MAKING FUEL-GRADE ETHANOL "GOOD ENOUGH TO DRINK"

Fuel ethanol could be cheaply and quickly converted into the purer, cleaner alcohol that goes into alcoholic drinks, cough medicines and mouth washes, announced Iowa State University researchers in the October 2006 issue of Resource magazine. Jacek Koziel of the ISU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Department is studying two technologies to purify and remove bad-tasting components from fuel ethanol. He is working with Hans van Leeuwen, vice president of a Cedar Rapids firm called Mell03z. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board says the state has 25 plants capable of producing 1.5 billion gallons of fuel ethanol. Multiple distillations required to make foodgrade alcohol raise costs to about 50 cents per gallon more. The goal is to drop that amount to less than a penny per gallon.

One technology would be solid phase microextraction to collect samples of compounds in the alcohols. Another is gas chromatography mass spectrometry to identify and quantify all compounds in the samples. Koziel would use his lab's olfactometry equipment to separate and analyze smells created by various compounds. He can be contacted at koziel@iastate.edu.