot of value to it,” said Jacek Koziel, an assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
He said the research is focused on perfecting technologies that purify fuel ethanol, a grain alcohol most often made from corn and used as a gasoline additive. Like beverage alcohol, fuel ethanol is yeast-fermented and then distilled. However, it has many more impurities that must be removed, Koziel said.
“We are trying to fine-tune, so to speak, the process of alcohol purification,” he said.
Why find another use for ethanol at a time when demand for the fuel has skyrocketed? Because while the demand for fuel ethanol could wane if the automotive industry embraces other technology, “the demand for liquor and mouthwashes and cough syrups will always be there,” said Hans van Leeuwen, a civil, construction and environmental engineering professor working with Koziel.
“We’re really just looking at a process improvement here that will save a lot of money,” said van Leeuwen, who also serves as vice president of Cedar Rapids-based MellO3z, a company that has created a process for purifying alcoholic beverages.
The key to the effort is price.
