Domestic Fuel

Purdue University researchers have found that dividing up corn stalks may be the way to conquer in the quest for cellulosic ethanol efficiency.

A research team discovered that when corn stover is processed to make ethanol, three distinct parts of it – the rind, pith and leaves – break down in different ways.

Cellulosic ethanol is created by using enzymes to extract sugars from cellulosic feedstocks, such as corn stover, grasses and woods, and then fermenting and distilling those sugars into fuels. Stover’s pith, the soft core that makes up more than half the weight of a corn stalk, is the easiest for enzymes to digest, according to the findings in two papers published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Rind is the most difficult, while leaves fall in between. Significant amounts of lignin, the rigid compound in plant cell walls, make the cellulose resistant to hydrolosis, a process in which cellulose is broken down into sugars.

Read more here.

This morning at the 2011 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop, the 2011 Award of Excellence was presented to Dr. Bruce Dale, Michigan State University, by BBI International VP, Tom Bryan.

Dale, professor of chemical engineering and associate director of the office of biobased technologies at Michigan State University, received the award for his extensive research in the areas of indirect land use change (ILUC) and the production of cellulosic ethanol. Earlier this year, he co-authored an analysis of ILUC which found no correlation between U.S. biofuel production and land use change in other countries.

In accepting the award, Dr. Dale recounted how he was the son of a mining engineer and that the towns where he grew up are now ghost towns because the ore has been depleted. “Because the industry on which they were based is not a renewable industry,” he said. When he became a chemical engineer and realized that he was most likely to end up working for the oil industry, he committed himself instead to develop large-scale renewable fuels.

Listen to the rest of his remarks here: Dr. Bruce Dale Remarks

2011 FEW Photo Album

Our coverage of the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop is being made possible by the Renewable Fuels Association.

A biofuels researcher at UC Davis has been selected for a national career award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The early career development award was given to Tina Jeoh, a UC Davis assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering. The award is worth $407,573 over five years and will support Jeoh’s studies of how microbial enzymes break down plant cell walls to release sugars for conversion to biofuels and other products. Jeoh is hoping to help the commercial development of next generation biofuels by discovering how cellulase enzymes break down cellulose.

“In nature, microorganisms produce many different enzymes that cooperatively release the sugars,” Jeoh said. “Our goal is to identify the mechanisms of these enzymes, and to learn to consistently reproduce their natural actions in a controlled setting on an industrial scale.”

Jeoh’s team is developing molecular-scale atomic force microscopy methods to analyze cellulase-cellulose reactions as they occur. The researchers will incorporate their findings into models that will help predict reaction outcomes in commercial settings.

Read more from UC Davis news.

A collaborative effort has produced a yeast strain that speeds up the process of making ethanol from cellulosic materials.

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, Seoul National University and the oil company BP worked together to develop the newly engineered yeast strain that can simultaneously consume two types of sugar from plants to produce ethanol.

The sugars are glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is relatively easy to ferment; and xylose, a five-carbon sugar that has been much more difficult to utilize in ethanol production. The new strain, made by combining, optimizing and adding to earlier advances, reduces or eliminates several major inefficiencies associated with current biofuel production methods.

“Xylose is a wood sugar, a five-carbon sugar that is very abundant in lignocellulosic biomass but not in our food,” said Yong-Su Jin, a professor of food science and human nutrition at Illinois and a principal investigator on the study. “Most yeast cannot ferment xylose.” A big part of the problem with yeasts altered to take up xylose is that they will suck up all the glucose in a mixture before they will touch the xylose, Jin said. A glucose transporter on the surface of the yeast prefers to bind to glucose. “It’s like giving meat and broccoli to my kids,” he said. “They usually eat the meat first and the broccoli later.”

The research objective was to develop a way for the yeast to quickly and efficiently consume both types of sugar at once, a process called co-fermentation. According to the researchers, the new yeast strain simultaneously converts cellobiose (a precursor of glucose) and xylose to ethanol just as quickly as it can ferment either sugar alone. They say it is at least 20 percent more efficient at converting xylose to ethanol than other strains, making it “the best xylose-fermenting strain” reported in any study.

