Seafarers’ Scourge Provides Hope for Biofuel Future
A close-up of the gribble. (Credit: Dr. Simon Cragg/Graham Malyon -- Institute of Marine Sciences, School of Biological Sciences)
For centuries, seafarers were plagued by wood-eating gribble that destroyed their ships, and these creatures continue to wreak damage on wooden piers and docks in coastal communities.
But new research by scientists at the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre at the Universities of York and Portsmouth is uncovering how the tiny marine isopod digests the apparently indigestible.
By examining genes that are expressed in the guts of gribble, the researchers have demonstrated that its digestive system contains enzymes which could hold the key to converting wood and straw into liquid biofuels.
In research published today, a team headed by Professor Simon McQueen-Mason and Professor Neil Bruce at York, and Dr Simon Cragg at Portsmouth reveal that the gribble digestive tract is dominated by enzymes that attack the polymers that make up wood. One of the most abundant enzymes is a cellulose degrading enzyme never before seen in animals.
The research is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS). (more…)
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Beyond the Corn Field: Balancing Fuel, Food and Biodiversity
Virginia Dale from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The development of alternative fuel will greatly benefit the U.S., say scientists in an Energy Foundation-funded report published today by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the nation’s largest organization of ecological scientists. However, in order to effectively reap the social and economic benefits of biofuel production, U.S. policies need to address potential effects of land-use choices on our ecosystems.
In the report, scientists Virginia Dale, Keith Kline, John Wiens and Joseph Fargione review the current research on biofuel production and its potential effects on ecosystems. They also analyze the social, economic and ecological challenges of biofuel production and the most effective routes to developing sustainable, renewable fuel alternatives.
Biofuels are liquid fuels derived from biological materials, such as plant stems and stalks, vegetable oils, forest products or waste materials. The raw materials, called feedstock, can be grown specifically for fuel purposes or can be derived from existing sources such as agricultural residue or municipal garbage.
“There are several methods of biofuel production, all of which affect the ecological systems around us in ways that can reap benefits if feedstock type, management, transport and production choices are appropriate for the setting,” says Virginia Dale from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN. “In order to balance increasing demands on land for urban, industrial and agricultural use, policies need to incorporate socioeconomic and ecological principles in view of current and past land uses. Existing research provides the basis for weighing the costs and benefits of the different options for feedstocks, management and production within an overall design for sustainability of ecosystem services within a region.” (more…)
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Engineers Find Significant Environmental Impacts with Algae-Based Biofuel
With many companies investing heavily in algae-based biofuels, researchers from the University of Virginia’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have found there are significant environmental hurdles to overcome before fuel production ramps up. They propose using wastewater as a solution to some of these challenges.
These findings come after ExxonMobil invested $600 million last summer and the U.S. Department of Energy announced last week that it is awarding $78 million in stimulus money for research and development of the biofuel.
The U.Va. research, just published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, demonstrates that algae production consumes more energy, has higher greenhouse gas emissions and uses more water than other biofuel sources, such as switchgrass, canola and corn.
“Given what we know about algae production pilot projects over the past 10 to 15 years, we’ve found that algae’s environmental footprint is larger than other terrestrial crops,” said Andres Clarens, an assistant professor in U.Va.’s Civil and Environmental Department and lead author on the paper. Clarens collaborated on the paper with Lisa M. Colosi, also an assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department; Eleazar P. Resurreccion, a graduate student in the department; and Mark A. White, a professor in U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce. (more…)
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Scientists’ Breakthrough in Production of Biofuels
Professor Will Zimmerman, the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Sheffield
A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield have scooped an international award in recognition of their work on an innovative device which will make the production of alternative biofuels more energy efficient.
The research team has adapted a unique bioreactor for use in the production of alternative renewable fuels, to replace fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel. The manufacture of biofuels currently requires vast amounts of power and when the process uses too much energy, it is uneconomic. This new method consumes much less energy and could prove to be vital to the economic, green production of alternative fuels.
The team have devised an air-lift loop bioreactor which creates microbubbles using 18% less energy consumption. Microbubbles are miniature gas bubbles of less than 50 microns diameter in water. They are able to transfer materials in a bioreactor much more rapidly than larger bubbles produced by conventional bubble generation techniques and they consume much less energy. The team’s unique adaption of the bioreactor and creation of microbubbles has the potential to revolutionise the energy-efficient production of biofuels.
