RENEWABLE ENERGY

Biofuel manufacturing involves harvesting crops high in sugar (sugar cane, sugar beet and sweet sorghum or starch), and then use yeast fermentation to produce ethyl alcohol.  Wood and its byproducts can also be converted into biofuels such as woodgas, methanol or ethanol fuel. 

Each of these processes involves E-milling, a process derived from conventional wet milling, for the recovery and purification of starch.  Then using groups of enzymes whose catalytic function is to hydrolyze peptide bonds of proteins to eliminate the need for sulfites and decrease the steeping time.

Particle size distribution of this milled product is an important measurement.  By reaching a desired mean and/or median size, the raw material will maximize the time allotment of the fermentation time.

Cilas laser particle size analyzers are used for analyzing the wet-milled product prior to fermentation to determine whether or not additional milling is necessary to reach the desired size.  Improper particle size can greatly delay or accelerate fermentation in the biofuels process causing costs to increase.