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Study Finds More Effective Way To Dry Ethanol, Reduce Costs
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have found an alternative environmentally friendly and energy-efficient way to dry corn ethanol, and their proof is in the pudding.
Michael Ladisch, a distinguished professor of agricultural and biological engineering; Youngmi Kim, a Purdue research scientist; and Ahmad Hilaly, director of process research at Archer Daniels Midland, found that the shape and structure of tapioca pearls are ideal for removing water from ethanol. Their findings were reported in the July issue of the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
After fermentation, ethanol contains between 6 percent and 12 percent water, which must be removed to make it fuel-grade. Many ethanol plants use corn grits, which absorb water, or molecular sieves, silica-based particles with tiny pores that only retain water molecules. Ladisch and Kim found that tapioca pearls work better than the conventional corn grit adsorbents.
"Any starch will absorb water. That's how you cook rice or pasta," Kim said. "The tapioca pearl is made of aggregated cassava starch granules that can adsorb more water."
Ladisch said tests found tapioca collected about 34 percent more water than corn. Molecular sieves, while effective, eventually wear out and create waste that must be disposed of. The tapioca can be dried and reused, and when they wear out, they can be used to make more ethanol.
"Tapioca is very efficient, and it's all-natural," Ladisch said. "There are no disposal issues. It's much more environmentally friendly."
Tapioca pearls, essentially spherical, are structured differently than corn grits, Ladisch said. While corn grits are solid, irregularly shaped particles, tapioca pearls contain a gelatin starch core upon which dry starch granules are aggregated, significantly increasing surface area.
While tapioca pearls are 100 percent starch, corn grits also contain fiber, protein and other substances that are not efficient for absorbing water.
Starch-based adsorbents like tapioca pearls also take up the heat created during drying, allowing that heat to be reused to evaporate water during regeneration of the drying bed.
"This combines fundamental biochemistry, biology and engineering with thermodynamics to obtain an efficient separation system," Ladisch said.
After trying several options to maximize water absorption, including corncobs and wood chips, inspiration struck Ladisch while watching his mother-in-law fix Thanksgiving dinner. As she started mixing up homemade tapioca pudding, Ladisch noticed that the tapioca pearls looked similar to the beads used in molecular sieves.
"I started thinking, 'It's a starch. Might this work?'" Ladisch said.
Ladisch said tapioca pearls may be used effectively in U.S. Ethanol facilities, but he believes they could be more significant in facilities in South America and Africa where the plant used to create tapioca - cassava - is grown.
Ladisch and Kim said they would continue to test uses for tapioca pearls, including drying other alcohols. They also plan to create synthetic, starch-based adsorbents from other cheaper materials to lower the cost.
Ladisch is chief technology officer at Mascoma, a renewable fuels company based in New Hampshire. He received no funding from the company for this research. Archer Daniels Midland funded the work.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.Edu
Sources: Michael Ladisch, 765-494-7022, ladisch@purdue.Edu
Youngmi Kim, 765-494-6695, kim107@purdue.Edu
Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.EduAgriculture News Page
ABSTRACT
Cassava Starch Pearls as a Desiccant for Drying Ethanol
Youngmi Kim, Rick Hendrickson, Nathan Mosier, Ahmad Hilaly,and Michael R. Ladisch
The fuel ethanol industry uses corn grits packed in fixed bed adsorption towers to dry hydrous ethanol vapors in an energy efficient manner. Spherical micropearl cassava starch exhibit a higher adsorption capacity than corn grits of the same size and may be a viable replacement for ground corn. Adsorption equilibrium curves, BET surface area measurements, and SEM images provide an explanation for the enhanced performance of cassava micropearls based on particle architecture and the surface area available to water molecules. The SEM images show that the micropearls form a core–shell structure with pregel starch acting as the scaffold that holds starch granules in an outer layer. This layer determines the BET surface area and the measured equilibrium adsorption capacity. The core–shell microstructure results in a shortened diffusion path-length and enhanced adsorption rates. These microstructural and operational characteristics provide a template for microfabrication of enhanced capacity starch based spherical adsorbents that could replace ground corn for the drying of ethanol.