In recognition of this breakthrough, the team have been awarded the Moulton Medal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which recognises the best paper published in the Institution’s journal during the year. The team also submitted their project as a poster to the 6th Annual bioProcessUK conference, where it picked up the Best Poster Award. (more…)
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Engineered Tobacco Plants Have More Potential as a Biofuel
Flowering tobacco plants.
Researchers from the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have identified a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the plants for biofuel. Their paper was published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal.
According to Vyacheslav Andrianov, Ph.D., assistant professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, tobacco can generate biofuel more efficiently than other agricultural crops. However, most of the oil is typically found in the seeds – tobacco seeds are composed of about 40 percent oil per dry weight.
Although the seed oil has been tested for use as fuel for diesel engines, tobacco plants yield a modest amount of seeds, at only about 600 kg of seeds per acre. Dr. Andrianov and his colleagues sought to find ways to engineer tobacco plants, so that their leaves expressed the oil.
“Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production,” Dr. Andrianov said. “We have found ways to genetically engineer the plants so that their leaves express more oil. In some instances, the modified plants produced 20-fold more oil in the leaves.” (more…)
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Self-Destructing Bacteria Improve Renewable Biofuel Production
Roy Curtiss, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and professor in the School of Life Sciences.
An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe to self-destruct, making the recovery of high-energy fats–and their biofuel byproducts–easier and potentially less costly.
“The real costs involved in any biofuel production are harvesting the goodies and turning them into fuel,” said Roy Curtiss, director of the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and professor in the School of Life Sciences. “This whole system that we have developed is a means to a green recovery of materials not requiring energy dependent physical or chemical processes.”
Curtiss is part of a large, multidisciplinary ASU team that has been focusing on optimizing photosynthetic microbes, called cyanobacteria, as a source of renewable biofuels. These microbes are easy to genetically manipulate and have a potentially higher yield than any plant crops currently being used as transportation fuels.
But, until now, harvesting the fats from the microbes required many cost-intensive processing steps. Cyanobacteria have a multi-layer, burrito-like, protective set of outer membranes that help the bacteria thrive in even harsh surroundings, creating the pond scum often found in backyard swimming pools. (more…)
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Clean Algae Biofuel Project Leads World in Productivity
Murdoch University Professor Michael Borowitzka holds clean biofuel produced from algae. (Murdoch University)
Australian scientists are achieving the world’s best production rates of oil from algae grown in open saline ponds, taking them a step closer to creating commercial quantities of clean biofuel for the future.
A joint $3.3 million project led by Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, and involving the University of Adelaide in South Australia, now leads world algae biofuel research after more than 12 months of consistent results at both universities.
“It was previously believed impossible to grow large quantities of algae for biofuel in open ponds consistently and without contamination, but we’ve proven it can be done,” says Project Leader Professor Michael Borowitzka from Murdoch University. (more…)
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Chemists Seek to Powering the World with Sunlight - The ‘Artificial Leaf’ & More
Scientists are making progress toward development of an “artificial leaf” that mimics a real leaf’s chemical magic with photosynthesis — but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The gathering launched a new effort to initiate international cooperation and innovative thinking on the global energy challenge.
The three-day symposium, which took place in Germany this past summer, included 30 chemists from China, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was organized through a joint effort of the science and technology funding agencies and chemical societies of each country, including the U. S. National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The symposium series was initiated though the ACS Committee on International Activities in order to offer a unique forum whereby global challenges could be tackled in an open, discussion-based setting, fostering innovative solutions to some of the world’s most daunting challenges.
A “white paper” entitled “Powering the World with Sunlight,” describes highlights of the symposium and is available along with related materials here. (more…)
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Could Sorghum Become a Significant Alternative Fuel Source?
Could sorghum become a significant alternative fuel source? That’s what faculty from Salisbury University’s Richard A. Henson School of Science and Technology, with Solar Fruits Bio Fuels, LLC, are hoping to find out during a series of trials this fall.
Since May, eight sweet sorghum varieties have been growing on a Wicomico County farm for evaluation as potential stock for ethanol production on Delmarva. Drs. Samuel Geleta and Christopher Briand of SU’s Biological Sciences Department are spearheading the project. SU seniors Hoa Nguyen of Dorchester County, Kristen King of Anne Arundel County and Steven Weschler of Montgomery County; along with juniors Kayla Pennerman and Brian Knepper of Salisbury, are assisting with the research.
