While at the Commodity Classic, I enjoyed looking at all of the booths, especially Monsanto's. This year Monsanto had four major divisions in their booth: Yield Gard, Vistive, Round-up Ready, and biofuels/ethanol. I found the ethanol section of the booth extremely interesting. Paul Lopez (NR Specialist) and Troy Hobbes (Corn Biofuel Strategy Leader) shared with me some of the basics of ethanol, the latest technology in the field, and the main objective behind Illinois push for ethanol plant development.Growing up surrounded by agriculture, I had always heard a lot about ethanol and the benefits of using ethanol, but I have to admit I never knew how it was made. To begin, Paul and Troy walked me through the basics of how ethanol is created. In the first step, the corn is ground and mixed with water in cook tank at 200 degrees. The extreme temperature sterilizes the corn and causes the starch molecules to rupture and break down into simple sugars. In the second tank the enzyme Glucoamylase is added which breaks down the sugars into glucose. Yeast is also added in this step which converts the glucose into alcohol. After this 48 hour process, the mixture is distilled and the dried distillers grains (everything that is not fermented) are separated from the alcohol. In the final step, the alcohol is distilled out of the water.
To wrap up, we discussed the growing demand for ethanol plants in the state of Illinois. According to Troy Hobbes, the push for these plants has to do with energy independence. "Ethanol allows us not to import as much oil, keeping dollars at home." Illinois has been a big proponent of biofuels. The state of Illinois has a great agriculture community and the government wants to get the most of that community while benefiting farmers, rural communities, and the United States.
