Chinese researchers conclude that sugarcane is a viable algae-to-ethanol feedstock

In China, researchers at Tsinghua University in China have concluded that sugarcane juice is a viable feedstock for biodiesel production. The Tsinghua team published a study in Energy & Fuels, saying that heterotrophic fermentation of algae offers several advantages as compared to ethanol production via yeast fermentation including the heat energy required for the traditional distillation process. The researchers said that the biomass/sugar conversion rate is a limiting factor and oil cell content ranges between 30 and 60 per cent.

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