According to Geleta, about half of the varieties have already been harvested, with the rest to be finished by mid-October. Some of the plants grew to a height of 12 feet. He said sweet sorghum is attractive because it is drought resistant, fast-growing and has low nutrient and fertilization requirements. The process of producing ethanol from sweet sorghum also costs less and is more energy efficient than the process for corn. (more…)
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UGA Licenses Technology to Make Fuel from Dead Forests and Agricultural Waste
An innovative process for turning waste biomass – such as dead trees, agricultural waste and lumber byproducts – into a liquid fuel to power conventional engines has been licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. to Tolero Energy, LLC, a private biofuels company based in Sacramento, Calif. The technology represents a leap forward for the biofuels industry: the ultra-low-sulfur biofuel does not require additional refinement or processing before blending with biodiesel and petroleum diesel.
The exclusive license provides Tolero Energy global rights to the technology, including the right to grant sublicenses.
Tolero CEO Chris Churchill said the company will focus on the transportation fuels market as it completes development of the UGARF bio-oil technology. He expects to make product based on the technology available in the first half of 2010.
Lead inventor of the technology is Tom Adams, a retired member of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering. Co-inventors are John Goodrum, Manuel Garcia-Perez, Dan Geller and Joshua Pendergrass – all presently or previously associated with the UGA Faculty of Engineering. (more…)
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Britain’s First Dual Fuel Bus Will Cut Emissions by Half
A consortium brought together by low carbon experts at the University of East Anglia is today launching the first bus in the UK to run on clean, biomethane gas. (UEA)
A consortium brought together by low carbon experts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) is today launching the first bus in the UK to run on clean, biomethane gas.
The innovative dual-fuel diesel-biomethane powered bus will reduce pollutant emissions and greenhouse gas emissions by around a half. It is hoped the technology will be rolled out to bus fleets across the country and further afield.
The bus will make its first public showing at LCV 2009, the UK’s leading exhibition of low carbon vehicle technology. The event takes place at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire on September 9 and 10. (more…)
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Researchers Boost Production of Biofuel that Could Replace Gasoline
by Pam Frost Gorder
Shang-Tian Yang
Engineers at Ohio State University have found a way to double the production of the biofuel butanol, which might someday replace gasoline in automobiles.
The process improves on the conventional method for brewing butanol in a bacterial fermentation tank.
Normally, bacteria could only produce a certain amount of butanol — perhaps 15 grams of the chemical for every liter of water in the tank — before the tank would become too toxic for the bacteria to survive, explained Shang-Tian Yang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State.
Yang and his colleagues developed a mutant strain of the bacterium Clostridium beijerinckii in a bioreactor containing bundles of polyester fibers. In that environment, the mutant bacteria produced up to 30 grams of butanol per liter. (more…)
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Algae-To-Biofuels Pilot Facility on Cape Cod
Lake filled with algae.
Plankton Power and the Regional Technology Development Corp. (RTDC) of Cape Cod announced today the establishment of a public-private consortium focused on building a leading-edge facility to produce renewable biofuels from algae. Under the leadership of Plankton Power, the RTDC, Massachusetts National Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and Cape Cod Commission are joining forces to establish the Cape Cod Algae Biorefinery. The new facility will focus on pilot- and commercial-scale development of algae biodiesel (a type of biofuel) that is cost-competitive with existing petroleum- and vegetable-based fuels, with improved performance characteristics. (more…)
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Bioethanol’s Impact on Water Supply 3 Times Higher Than Once Thought
Production of bioethanol may consume up to three times more water than previously thought, scientists are reporting. (American Chemical Society)
At a time when water supplies are scarce in many areas of the United States, scientists in Minnesota are reporting that production of bioethanol — often regarded as the clean-burning energy source of the future — may consume up to three times more water than previously thought. Their study appeared in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Sangwon Suh and colleagues point out in the study that annual bioethanol production in the U.S. is currently about 9 billion gallons and note that experts expect it to increase in the near future. The growing demand for bioethanol, particularly corn-based ethanol, has sparked significant concerns among researchers about its impact on water availability. Previous studies estimated that a gallon of corn-based bioethanol requires the use of 263 to 784 gallons of water from the farm to the fuel pump. But these estimates failed to account for widely varied regional irrigation practices, the scientists say. (more…)
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Scientists in China Develop Shrimp Catalyst for Green Biofuel Production
A substance made from shrimp shells may transform biodiesel production into a faster, less expensive and more eco-friendly process, researchers are reporting. (Wikimedia Commons)
Call it a “shrimp cocktail” for your fuel tank. Scientists in China are reporting development of a catalyst made from shrimp shells that could transform production of biodiesel fuel into a faster, less expensive, and more environmentally friendly process. Their study is scheduled for the Aug. 20 issue of ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal.
