Wide range of Plants Offer Biofuel Potential & Ecological Diversity
Christopher Somerville, EBI director
When it comes to selecting the right plant source for future cellulosic biofuel production, the solution won’t be one-size-fits-all, and it certainly doesn’t have to involve food and feed crops.
In a “Perspective” article in the Aug. 13 edition of the Journal Science, researchers from the Energy Biosciences Institute suggest that a diversity of plant species, adaptable to the climate and soil conditions of specific regions of the world, can be used to develop agroecosystems for fuel production that are compatible with contemporary environmental goals.
EBI Director Chris Somerville of the University of California, Berkeley, and Deputy Director Steve Long of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were co-authors with EBI bioenergy analysts Caroline Taylor, Heather Youngs and Sarah Davis. The institute is a research collaboration between UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the funding sponsor BP.
The article, “Feedstocks for Lignocellulosic Biofuels,” discusses the sustainability of current and future crops that may be used to produce advanced biofuels with emerging technologies that use non-edible parts of plants. Such crops include perennial grasses like Miscanthus grown in the rain-fed areas of the U.S. Midwest, East and South; sugarcane in Brazil and other tropical regions, including the southeastern U.S.; Agave in semiarid regions such as Mexico and the U.S. Southwest; and woody biomass from various sources. (more…)
New Technique Improves Efficiency Of Biofuel Production
“Our eventual goal is to use this technique for any type of feedstock, to produce any biofuel or biochemical that can use these sugars,” says Dr. Ratna Sharma-Shivappa.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a more efficient technique for producing biofuels from woody plants that significantly reduces the waste that results from conventional biofuel production techniques. The technique is a significant step toward creating a commercially viable new source of biofuels.
“This technique makes the process more efficient and less expensive,” says Dr. Ratna Sharma-Shivappa, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State and co-author of the research. “The technique could open the door to making lignin-rich plant matter a commercially viable feedstock for biofuels, curtailing biofuel’s reliance on staple food crops.”
Traditionally, to make ethanol, butanol or other biofuels, producers have used corn, beets or other plant matter that is high in starches or simple sugars. However, since those crops are also significant staple foods, biofuels are competing with people for those crops.
However, other forms of biomass – such as switchgrass or inedible corn stalks – can also be used to make biofuels. But these other crops pose their own problem: their energy potential is locked away inside the plant’s lignin – the woody, protective material that provides each plant’s structural support. Breaking down that lignin to reach the plant’s component carbohydrates is an essential first step toward making biofuels. (more…)
Enzyme Trio for Biosynthesis of Hydrocarbon Fuels
By Lynn Yarris
Harry Beller (foreground) and Ee-Been Goh of the Joint BioEnergy Institute have identified a trio of bacterial enzymes that can help convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon compounds for the production of green transportation fuels. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)
If concerns for global climate change and ever-increasing costs weren’t enough, the disastrous Gulf oil spill makes an even more compelling case for the development of transportation fuels that are renewable, can be produced in a sustainable fashion, and do not put the environment at risk. Liquid fuels derived from plant biomass have the potential to be used as direct replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuels if cost-effective means of commercial production can be found.
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have identified a trio of bacterial enzymes that can catalyze key steps in the conversion of plant sugars into hydrocarbon compounds for the production of green transportation fuels.
Harry Beller, an environmental microbiologist who directs the Biofuels Pathways department for JBEI’s Fuels Synthesis Division, led a study in which a three-gene cluster from the bacterium Micrococcus luteus was introduced into the bacterium Escherichia coli. The enzymes produced by this trio of genes enabled the E. coli to synthesize from glucose long-chain alkene hydrocarbons. These long-chain alkenes can then be reduced in size – a process called “cracking” – to obtain shorter hydrocarbons that are compatible with today’s engines and favored for the production of advanced lignocellulosic biofuels. (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 Crops May Adversely Impact Environmental Quality
Dr. Humberto Blanco (Photo by Giovana Covarrubias, courtesy of Ohio State University)
Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover, effects of crop residue removal on soil and environmental quality have not been compared against those of dedicated energy crops.
