Problem of producing cheap biofuel from cassava solved
The state’s research agency and energy policymakers have finally discovered a way to produce biofuel from cassava at a competitive cost, says a senior Energy Ministry official. Previously the use of cassava in ethanol production was not viable despite the abundance of the shrub, because the production costs were far higher than those for fuel derived from molasses, the by-product of refining sugarcane into sugar. After 18 months of research and experiments, the Thailand Institute of Science and Technological Research has found that they can use a species of yeast named Saccharomyces Cerevisiae in the cassava fermentation process, resulting in ethanol with a far lower per unit cost.