Xinsheng Zheng and colleagues note that an energy-hungry world, concerned about global warming, increasingly puts its future fuel hopes on renewable fuels like biodiesel. Today’s biodiesel production processes, however, require catalysts to speed up the chemical reactions that transform soybean, canola, and other plant oils into diesel fuel. Traditional catalysts cannot be reused and must be neutralized with large amounts of water — another increasingly scarce resource — leaving behind large amounts of polluted wastewater. (more…)
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Technology is Key for Biofuel Success
A biofuel power station in Jordbro, Sweden. (Stefan Jansson)
To make the conversion of biomass to biofuels more cost-effective, new technologies are essential, according to Dr. Richard Hess from the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls in the US and his team. Their cost-analysis1 of the steps involved in the corn stover* supply chain is published in Springer’s journal Cellulose, in a special issue dedicated to technological advancements in the conversion of corn stover to biofuels.
The United States is increasing the use of lignocellulosic biomass, of which corn stover is a substantial source, as part of its portfolio of solutions to address climate change issues and improve energy security. As biorefining conversion technologies become commercial, major barriers to the availability of corn stover for biorefining are emerging, including feedstock availability, supply system logistics and characteristics of the biomass material itself. These barriers challenge the cost-effectiveness of current feedstock logistics systems. (more…)
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Sustainable Bioenergy Project Has Global Launch
“Global Sustainable Bioenergy: Feasibility and Implementation Paths” is a response to confusion and uncertainty on whether the world should look to bioenergy –biofuels, heat and electricity — as a prominent factor in meeting global energy needs.
Scientists from around the world are joining forces to seek resolution of issues related to sustainable production of energy from biomass.
“There are tremendous opportunities to integrate biomass production with food crops and forest management to enhance both economic and environmental outcomes,” said Tom Richard, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering and director of Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment.
The three-stage project is led by Richard, Nathanael Greene, Natural Resources Defense Council who chairs the steering committee and Lee Lynd, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College and Mascoma Corporation. The first stage of the project is a series of five meetings scheduled around the world beginning in Malaysia in November 2009. In the first half of 2010 meetings will take place in the Netherlands, South Africa, Brazil and the United States. An 11-person organizing committee will oversee the meetings with international representation from academic, environmental advocacy and research institutions (engineering.dartmouth.edu/gsbproject). (more…)
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Biofuel Could Lighten Jet Fuel’s Carbon Footprint Over 80 Percent
The seeds of a lowly weed could cut jet fuel’s cradle-to-grave carbon emissions by 84 percent.
David Shonnard, Robbins Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering, analyzed the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from camelina oil over the course of its life cycle, from planting to tailpipe. “Camelina jet fuel exhibits one of the largest greenhouse gas emission reductions of any agricultural feedstock-derived biofuel I’ve ever seen,” he said. “This is the result of the unique attributes of the crop–its low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and the availability of its coproducts, such as meal and biomass, for other uses.” (more…)
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Biofuel Production a Serious Drain on Water Resources
Dr. Joel G. Burken, professor of environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, in his greenhouse where he studies the use of poplar trees to remove pollutants from soil. (Photo by B.A. Rupert/Missouri University of Science and Technology)
U.S. federal requirements to increase the production of ethanol has developed into a “drink-or-drive issue” in the Midwest as a result of biofuel production’s impact on water supplies and water quality, says an environmental engineering researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
In an analysis of the water required to produce ethanol from various crops, Dr. Joel G. Burken, a professor of environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, and colleagues from Rice University and Clarkson University find that ethanol could become a costly proposition in terms of “gallons per mile” and other water quality issues. They describe the Midwest’s water needs and impacts as the ’water footprint’ in their cover feature for the May 1 issue of Environmental Science & Technology. (more…)
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Biofuels Could Hasten Climate Change
A new study finds that it will take more than 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost when biofuel plantations are established on forestlands. If the original habitat was peatland, carbon balance would take more than 600 years. The study appears in Conservation Biology.
