better than the common cane sugar to produce bio-fuel so 
The fermentation of carbohydrates in a process similar to that of barley, used to produce beer, and the use of small units of production of bio-fuel in the center of large agricultural farms cultivated a reed, here's the curious scene which could be called out by the imagination of a young pioneer ecologist 70s, which puts into practice the concepts simple and sustainable processes and even energy-efficient and economical. And the project is all Italian. Paul speaks of Virtuani in un articolo su Corriere.it: . DALLA CANNA AL SERBATOIO: LE NUOVE FRONTIERE DEL BIOCARBURANTE. "La semplice canna comune,
Arundo donax è il suo nome botanico, quella che cresce lungo i fossi o i margini delle strade, rappresenta il futuro dei biocarburanti, in particolare dell'etanolo che può essere addizionato alla benzina. In Brasile l’etanolo ricavato dalla canna da zucchero ormai è una realtà da oltre 30 anni, ma come fare per tradurre anche nei nostri climi questa possibilità che ci viene offerta dalla natura se la canna da zucchero in Italia non cresce? Impresa non facile, che ha richiesto 120 milioni euro investment and five years of research is needed to find the best plan and develop the process of milling.
The money has been invested by the group M & G (Mossi and Ghisolfi), a multinational company with headquarters in Italy, a world leader in the production of PET (plastic bottles), 3 000 employees and $ 3 billion of turnover. In 2004 with the acquisition of the Italian group Chemtex gave a change in its strategy, entering the chemical "green" biofuels. And Rivalta Scrivia, near Alessandria, using the possibilities offered by the Science & Technology Park and dall'onlus Energy, the district agricultural and energy of the North West, was born the laboratory where he was born the advanced second-generation bioethanol, derived from the fact that common reed.
"We needed a plan that would combine five characteristics," says the engineer Giuseppe Fano, director of M & G research center Rivalta Scrivia. "There was food - for humans or animals - for ethical reasons, had little need for water and fertilizer, was available throughout the year, grew up poor and marginal lands not used by intensive cultivation, and it was indigenous, widely available and high yield. After five years of research and experimentation, we found it, "says Fano. "It is the common reed, that has all the features needed and also provides 40 tons of dry matter per hectare equivalent and, once processed, you get 10 tons of bioethanol per hectare, even more than what is obtained from sugar cane in Brazil. "
L 's commitment is to find alternatives to oil and reduce dependence on imports from abroad every year cost the country billions of euro, and through biofuels (which has a budget of CO2 emitted seqeustrata and almost zero) reducing emissions of greenhouse gases . But what is the economic viability of the project? In other words: how much does a liter of ethanol? "bioethanol is competitive when oil price falls under 60-70 dollars a barrel. "And these days the prices are around $ 88, while a couple of years ago also came to 140 dollars a barrel.
Last October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) has authorized in cars built after 2007 use dell'E15, fuel composed of 15% bioethanol and 85% gasoline. For vehicles built between 2001 and 2006, another is planned authorization by 2011. Still, the U.S. has determined that in 2022 58% of the 136 billion gallons of biofuels to be produced in the country can not be derived from food crops like corn. Two goals: to reduce dependence on imports dall’estero ed evitare, come avvenuto negli anni 2006-2008, l’aumento eccessivo dei prezzi di prodotti essenziali all’alimentazione umana e animale, come grano, mais e soia. Attualmente negli Usa vengono prodotti 41,6 miliardi di litri di biocarburanti.
"Per essere conveniente, l’etanolo prodotto dalla canna deve però soddisfare altre condizioni: per esempio la cosiddetta filiera corta", spiega ancora l’ingegner Fano. "Stiamo realizzando un impianto pilota a Crescentino, in provincia di Vercelli, da 40 mila tonnellate di bioetanolo che entrerà in funzione nel 2012. Per alimentarlo sono necessarie canne raccolte un’area di 4 mila ettari, che però non devono provenire da una distanza superiore a 30-35 chilometri. Altrimenti le spese di trasporto e il consumo di carburanti diventano eccessivi e il gioco non vale più la candela". Secondo Fano, inoltre, l’impianto ideale dovrebbe avere una taglia di 150-200 tonnellate di bioetanolo, quindi occorrono 15-20 mila ettari coltivati a canna – che si raccoglie tutto l’anno - a una distanza non superiore di 70 km dall’impianto.
Per arrivare a centrare il traguardo che l’Unione europea (e l’Italia) si è data con l’obiettivo 20-20-20, cioè entro il 2020 diminuire del 20% le emissioni di CO2, aumentare del 20% l’efficienza energetica e produrre il 20% dell’energia da fonti rinnovabili, nel nostro Paese sarà necessario produrre 1.5 million tonnes of bioethanol. Then, as shown by Fano, we must "grow" to 150 000 hectares
Arundo donax 8-10 and build plants.
Since the plant cane come to pass when bioethanol is produced five days, although recent U.S. studies based on the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis
in the fermentation of xylose, indicating that the cycle can be reduced to one and a half. The treatment is simple and chemical-free, energy. After chopping, the plant mass is "cooked" and fermented, much like beer. The resulting liquid with a certain content of ethanol, through other steps arrives at an ethyl alcohol content of up to 99%. As a by-product is lignin, which has a calorific value than wood and is burned to power the industrial process. What remains are carbon-containing waste water from which one can still derive biogas and natural gas industry and close the loop "bio" in depth ".
