This article from the USA Today – GREEN HOUSE website reports how “trashanol” – creating paper-based bio fuel, could be keeping pounds of paper from hitting our landfills, you might say from reams to rides!
As companies push to cash in on President Obama’s call for biofuelsand clean coal technologies, two are touting a way to turn government and other paper waste into fuel, or “trashanol.”
Yes, all those thousand-plus-page pieces of legislation can now be turned into a biofuel that the manufacturers say emits up to 90% less carbon dioxide than gasoline.
On recent demonstration drives around Washington, Denmark’s Novozymes and Maryland-basedFiberight used their so-called trashanol to power a flex-fuel Chevy HHR and Ford F150.
How do they do this? 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. This ethanol is blended with gasoline to make E85 — 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.
