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Using Wind Energy and Carbon Dioxide to Produce Ethanol
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The BioWinol Technologies process uses sequestered CO2 plus wind energy to generate H2 and then converts these gases into ethanol and other industrial products.
Any new biofuel production technology must compete with the cost of gasoline and have a minimal impact on the environment. BioWinol 100% green technology can be cost competitive due to the abundance of CO2 and wind energy with no negative impact on the environment. Further, the process will reduce green house gases and produce much needed transportation fuel –ethanol. This will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil and improve economic stability, but will also create decentralized energy production system, improve rural economies and achieve the level of energy independence that this country has been seeking for decades.
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On January 14th, 2011 at 10:18 am Nicole Remondet Said:
great video you guys!
On January 20th, 2011 at 2:32 am Suguna Said:
Really a wonderful Idea
On January 21st, 2011 at 2:06 am dhayalan Said:
This is absolutely a breakthrough in modern energy. I could see the gasoline cost is getting higher each and every month. We definitely need a replacement.
On January 21st, 2011 at 4:37 am Mohamed Anas Said:
This is a good idea for several important reasons.
On January 21st, 2011 at 6:09 am Sunil Said:
Really excellent thought,
On January 21st, 2011 at 5:24 pm Muthu Said:
Its really good idea….& Impressed me
On January 22nd, 2011 at 12:55 pm Jagadeesh Said:
The need of the society is brought to you by this team. All the best.
On January 25th, 2011 at 7:55 am Savitha Said:
Great work keep it up !
On January 25th, 2011 at 1:19 pm Raj Viswanathan Said:
Great work! Eager to watch in TV
On January 27th, 2011 at 4:12 am Mohan Said:
Great Idea!!! Go Green!!!!!
On January 28th, 2011 at 1:44 pm Thennarasu Said:
Promising idea..keep up the good work.
On January 28th, 2011 at 3:01 pm Sachin Said:
This is great.
Keep it up.
On January 28th, 2011 at 3:01 pm Vijaya Said:
Way to go.
On January 28th, 2011 at 6:26 pm Sasi kumar Said:
Good job dimple
On January 28th, 2011 at 6:28 pm sajini sasikumar Said:
excellent
On January 28th, 2011 at 7:30 pm Jay Deshpande Said:
Great idea..
On January 29th, 2011 at 4:34 am Praveen Kumar K A Said:
That’s a great job done. With the recent climatic changes and environmental disasters happening more frequently, this technology will reduce the carbon footprint to a great extent. It will have more impact in third world nations like India and certain other Asian countries. Since, the wind energy is already being harnessed in India, the hybrid model to develop BioWinol will be the next step to cleaner, greener world. Keep up the good work.
On January 30th, 2011 at 3:13 pm bindiya varghese Said:
good job!!dimple…excellent thought 2 save our EARTH!!!!!
On January 31st, 2011 at 11:22 am Subha Said:
Great Idea. Keep it up.
On January 31st, 2011 at 2:55 pm Jack Tossell Said:
Nicely presented idea by an attractive team of young, enthusiastic researchers. But the devil is in the details. Will the process turn out to be energy efficient and scalable to the size with planetary impact? Certainly worth further study, but not proven at this point.
On February 4th, 2011 at 7:03 pm John Said:
This sounds like a terribly inefficient use of wind power. Wind power directly charging batteries at better than 90% efficiency moving an EV at better than 90% efficiency, or, wind power+carbon capture+water pumping+hydrogen production+carbon+hydrogen to produce ethanol+ethanol transport through pumping and tanker truck to fueling stations+burning in a maybe 20% efficient ICE. Wow. Wind power to a fleet of EV’s for the win. Even storing excess wind in batteries if necessary would be more efficient than this ethanol concept.
On February 5th, 2011 at 12:11 pm DIMPLE KUNDIYANA Said:
Thank you all for the comments and critiques.
Jack: Agree with your observation that devil is in the detail. Scalability is one of the major challenge and our research is currently focused on addressing the issue.
John: I agree with your comment that there are other technologies available for the efficient use of excess wind energy. However, there is no silver bullet available in the current quest on energy. we have to work on different technologies and a pool of these technologies will help us realize objectives of energy security and reduced enviornmental pollution.
Our proposed process will also utilize the CO2. Reduction of CO2 is believed to be one of the energy challenges of the century. We also expect that once we achieve the target yields from the process, the net energy balance will be positive.
On February 6th, 2011 at 3:59 pm Satyam Said:
We need such innovative ideas to tackle the demands of fossil fuels; at least for our future generations. My best wishes to all the researchers involved in this project at Oklahoma State University!
On February 6th, 2011 at 7:13 pm Michael Said:
I don’t believe this process is worthwhile for several reasons:
1. Using wind energy to produce hydrogen.
I am very interested in the technology of using wind to create enough energy to crack water into oxygen and hydrogen. For my knowledge this is extremely energy intensive. If you can produce that much electricity, why not putting it into the grid for electric cars?
2. Using hydrogen for ethanol fermentation.
Assuming you have an efficient process of creating hydrogen, why would you feed it into a reactor for fermentation when hydrogen itself is a fuel with high energy density?
