Increasing ethanol yields

Brent Shanks, an

associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, is leading a research team that’s working to develop chemical catalysts that could boost ethanol production by increasing the yield of fermentable sugars from corn.

The idea is to create the chemical catalysts that create single, simple sugars from molecules made of several simple sugars linked together. The simple sugars are the ones that can be fermented to produce ethanol.

Such a process would allow ethanol producers to use all the sugars in corn. And Shanks said that could boost ethanol production by 10 to 15 percent.

The research is supported by grants of $305,000 from the National Science Foundation, $200,000 from the US Department of Agriculture through the Iowa Biotechnology Byproducts Consortium and $162,000 from the US Department of Energy through the Midwest Consortium for Biobased Products and Bioenergy.

Shanks, who worked for the Shell Chemical Company for 11 years, said the petrochemical industry has been developing catalysts and other technologies for working with fossil fuel molecules for about 80 years. Researchers working with corn and other bio-based molecules are just starting to develop catalysts and technologies to improve production of fuels and chemicals.