Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Bioethanol production and consumption as a liquid fuel is growing rapidly in North America. For instance, in the United States it now represents over 1% of all motor vehicle fuel consumption.  Bioethanol provides a net energy surplus while simultaneously providing an alternate market for agricultural raw materials and reducing greenhouse gases emitted to the environment.  By improving the efficiency of the overall bioethanol process, it is possible to further improve the net energy gain and reduce the overall processing costs.  We have previously shown that starch particles can be directly converted to bioethanol in a single vessel, removing the energy requirements to cook the biological feed materials.  In the first half of this project, we are further improving this new simultaneous cold starch hydrolysis and fermentation process by creating genetically altered yeast cells capable of producing enzymes needed to directly convert starch particles to bioethanol.  This will reduce the cost of our new process by removing the need to purchase costly hydrolysis enzymes. In the second half of this proposal, we are studying the ability of new bioreactor designs to capture and bioremediate PAHs and volatile organic chemicals, including ethanol, from industrial waste streams.  VOCs contribute to global pollution including the greenhouse gas effect.  Our project involves replacing the currently used packed bed biofilm reactor with a submerged circulating loop bioreactor or a fluidized bed bioreactor.  Submerged bioreactors prevent toxic effects and drying out the packing while fluidized beds can improve performance due to better mass transfer and prevention of bioreactor plugging problems.