Fill ‘er up with ‘trashahol’
March 2, 2010 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Dealers & Channel, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, New Products
Those dumpster loads of waste paper your office generates may have an even better destination than being recycled into toilet paper. Meet trashohol — a new method for turning paper waste into ethanol.
The technology is being pioneered by two companies: a US firm called Fiberight and a Danish company called Novozymes.
According to a USA Today report:
“Fiberight takes office waste and pulps, treats and washes it. It then uses enzymes from Novozymes to convert the fluffy substance, rich in cellulose, into sugars that are fermented into ethanol.” A mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline (E85) can power current automobiles with small adjustments (using so called flex fuel technology).
Apparently, American offices create enough paper trash to generate 8 billion gallons of trashanol a year. Fiberight has bought an ethanol factory in Iowa and is about to gear up. The use of paper waste is far more economical than using corn –- most of the waste will otherwise just take up space in landfills, and chauffeuring it around would require a lot of gasoline.
DocuCrunch.com delivers the latest IT and Imaging news once a week to the inboxes of over 200,000 IT and Imaging professionals.
Click here to sign up and start your FREE subscription to DocuCrunch!
Loading ...
