4 ms·
The presence of lactose made me curious as to whether all this whey could be used in ethanol production. It would help reduce the need for corn ethanol while ta
by beowulfey 13y ago
The presence of lactose made me curious as to whether all this whey could be used in ethanol production. It would help reduce the need for corn ethanol while taking care of this problem. Curiously, this possible solution wasn't mentioned in the article at all.
Here is a white paper describing a fermentation process (pretty standard ethanol production, from the looks of it). http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/dairy/3H.pdf http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/dairy/3H.pdf
And here is an excellent USDA review looking at a lot of the different solutions to this whey surplus: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/RR214.pdf http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/RR214.pdf
- TezzellEnt 13y agoIn my cursory search on the matter (and comment a few moments ago to another reply), ethanol production was my first thought when dealing with the excess lactose. It seems that there are a few cooperatives that own a facility in California & Minnesota. I am still unsure of the difference between "sweet" whey & "acid" whey, I believe that they should be able to convert the lactose into a useable ethanol.