3. Overall efficiency
Putting all these process steps together, with each having an efficiency loss I doubt the propcess is efficient.
Please let me know if I miss an importent detail which could change my argumentation.
On February 9th, 2011 at 12:04 am Dimple Kundiyana Said:
Michael: You are right in your context. The proposed process utilizes idle or excess electricity available from the wind farms. As you may be aware that T&D of the wind generated power is a major challenge hurdle for the wind farms. And the owners find that it is profitable to shut down the wind farms especially in the night, and that is when our proposed process will take advantage of the situation. You have to also understand that continuous operation adds to the considerable maintenance costs.
We have done a initial financial projection based on our preliminary results and observed a 2 MGY plant with a ethanol yield of 25 g/L of from the fermentation process, using a 2 MW wind turbine operating at 40% efficiency will give a payback period of 4 years when at a sale price of $2.2 per gallon of ethanol.
Yes our present effort is directed towards improving the fermentation yield.
On February 9th, 2011 at 12:47 am the famousz gorgeousz Said:
Wind energy is a very wonderful idea for our threatened earth. It’s very clean, harmless and totally eco friendly. Like what made in Holland (Shell Wind Farm) in the North Sea. It’s great but it’s takes a lot of money/investors to fund that project. Wind is a limitless and renewable energy source without any emissions.
Go ahead my Wind!!!!!!
On February 11th, 2011 at 10:04 am Andrew Said:
I do not believe this to be a reasonable solution for a few reasons.
1. Where is your CO2 source? you will need highly concentrated CO2 for this gas reaction and the only present sources are not tied with any carbon sequestration.
2. I think you should be careful when claiming to capture CO2 when your using it to make a combustible fuel.
3. I agree with MICHAEL when he alluded to the energy intensity of hydrolysis. If wind energy during off peak hours had enough energy to split water then why would we use it to form ethanol?
4. have you considered the thermodynamics of using three hydrogen molecules to only get one ethanol molecule.
5. If windmills create electricity that can be feed directly into the grid. the only reason to convert that electrical energy to chemical energy would be for storage but why then convert it into ethanol why not methane.
6. An ethanol yield of 25 g/L is not very concentrated ethanol. I am assuming 25g of EtOH per Liter of water? have you taken into account the distillation process and its energy requirements.
Over all I do not believe that this project is feasible. However, I like its creativity and your video is very well done. Sorry for being such a pessimist. I have been look at these kind of operations in depth for a while.
On February 11th, 2011 at 4:11 pm Eric Said:
This is totes awesome!!!!!
On February 26th, 2011 at 12:40 pm Justj Said:
Link from Oilgae.com.
I have seen the devastation of ‘wind farms’ that no one is talking about. The decimation of the flocks of birds and the delicate balance of raptors in the ecological system. If we are going to work in ‘Green Science’ don’t we need to look at the TOTAL impact of the systems we use? So much of the ‘new’ energy research uses a very restricted view of it’s impact on the entirety of nature and society such as the devastation mentioned above. I Have investigated many alternatives to commercial power for organic aquaponics, so far NONE are financially or ethically viable.
On February 27th, 2011 at 1:53 pm winning.project Said:
This project idea has an innovative potential towards developing a sustainable biofuel. Especially, I do see more practical, economical, and viable approach with this project. This not only leads to economical biofuel production at the same time it has great potential to utilize CO2 which ultimately reduce significant amount of environmental pollution. I am looking forward to see the success of this great project in near future soon.
On March 1st, 2011 at 9:43 am debasish sahoo Said:
Many electric designs have limited range, due to the low energy density of batteries compared to the fuel of internal combustion engined vehicles. Electric vehicles also often have long recharge times compared to the relatively fast process of refueling a tank. This is further complicated by the current scarcity of public charging stations. “Range anxiety” is a label for consumer concern about EV range…..now u know why EV couldnt take on gasoline the way expected..the only replacement for gasoline is biofuel thats the way head for all of us.the project with good investments should take care of the ‘cost effectiveness’ concerns..my best wishes for the teams success lookin ahead for ur show on tv
On March 2nd, 2011 at 7:42 pm John Said:
EV’s can be built with plenty of range and the charging network is quickly being expanded. Yes batteries have less energy density than gasoline but internal combustion engines are so inefficient they throw away around 80% of the energy in gas. Better aerodynamic design can get much more range from today’s batteries and doesn’t add any cost to vehicle construction. Once higher volume production lowers the costs of batteries we’ll see 200 mile EV’s become more common. Coupled with the expanding charging network “range anxiety” largely disappears.
On March 13th, 2011 at 7:44 pm Uthkala Urubail Said:
Great Idea good job..
On April 30th, 2011 at 7:59 pm Bryan Said:
Sorry for the threadjack, but Jennine Terrill is really pretty… and obviously very intelligent. I’d love to meet her.
If you guys are successful in your concept, you will change the world for the better. Best of luck.
On June 1st, 2012 at 11:12 pm Praveen Kumar Said:
All new fuel technologies are well spoken in digital medias for years.. but none have come to reality.