Biofuel Study Looks at Cost to Wildlife and Environmental Diversity
Crimson clover grows in a Texas AgriLife Research test plot near Overton. An ongoing study is looking at the effects of growing legumes in conjuction with high-biomass crops on wildlife habitats. Cropping trials are being done at AgriLife Research and Extension centers throughout the state. (Texas AgriLife Research photo)
Whether we can grow bio-energy crops such as switchgrass and forage sorghum isn’t the question, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
The question is, where’s the nitrogen going to come from to grow these crops and how much is it going to add to the cost of the end product, said Dr. Gerald Smith, AgriLife Research legume breeder based in Overton.
And there also are hidden costs, such as the effect of fencerow-to-fencerow crops on wildlife and biodiversity, he said.
“It’s time to take the monoculture blinders off,” Smith said.
Smith and a team of scientists based at Texas AgriLife Research and Extension centers at Overton, Beeville, Beaumont, Stephenville, Vernon and Lubbock are looking at various cropping systems to solve both problems — the cost of nitrogen and ways to preserve habitat for valued species such as the whitetailed deer.
“We don’t know the long-term future of cellulose bio-fuel crops, but we want to be ready in Texas to grow them if they prove lucrative,” he said. “And we want to preserve our wildlife while we do so.” (more…)
Report Finds Bioenergy Production Can Expand Across Africa Without Displacing Food
Dr Rocio Diaz-Chavez, Imperial College London.
Crops can be produced for bioenergy on a significant scale in west, eastern and southern Africa without doing damage to food production or natural habitats, according to a report produced by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Imperial College London, and CAMCO International. The study was released today at the 5th African Agriculture Science Week in Burkina Faso.
“If approached with the proper policies and processes and with the inclusion of all the various stakeholders, bioenergy is not only compatible with food production; it can also greatly benefit agriculture in Africa,” said Dr. Rocio Diaz-Chavez, the report’s lead author and Research Fellow at Imperial College London. “Bioenergy production can bring investments in land, infrastructure, and human resources that could help unlock Africa’s latent potential and positively increase food production.”
The conclusions of the report, Mapping Food and Bioenergy in Africa, were drawn from a review of existing research and case studies of biofuel production and policy in six countries: Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique. Among the report’s findings is that there is enough land available to significantly increase the cultivation of crops, such as sugar cane, sorghum, and jatropha for biofuels without diminishing food production. (more…)
Gene Discovery Potential Key to Cost-Competitive Cellulosic Ethanol
by Katie Freeman
Steven Brown (left) and Shihui Yang, researchers in ORNL's Bioenergy Research Center, have developed a strain of microorganism with an improved ability to convert wood products to biofuel.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are improving strains of microorganisms used to convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol, including a recent modification that could improve the efficiency of the conversion process.
Biofuels researchers and industrials have generated improved mutant microorganisms previously, but authors of a paper in the on-line Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identify a key Z. mobilis gene for the first time and show the strain’s improved efficiency and its potential use for more cost-effective biofuel production.
“Microbes have been breaking down plant material to access sugars for millennia, so plants have evolved to have very sophisticated cell structures that make accessing these sugars difficult,” said Steven Brown, staff microbiologist in the Biosciences Division and one of the inventors of the improved Z. mobilis strain.
Currently, biomass materials like corn stover and switchgrass must undergo a series of pretreatments to loosen the cellular structure enough to extract the sugar cellulose. Brown said these treatments add new challenges because, although they are necessary, they create a range of chemicals known as inhibitors that stall or stop microorganisms like Z. mobilis from performing the fermentation. (more…)
Biodiesel From Sewage Sludge Within Pennies a Gallon of Being Competitive
Sewage sludge, shown at a waste-water treatment plant, could provide a new source of biodiesel fuel that is cost-competitive with conventional diesel. (iStock)
Existing technology can produce biodiesel fuel from municipal sewage sludge that is within a few cents a gallon of being competitive with conventional diesel refined from petroleum, according to an article in ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal. Sludge is the solid material left behind from the treatment of sewage at wastewater treatment plants.