Pumpkin Tapioca
From 'Harry Potter' To Tapioca Pudding: An Ode To Family Traditions
Traditions have the power to bind a family together as they create a sense of belonging and shared experiences.Adobe Stock
We are knee-deep in the season of traditions — they're fun, they're meaningful and they can be powerful.
"Family traditions counter alienation and confusion," writes author Susan Lieberman. "They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world."
Traditions have the power to bind a family together as they create a sense of belonging and shared experiences.
Too often we take traditions for granted or dismiss them too easily, but they are a fundamental part of a strong family life. Traditions provide a source of shared identity, something that is especially important in "non-traditional" families like ours. Telling and retelling family lore, like the one about the "macaroni and cheese sandwich" or the vacation from you-know-where that was not funny at the time, but now serves as a way to see yourself as part of a bigger whole.
Khalil Gibran said, "Next to hunger and thirst, our most basic human need is for storytelling." It's how we make sense of our world, from macro to micro. When it comes to families, it's the glue that binds. Stories and traditions go together like, well, macaroni and cheese.
Meg Cox, author of "The Book of New Family Traditions," describes traditions as "any activity you purposefully repeat together as a family that includes heightened attentiveness and something extra that lifts it above the ordinary ruts." Traditions, therefore, are not just repeated routines or habits, but are done intentionally.
Being intentional about creating and maintaining traditions was deliberate for me as we were deep in the throes of parenting. My children came from diverse backgrounds and experiences, as we built our family mostly through international adoption. So, we knew we needed to actively create a shared family culture. We did that through repetition of the daily and weekly things, but also through repeated traditions throughout the year.
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One of our daily routines that continues today is having dinner together. It might seem like a small thing, but there are real benefits to having dinners together. Anne Fishel, co-founder of The Family Dinner Project, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of "Home for Dinner" listed a few: increased vocabulary, higher achievement scores, better grades, healthier kids and parents, a lowering of high-risk teenage behaviors, increased resilience, increased optimism and better parent-child relationships.
In our case, it also helped promote healing from trauma, abandonment issues and food insecurity.
Traditions can bring comfort, too. One year, we did an elaborate "Harry Potter"-themed Christmas Eve. We had "butter beer" and "basilisk" (a Costco-sized pork loin), "Bertie Bott's" every flavored jelly beans, costumes and custom-made wands for everyone. The analysis by the majority of our children? Fun, but not "Christmas."
Even this year, when we scaled down our Christmas Eve festivities, one son told me he was "sad," even though we moved most of the fun and games to Christmas Day.
Traditions change and evolve. They shouldn't be shackles. I swore I would never do "Elf on the Shelf" but succumbed last year, to the delight of our youngest. I used to sew dozens of pairs of pajama pants but haven't for a few years now. (Although I might revive that tradition just for grandkids.) I learned our family tradition of having tapioca pudding with a nut hidden in one serving came from Denmark and their tradition of eating rice pudding, or risengrød. My family of origin changed it to tapioca pudding, I've exchanged the nut for a cherry (choking hazard) and my brother changed the tapioca to chocolate pudding. And, if none of my children carry on that tradition, that's OK, too.
We're now in "dead week," that week between Christmas and New Year's. Our traditions include doing jigsaw puzzles (my husband), baking (me), games like "What Do You Meme" (kids version), Uno, Monopoly and Risk (the boys), staying up late and watching movies at home. We snack all week long on Chex Mix, homemade caramels, a variety of cookies, cheese balls, dips and veggies. On New Year's Eve, we'll do a huge charcuterie spread. We may or may not stay up until midnight.
Happy tradition-building!
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy.
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