Ethanol from Cheese?
There’s always a better whey.
A Wisconsin cheese producer, Joe Van Groll of Stratford, Wisconsin, has a way with whey.
For nearly a decade, Van Groll experimented using the waste product of cheese manufacturing, whey permeate, to manufacture ethanol. During the past four years, he’s been doing just that, and believes his process can produce ethanol for less than $1 a gallon.
In an effort to avoid waste and simplify things, Van Groll’s process:
1. Turns whey permeate into ethanol.
2. Separates and dries the yeast coproduct for feed.
3. Utilizes the heat produced from fermentation and distillation to make biodiesel.
4. Waste heat, water and carbon dioxide can be used to raise oil-bearing algae for biodiesel.
5. Incorporate an anaerobic digester that turns wastes into methane to power the process.
10 billion pounds of cheese are produced in the United States every year and that results in 86 billion pounds of whey permeate. Much of the waste is spread onto farmers’ fields at the cheese makers expense, but that is limited and environmental regulators are beginning to restrict the process.
The other option is to dispose of the waste in municipal water treatment facilities, but because of its high biological oxygen demand, pretreatment is required.
Van Groll says, “My process takes a cost center and turns it into a profit center.”
Will his process make it to your fuel tank? Several entrepreneurs and a few countries have shown an interest in the process.
Interesting concept and excellent article. Beer producers have had a similar problem with disposing of the spent grain mash after making beer. The wet grain mash has been used by cattle farmers to supplement cattle feed. Would this be a possible by product to make fuel?
Exactly what pre-treatment in a conventional wwtp would be required before the whey could be biologically treated?
The big questions with all these alternate energy systems is costs, time to implement and how much fuel can be produced.
Has an actual cost study been completed to determine if this process will yield $1.00 per gallon ethanol?This factor needs to be studied and determined! This process certainly makes better sense than continuing to use corn to produce ethanol? How much have your food prices gone up lately?