David M. Kargbo points out in the article that demand for biodiesel has led to the search for cost-effective biodiesel feedstocks, or raw materials. Soybeans, sunflower seeds and other food crops have been used as raw materials but are expensive. Sewage sludge is an attractive alternative feedstock — the United States alone produces about seven million tons of it each year. Sludge is a good source of raw materials for biodiesel. To boost biodiesel production, sewage treatment plants could use microorganisms that produce higher amounts of oil, Kargbo says. That step alone could increase biodiesel production to the 10 billion gallon mark, which is more than triple the nation’s current biodiesel production capacity, the report indicates.
The report, however, cautions that to realize these commercial opportunities, huge challenges still exist, including challenges from collecting the sludge, separation of the biodiesel from other materials, maintaining biodiesel quality, soap formation during production, and regulatory concerns. (more…)
Biofuel Chemistry More Complex Than Petroleum
For more than 30 years, Charles Westbrook has been a pioneer in the combustion field. (Photo by Jacqueline McBride/LLNL)
Understanding the key elements of biofuel combustion is an important step toward insightful selection of next-generation alternative fuels.
And that’s exactly what researchers at Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories are doing.
The journal Angewandte Chemie devotes its May 10 cover to a paper co-authored by Sandia’s Nils Hansen and Lawrence Livermore’s Charles Westbrook, which examines the essential elements of biofuel combustion.
The paper, “Biofuel combustion chemistry: from ethanol to biodiesel,” examines the combustion chemistry of compounds that constitute typical biofuels, including alcohols, ethers and esters.
Biofuels, such as ethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel, are of increasing interest as alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels. According to Hansen and Westbrook, however, little research has been done on the vastly diverse and complex chemical reaction networks of biofuel combustion. (more…)
Pressure-Cooking Algae Into a Better Biofuel
Researchers heat algae in a device that acts like a pressure cooker to turn the algae into a crude biooil. (Nicole Casal Moore)
Heating and squishing microalgae in a pressure-cooker can fast-forward the crude-oil-making process from millennia to minutes.
University of Michigan professors are working to understand and improve this procedure in an effort to speed up development of affordable biofuels that could replace fossil fuels and power today’s engines.
They are also examining the possibility of other new fuel sources such as E. coli bacteria that would feed on waste products from previous bio-oil batches.
“The vision is that nothing would leave the refinery except oil. Everything would get reused. That’s one of the things that makes this project novel. It’s an integrated process. We’re combining hydrothermal, catalytic and biological approaches,” said Phillip Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the U-M Department of Chemical Engineering and principal investigator on the $2-million National Science Foundation grant that supports this project. The grant is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“This research could play a major role in the nation’s transition toward energy independence and reduced carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector,” Savage said.
Microalgae are microscopic species of algae: simple, floating plants that don’t have leaves, roots or stems. They break down more easily than other potential biofuel source plants because they don’t have tough cell walls, Savage said. (more…)
Microbes Reprogrammed to Ooze Oil for Renewable Biofuel
by Richard Harth
Biodesign Institute researcher Xinyao Liu explains the advantages of genetically optimizing cyanobacteria to secrete high-energy fatty acids for renewable biofuel production. (Jemal Leonard, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University)
Using genetic sleight of hand, researcher Xinyao Liu and professor Roy Curtiss at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have coaxed photosynthetic microbes to secrete oil—bypassing energy and cost barriers that have hampered green biofuel production. Their results appear in this week’s advanced online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or PNAS.
The challenges of developing a renewable biofuel source that is competitive with the current scalability and low-cost of petroleum have been daunting. “The real costs involved in any biofuel production are harvesting the fuel precursors 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. “By releasing their precious cargo outside the cell, we have optimized bacterial metabolic engineering to develop a truly green route to biofuel production.”
