Fuel ethanol is typically made from corn, but chemical engineering faculty member Y.Y. Lee and his team have been working to make ethanol from non-crop raw materials, such as agricultural residues, energy crops such as switch grass and hardwood and waste material that includes pulp mill sludges.<\/p>\n
While investigating a number of different feedstocks, Lee\u2019s team found that one of the most promising is paper mill sludge. With 14 pulp and paper mills in the state of Alabama, these plants collectively generate nearly 2,000 tons of this waste material each day. If this was converted to ethanol, 150 thousand gallons of ethanol could be produced per day. This sludge is an attractive raw material for ethanol production because it is a free waste material created by the pulp and paper making process. It is also produced in fine particulate form and has a well-dispersed structure and large surface area, making it relatively easy to convert to ethanol when compared to other cellulosic materials.<\/p>\n