In the March-April 2010 issue of Agronomy Journal, published by the American Society of Agronomy, Dr. Humberto Blanco reviewed the impacts of crop residue removal, warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops on critical soil properties, carbon sequestration, and water quality as well as the performance of energy crops in marginal lands. The review found that crop residue removal from corn, wheat,and grain sorghumcan adversely impact soil and environmental quality. Removal of more than 50% of crop residue can have negative consequences for soil structure, reduce soil organic carbon sequestration, increase water erosion, and reduce nutrient cycling and crop production, particularly in erodible and sloping soils. (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…)
Study: US Biofuels Policies Flawed
Amy Myers Jaffe addresses the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming in 2008.
The United States needs to fundamentally rethink its policy of promoting ethanol to diversify its energy sources and increase energy security, according to a new policy paper by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
The paper, “Fundamentals of a Sustainable U.S. Biofuels Policy,” questions the economic, environmental and logistical basis for the billions of dollars in federal subsidies and protectionist tariffs that go to domestic ethanol producers every year. “We need to set realistic targets for ethanol in the United States instead of just throwing taxpayer money out the window,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, one of the report’s authors.
Jaffe is a fellow in energy studies at the Baker Institute and associate director of the Rice Energy Program.
As an example of the unintended economic consequences of U.S. biofuels policy, the report notes that in 2008 “the U.S. government spent $4 billion in biofuels subsidies to replace roughly 2 percent of the U.S. gasoline supply. The average cost to the taxpayer of those ’substituted’ barrels of gasoline was roughly $82 a barrel, or $1.95 per gallon on top of the retail gasoline price (i.e., what consumers pay at the pump).” The report questions whether mandated volumes for biofuels can be met and whether biofuels are improving the environment or energy security. (more…)
Engineering Bacteria to Turn Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuel
James C. Liao, Chancellor's Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA–Department of Energy Institute for Genomics and Proteomics.
Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels.
In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.
The research appears in the Dec. 9 print edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology and is available online.
This new method has two advantages for the long-term, global-scale goal of achieving a cleaner and greener energy economy, the researchers say. First, it recycles carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Second, it uses solar energy to convert the carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in the existing energy infrastructure, including in most automobiles.
While other alternatives to gasoline include deriving biofuels from plants or from algae, both of these processes require several intermediate steps before refinement into usable fuels. (more…)
Growing Algae for Biofuels Eliminates Many Problems
In the midst of algal growth tanks, researcher Brian Dwyer views a sample prior to a turbidity measurement. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
As part of a project to create alternative sources of energy, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are cultivating green algae that holds promise as a new supply of biofuel.
“People have been growing algae for centuries for food supplements for use by man and animals,” said Cecelia Williams, project lead. “It now has the potential to supply our energy needs too.”
Beginning in the 1950s, the Department of Energy recognized algae as a potential feedstock for energy and biofuels and funded the Aquatic Species Program between 1978 and 1996 with $25 million to investigate the production of biofuel from microalgae. DOE terminated the program in the mid-1990s due to low petroleum prices and other priorities. It has only been in the last few years that DOE has once again become interested in algae as a potential source of fuel.
Recently Williams and other Sandia researchers have grown green algae in a 12-by-30-foot greenhouse using a simulated dairy effluent, the nutrient-rich liquid remaining after bacterial digestion of dairy manure. The solids from the digestion of dairy manure can potentially be used to develop fertilizer and feed and the liquid serves as a nutrient source for algae. The algae are typically cultured for several days, followed by harvesting and dewatering, after which the algal oil is extracted. The algae produce lipids, the most useful being neutral oil made up largely of triacyglycerides (TAG) that can be converted to biofuels. (more…)
Search for Catalyst That Allows Plants to Produce Hydrocarbons
Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Basil Nikolau and Jackie Shanks are working to develop new biological sources of petroleum for your car. (Bob Elbert/Iowa State University)
Plants and algae may be a source of green, renewable hydrocarbons that could replace the ancient, finite hydrocarbons in fossil fuels, according to a team of researchers led by Iowa State University’s Jackie Shanks.