The oil palm, increasingly used as a source for biofuel, has replaced soybean as the world’s most traded oilseed crop. Global production of palm oil has increased exponentially over the past 40 years. In 2006, 85 percent of the global palm-oil crop was produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, countries whose combined annual tropical forest loss is around 20,000 square kilometers.
Conversion of forest to oil palm also results in significant impoverishment of both plant and animal communities. Other tropical crops suitable for biofuel use, like soybean, sugar cane and jatropha, are all likely to have similar impacts on climate and biodiversity. (more…)
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Making Military Grade Fuel from Corn Waste
The Department of Defense has awarded $1.9-million in funding to a biofuel research team led by chemical engineer George Huber at the University of Massachusetts Amherst so he and colleagues can turn wood and corn waste products into fuel precursors.
The DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has granted Huber and colleagues funding to investigate new catalysts to enable low-cost pathways for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (derived from the cells and woody fibers of plants and trees) into a liquid composition that can be easily refined to a fuel such as JP-8. Huber and his team will exploit new chemistries to develop an end-to-end process that starts with biomass as the input and ends with JP-8 range alkanes and aromatics, which are both hydrocarbons and are the essential ingredients in military fuel. (more…)
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Economical, Eco-Friendly Process for Making Biodiesel Fuel from Algae
The feedstock transferring system for algae biodiesel. (United Environment & Energy LLC.)
Chemists reported development of what they termed the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel — a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S. independence from petroleum as a fuel [which of course doesn't solve the greenhouse gas problem of burning biodiesel - Ed.]
One of the problems with current methods for producing biodiesel from algae oil is the processing cost, and the New York researchers say their innovative process is at least 40 percent cheaper than that of others now being used. Supply will not be a problem: There is a limitless amount of algae growing in oceans, lakes, and rivers, throughout the world. (more…)
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Researchers Developing Renewable Energy for Ethanol Industry
Some of Song-Charng Kong's previous research has focused on combustion efficiency and exhaust emissions of automotive engines. In-laboratory engine tests have been performed to determine the fuel economy and exhaust emissions.
Iowa State University researchers are working to produce clean, renewable energy by developing a new, low-emissions burner and a new catalyst for ethanol production.
Both technologies will use the synthesis gas – a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen – produced by the gasification of discarded seed corn, switchgrass, wood chips and other biomass.
The burner will be designed to efficiently and cleanly burn biomass-based gas. The catalyst will be designed to convert the synthesis gas directly into ethanol.
The project is supported by a two-year, $2.37 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund, a state program to advance energy innovation and independence.
Song-Charng Kong, an Iowa State assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is leading the project. The research team also includes Robert C. Brown, the Iowa Farm Bureau Director of Iowa State’s Bioeconomy Institute, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering; Victor Lin, a professor of chemistry, director of Iowa State’s Center for Catalysis, director of Chemical and Biological Sciences for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and founder of Catilin Inc., an Ames-based company that produces catalysts for biodiesel production; Samuel Jones, an assistant scientist for the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies; plus seven graduate students and two post-doctoral researchers. (more…)
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Clean Energy Investment Not on Track to Avoid Escalating Climate Change
The world economic crisis has hit investment in clean energy and means its growth is no longer on track for the world to avert the worst impact of climate change, according to leading clean energy and carbon market analysts, New Energy Finance.
Presenting their Global Futures 2009 insights to the second New Energy Finance Summit on March 4th, NEF analysts say that although lower economic activity due to the financial crisis will reduce CO2 emissions, in the longer term the drying up of funding for lower-carbon energy solutions is likely to have far greater adverse impact on emissions.
Investment in clean energy - renewables, energy efficiency and carbon capture & storage - increased from $34bn in 2004 to around $150bn in each of 2007 and 2008. New Energy Finance’s latest Global Futures report demonstrates that investment needs to reach $500bn per annum by 2020 if CO2 emissions from the world’s energy system are to peak before 2020. (more…)
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