Mississippi Ethanol gets boost from NASA
Winona Ethanol Plant to study breakdown of rocket fuel for NASA
by Cal Trout
DBJ Contributing Writer
NASA has awarded Mississippi Ethanol of Winona a 100,000 dollar grant.
The grant is the first phase in a STTR research project whereby the breakdown of gases in rocket fuel is examined in
real time. The project is aimed at finding out what types of impurities are found in burned rocket fuel.
“Mississippi State is a big partner in this deal. They are going to do an analysis of those fuels to see what impurities
are in it. Like, for example, in Oxygen you might have small levels of Nitrogen in there, and of course, that affects it and
they want 100 percent oxygen and if they don’t have that they don’t get the same performance out of the engine,” says
Larry Pearson, president of Mississippi Ethanol.
The analysis will take place in real time so that as they record the breakdown of rocket fuel the scientists can discount
any types of impurities. By measuring it as it happens, they will know immediately what accounts for poor engine performance.
Hydrogen and Nitrogen are both problematic in real time studies.
Mississippi Ethanol is involved because the technique used is applicable across a wide range of chemical processes. ME
is interested in it because another project they are working on takes some sort of biomass such as sawdust and makes a
gas, then converts it into some sort of product. Ethanol is customarily the end product of this technique.
The technique is called LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy). This technique is primarily the focus of the first
phase of this development-type grant.
“The big requirement is to have a university or a national lab partnered with a private industry, because they look at
ideas they think are worthy, then they allow you to take it through phase one. Most of the money for phase one will be spent
in preliminary research,” says Pearson.
After the first phase, which will last about nine months, ME will turn in a report with the conclusions. If it looks promising,
and Pearson indicates it does, ME will apply for a phase two grant. Phase two will award close to one million dollars
for additional studies. Phase three would allow commercialization.
Since most of the work for this phase will take place at the University, it will not offer an employment boost for the
Winona area, but should it be taken to the phase two and three level, that possibility seems likely.
There are other ethanol plants in Mississippi and other states, but NASA chose the Winona plant because most other
plants work on a grain-based fermentation route. NASA is interested in looking at rocket fuel gases, so the LIBS technique
at ME was ideal. Ms. State’s research lab was also key in attracting NASA.
“It’s a combination effort, but most of the work for this phase will be done at the university. NASA is looking at wanting
to know what’s in oxygen so they can do their engine analysis, and we’re working with Dow to do this other project
(LIBS), so it was just kind of a good match. They can’t do it themselves, and it looked like we could apply it to our stuff
later,” says Pearson.
An STTR grant requirement is that there has to be an industrial partner. The program was developed because the federal
government was criticized because most of the funding for solicitations was going to big companies. They developed
this type of grant as well as others in order to give a greater number of companies the opportunity to get some of these
grants. Pearson says there is a size limit on companies that apply. They set aside a certain percentage of their budget that
has to go to smaller companies. DBJ
