The scope of the study is to carry out fermentation test of food waste and sweet potato for the potential production of fuel ethanol for commercial use. Having already started testing earlier 2013, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo expects to conclude by the end of the year.
The study is aimed at optimizing three factors in biomass-based ethanol production: process temperature, application of various enzymes, and variations in fermentation processing. Additionally, batch ethanol yield is also a key factor in the effort to scale down ethanol production.
These factors are critical to the scalability and adoption of the technology solutions, which are provided by Greenbelt and Diversified Ethanol. The study will also compare separate hydrolysis versus simultaneous saccharification.
Cal Poly Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the principal investigator Yarrow Nelson said that the funding from these two companies will help it to continue with its research around waste-to-fuel conversion formulas.
