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Out of the Lab, Into the Field

Posted: January 26, 2009 at 10:07 AM CST

One of the more interesting aspects of covering an industry for a living is witnessing the technological developments that evolve over the course of time. In just the past few years we’ve seen significant advancements in grain fractionation, energy and water reduction, and raw starch hydrolysis, among others. Many of the innovations are born out of on-the-job ideas. Growing up on a farm, I quickly realized that you need to be able to think creatively in order to solve problems or come up with better ways of doing things. In fact, it’s clear that anything is possible. The only thing holding back ideas is a money, talent and time.

Our nation’s universities are clearly a place where talent, time and (hopefully) money come together to research and develop innovative technologies and processes, many of which are benefitting the fuel ethanol industry. Susanne Retka Schill discusses just such an arrangement in her February EPM feature, “Fertile Fungus.” It describes work being done by Iowa State University researchers that uses fungi to boost energy and water savings in dry-mill ethanol plants. For more information, the article is available at: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=5272. We also hash over the process in this week’s podcast on Ethanol Producer Radio: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/podcast/.

Take a read or listen, it’s refreshing to see the process move from a laboratory to the real world. Obviously, there are thousands of such projects underway, and few of them hit it big. However, the successful innovations thought up in the lab and brought to the field are what make this industry fast-paced and unique.

-Dave Nilles