Shanks, Iowa State’s Manley R. Hoppe Professor of Chemical Engineering, said some plants and algae produce hydrocarbons as a way to store carbon and energy. And those hydrocarbons could be used to create second-generation biofuels.
“These plants are capturing solar energy and creating something that’s chemically identical to petroleum,” Shanks said.
But, she said, researchers don’t know the exact structures, mechanisms, genetics and metabolism of that conversion. (more…)
Biofuel Production Could Undercut Efforts to Shrink Gulf ‘Dead Zone’
This is a map showing the Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone." Low-oxygen areas appear in red. (NASA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Scientists in Pennsylvania report that boosting production of crops used to make biofuels could make a difficult task to shrink a vast, oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico more difficult. The zone, which reached the size of Massachusetts in 2008, forms in summer and threatens marine life and jobs in the region. Their study is scheduled for the Oct. 1 issue of ACS’ semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Christine Costello and W. Michael Griffin and colleagues explain that the zone forms when fertilizers wash off farm fields throughout the Mississippi River basin and into the Gulf of Mexico. The fertilizers cause the growth of algae, which eventually depletes oxygen in the water and kills marine life. Government officials hope to reduce fertilizer runoff and shrink the zone to the size of Delaware by 2015. But that goal could be more difficult to reach due to federally-mandated efforts to increase annual biofuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022, the study says. (more…)
Aerospace Lab Will Search for Greener Jet Fuels
The Facility for Research on Aerospace Materials and Engineered Structures (FRAMES lab)at Ryerson University, state-of-the-art and unique among Canadian universities.
According to the David Suzuki Foundation, carbon dioxide emissions from international aviation have increased 83 per cent during the last two decades. With the green movement taking off, the air travel industry is under pressure to come up with eco-friendly solutions. Ryerson University researchers have answered the call and they have just the laboratory to help the aviation industry straighten up and fly right.
Zouheir Fawaz, Professor in Ryerson’s Department of Aerospace Engineering (AE) and AE Chair Kamran Behdinan are the principal investigators at Ryerson’s Facility for Research on Aerospace Materials and Engineered Structures (FRAMES). (more…)
The Coming of Biofuels: Study Shows Reducing Gasoline Emissions Will Benefit Human Health
Experts project an increasing use of biofuels over the next 20 years. EBI researchers Arpad Horvath (left), Agnes Lobscheid and Thomas McKone are studying how a switch from gasoline to biofuels could impact human health. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)
President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steve Chu are consistent in their message that when it comes to transportation fuels, carbon-neutral biofuels as an alternative to gasoline are coming. While the focus of a shift from gasoline to biofuels has been on global warming, such a shift could also impact human health. A grant from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) has produced a novel and comprehensive “Life Cycle Impact Assessment” to measure the benefits on human health that might result from a switch to biofuels. Although there are a number of uncertainties that must be addressed for a more accurate picture, these early results show that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health in this country, especially in urban areas. (more…)
Scientists Work to Plug Microorganisms into the Energy Grid
Tim Donohue of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, one of two directors of Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers.
The answer to the looming fuel crisis in the 21st century may be found by thinking small, microscopic in fact according to some scientists. Microscopic organisms from bacteria and cyanobacteria, to fungi and microalgae, are biological factories that are proving to be efficient sources of inexpensive, environmentally friendly biofuels that can serve as alternatives to oil, according to research presented at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“We have been charged to develop the next generation of cellulosic biofuels. When we successfully supply sources of energy to the grid from non-food, cellulosic, parts of plants we will mitigate the food versus fuel debate,” says Tim Donohue of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, one of two directors of Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers who spoke today in a session at the meeting. (more…)
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