TURNING WASTE MATERIAL INTO ETHANOL: Nanoscale catalysts could tap syngas as cheap source of ethanol

AMES, Iowa –Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel.  But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.  By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.