Articles Directory | Free Articles | New Articles Daily | It May Seem Like A Joke, But Dissolving Pulp Mills And Ethanol Suppliers Are Close Cousins

The title may sound confusing, but Dissolving Pulp mills are closely related to what will likely be our next major energy providers, Ethanol Providers. Looking at the two types of companies, you will find that they are very closely related and are very important to the world economies.

Typical mills of the last century took wood, chips and pretty much all of the tree, for that matter, to break them down into fibers used to create paper. Cellulose, with many uses, is one of the fibers that is created. Ethanol is the fermented product of cellulose, sugars or starches. Ethyl alcohol is created from the fermentation process. It is the same category of alcohol that you will find at the local bar. The highly flammable liquid is pure or grain alcohol and is a byproduct of the paper mills.

The name cellulosic ethanol refers to the ethanol that is left over after separating the cellulose fibers in trees to create paper. Creating ethanol in this manner is very expensive. There are very specific organisms that must be present. Several steps are required to process the it to produce the bio-fuel. Corn, however, requires one less step, so is less expensive to manufacture. Researchers are attempting to find the microorganisms that will be less expensive and still produce the desired product.

Corn has been a staple food grown in America that has been exported, warehoused and fed to animals. There is an overabundance of it, to the point that some farmers have been paid to let their fields lie fallow rather than plant it. With the price of fossil fuels exploding, bio-fuels are looking more appealing. The increased market along with tax incentives have prodded dissolving pulp mills to convert to bio-refineries.

While ethanol can be used as fuel all by itself, it is most often mixed with gasoline. The blend increases the octane of the gas while reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted from the car exhausts. Gas performance is improved and our concern over pollution is reduced. The added bonus is that both corn and wood are renewable resources.

Unlike fossil fuels, both corn and wood resources can be increased with great ease. Fossil fuels, made by centuries of animal and vegetative posits, do have limits. Since most of the fuel was made during the last ice age, we may have to wait a very long time for the resource to be replenished.

Bio-refineries are no longer just a pipe dream. Although they are still young, they show great promise both in the types of products they produce and their profitability. Large corporations are supportive with research to determine the least expensive, and most available, microorganisms that will naturally convert the corn and wood, or biomass, to ethanol. Nature often surprises us and this time is no different. One of the more promising producers of the enzymes is the household termite. Their excrement may lead us to exactly what we need.

The next time you are infested with termites, the new industry might convince you to start a termite farm instead of exterminating them. Dissolving Pulp mills and Ethanol Suppliers look like they are the solution to the economic and pollution problems on earth.