Photosynthetic microbes called cyanobacteria offer attractive advantages over the use of plants like corn or switchgrass, producing many times the energy yield with energy input from the sun and without the necessity of taking arable cropland out of production. (more…)
Inside the Plastic Vortex
SEAPLEX researchers deploy a Matsuda-Oozeki-Hu Trawl. The mammoth net, with a mouth that measures five square meters, (54 square feet) was towed to 800 meters (2,625 feet) depth to capture an array of fish and other biological specimens for laboratory study. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Last summer, minutes before leaving port on a voyage to the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, Chief Scientist Miriam Goldstein was frank about what might and might not be encountered during the expedition to a place that has become known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Goldstein made it clear to fellow scientists, cruise volunteers, and a few members of the news media that SEAPLEX would be an exploratory voyage.
The expedition was designed to locate and study plastic and other marine debris in the gyre. But finding the stuff wasn’t guaranteed. In some ways, the voyage would pay tribute to the grand oceanographic exploration days of yesteryear when seagoing scientists plunged into the great unknown of the ocean frontier. SEAPLEX (Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) was designed to learn something about the extent of the debris problem. It’s quite possible, Goldstein said, that the graduate student researchers leading the trip—despite diligent preparations and knowledge gained from previous trips headed by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation—might not find any plastic in the gyre.
But less than a week into the voyage such provisos evaporated into wisps of sea air. The plastic indeed was there in the gyre, and there was lots and lots of it.
During the second week of the expedition, Goldstein and three SEAPLEX voyagers sat in an inflatable boat deployed off the Scripps research vessel New Horizon to examine the debris up close. Hollywood couldn’t have framed a more striking scene with a blazing summer sun and an extraordinarily calm sea that bordered on disturbing.
But way out here in the open ocean, a thousand miles from land, the plastic was all around the boat. Litters of small flecks were here, a floating bucket and a piece of shoe there. (more…)
Cup Plant Is Potential New Biomass/Carbon Storage Crop
South Dakota State University plant breeder Arvid Boe examines a native perennial called cup plant. Boe and his colleagues are looking at cup plant as a possible biomass crop that could also store carbon in its root system and add biodiversity to biomass plantings. (South Dakota State University Research News)
South Dakota State University research is exploring a native perennial called cup plant as a potential new biomass crop that could also store carbon in its extensive root system and add biodiversity to biomass plantings.
Researchers are exploring whether cup plant could be grown in low, moist prairies generally unfit for cropland. It would be grown and processed along with native grasses grown for biomass.
“We anticipate down the road there’s going to be a need and maybe even a market for plants that can store carbon under ground and be part of a biomass production system,” SDSU professor Arvid Boe said.
Boe, a plant breeder, is the lead investigator on a grant of $324,336 from the U.S. Department of Energy channeled through the SDSU-based North Central Sun Grant Center. Project goals include studying genetic variation and developing molecular markers in cup plant populations from the eastern Great Plains; developing new cultivars that can be grown in combination with other biomass crops; determining best practices such as seeding rate, row spacing, harvest timing and nutrient management so that producers will know how to grow the plant; determining life histories of insect pests; and determining biochemical composition.
Boe said cup plant, or Silphium perfoliatum, is a member of the sunflower family found in moist low ground in the eastern Great Plains, where it can grow more than 7 feet tall. It has large seeds and good seedling vigor, and it yields a lot of biomass.
“It’s conspicuous in the prairie as a very productive forb in a tallgrass prairie where you have your major grasses such as big bluestem, switchgrass and prairie cordgrass,” Boe said. “We haven’t come up with too many things to grow with our grasses to add biodiversity to these biofuel mixtures that we’re anticipating growing down the road. It’s very compatible with such things as switchgrass and prairie cordgrass and big bluestem.” (more…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
Loading... 
