World Grain - April 2008 - 34

BIOFUELS QUARTERLY: BETTER BARLEY FOR BIOFUELS

mentation. During fermentation, additional beta glucanase is added. The beta
glucanase lower the viscosity of the
barley mash by partial hydrolysis of the
beta-glucans.
Hicks said new studies done by Dr.
John Nghiem in his lab have shown that
complete conversion of the beta-glucans
to glucose is possible with additional
amounts of a key enzyme, beta glucosidase. This further reduces the viscosity
and produces additional glucose that
can be fermented to ethanol, thereby increasing yields.
Researchers are calling this the enhanced dry grind enzymatic or EDGE
process. The same enzymes used in the
standard conversion of barley to ethanol are added during pre-liquefaction.
During fermentation, beta-glucosidase
is added.
In studies, the EDGE process produced an ethanol yield of 402 liters per
dry tonne of feedstock (2.25 gallons per
bushel) as compared to the 395 liters
(2.21 gallons) produced in the conventional process.
A third process called STARGEN
also has been studied by Genencor collaborators Mian Li and Jay Shetty and
has shown higher yields than the standard conversion method. The STARGEN process doesn't require the high
temperature cooking step, Hicks said.
A mixture of acid alpha amylase, beta
glucanase and protease are added to the
mash, which starts converting the solid
starch into glucose. During fermentation, a combination of alpha amylase
and protease are added.
The process is simpler and requires
less energy and equipment, Hicks said.
Viscosity is not a problem because the
process only goes to a high temperature
of 57 degrees C.
"Under these conditions, we are able
to hydrolyze the beta-glucans, and
since we're not gelatinizing the starch,
there is little viscosity from that either,"
he said.
STARGEN produced high levels
of ethanol from barley similar to the
EDGE process with a starch fermenta-

tion efficiency of nearly 96%.
In conclusion, Hicks said the EDGE
process leads to higher yields of ethanol
than the conventional process and the
distillers grains from both contain low
levels of beta-glucans. The STARGEN
process has a higher ethanol yield, the
distillers grains contain less beta-glucan,
and it is simpler.

STARGEN and the EDGE process
can produce high yields of ethanol per
bushel when high quality hulled barley
is used. Even higher yields could be
possible with hull-less barley, currently
WG
being studied.
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