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ETHANOL FROM WHEY
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 -- 8:28 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
A Stratford company has successfully tested exciting technology that converts cheese waste into renewable energy – namely: ethanol.
In July 2004, DuBay Ingredients received a $29,000 grant to research and develop a process for the conversion whey, a waste product, into ethanol, a renewable fuel.
Ken Heiman, General Manager of Nasonville Dairy, assisted in the research. He says dairies will extract what they need from the milk product. They’re left with a byproduct that contains lactose, a natural milk sugar that will be turned into ethanol.
“Through the fermentation process – it’s much like making cheese – we’re actually taking a silo full of lactose, add an enzyme bacteria that will turn that into alcohol, run that through a still and molecular sieve,” Heiman explains. “At that point, we have ethanol that you can put in your car and drive away.”
Heiman says this type of technology is already being used – especially in Europe. It’s exciting – maybe even revolutionary – for the cheesemaking industry.
Currently, whey costs dairies around 22-cents per hundred pounds of milk to dispose, Heiman says.
“We’re going 180-degrees in the other direction,” Heiman raves. “We’re taking something that’s costing us money to handle, and we’re turning around and make it into something that we can pour into our car and drive away.”
There are still some outstanding questions as to how to implement the technology. It appears it may work best if larger dairies set up ethanol production facilities on-site.
“If a plant has a million pounds a day, they should be able to do this on premises,” Heiman says.
Heiman has been in the cheesemaking business for over 30 years, he says this is one of the top two developments in his industry that he’s seen.
Wednesday, Governor Doyle announced the state will continue its efforts to encourage the use of renewable energy through the POWER Initiative. The first part of this initiative will include $225,000 in grants that will help facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, and biomass.
Dairy generates more than $20 billion in economic activity for the state.
On the web:
DATCP Press Release
Wisconsin Consortium on Biobased Industry
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