Read more from the University of Illinois here.

Kettering University in Flint, Michigan is one of several that have been tapped by the Department of Energy (DOE) to study the impact of higher ethanol blends on older vehicles.

The use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline for 2007 model year vehicles or newer has been approved by the federal government, while the use of E15 in model year 2001-2006 vehicles is still being evaluated. The research at Kettering will look at vehicles older than 2000 model year, for which the use of higher ethanol blends has been denied by the EPA.

The $125,000 grant marks the second time Kettering mechanical engineering professors have studied the impact of ethanol on older vehicle engines. Kettering professors Craig Hoff andGregory Davis did a study last year that looked at how ten percent ethanol blends may impact classic cars from as far back as the 1940s. In that study, which included 1,500 hours of testing, the researchers concluded that “it’s safe to assume that you can continue to drive your collector vehicle using E10; it may just cost you more in the long run” because of additional costs associated with sealing fuel tanks and cleaning and rebuilding fuel systems more frequently.

Mobile processing plants might hold the key to harvesting agricultural waste on the farm for biofuels production.

Chemical engineers at Purdue University have come up with the concept and developed a new method to process agricultural waste and other biomass into biofuels. The method would utilize various types of biomass, including wood chips, switch grass, corn stover, rice husks, and wheat straw.

The approach would solve one of the major problems in using agricultural waste for biofuels – transporting the biomass to a plant for processing. “It makes more sense to process biomass into liquid fuel with a mobile platform and then take this fuel to a central refinery for further processing before using it in internal combustion engines,” says chemical engineer Rakesh Agrawal.

The new method, called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation, works by adding hydrogen into the biomass-processing reactor. The hydrogen for the mobile plants would be derived from natural gas or the biomass itself. However, Agrawal envisions the future use of solar power to produce the hydrogen by splitting water, making the new technology entirely renewable.

The method, which has the shortened moniker of H2Bioil — pronounced H Two Bio Oil — has been studied extensively through modeling, and experiments are under way at Purdue to validate the concept.

Read more here.

An Iowa State University researcher has developed a new green, bio-based process for producing the fuel additive isobutene that could help ethanol production.

ISU biochemistry professor Thomas Bobik invented a process for manufacturing the much-used fuel additive and industrial chemical that is currently made from petroleum by identifying a new, natural enzyme that produces the fuel organically. Isobutene is a gas used to produce chemicals and also in the manufacturing of fuel additives, adhesives, plastics and synthetic rubber. It can be chemically converted to isooctane, which is a fuel that could be used to replace gasoline additive methyl tert-butyl ether (MBTE), which can be environmentally harmful. Isooctane is used in gasoline to stop engine knocking and other problems. Currently, isooctane is produced from petroleum products.

Bobik, along with doctoral student David Gogerty (both pictured), believe that once more research is completed, there could be huge benefits to the biofuels industry since currently one of the biggest expenses in producing ethanol now is the cost of separating the ethanol from the water where it’s made. “Isobutene is a gas, so we can imagine that it will be easy to remove the isobutene from the vessel in which it was made, and that should be a very cheap and efficient way to purify the biofuel,” said Bobik.

One of the drawbacks, Bobik warns, is the process currently takes too long because the activity of the enzyme is low. “It’s too low for commercial application. So we’re trying to use directed enzyme evolution to improve the activity of the enzyme so it can become commercially viable,” Bobik said. Directed enzyme evolution is the effort to engineer enzymes to perform certain functions. In this case, it is trying to find a way to get the enzyme to produce isobutene more quickly than in nature.

Bobik says progress is being made rapidly and perhaps, within 10 years, motorists may be using a bio-based, environmentally friendly ingredient in their gas tanks every time they fill up.

Purdue University scientists have improved a strain of yeast that can produce more biofuel from cellulosic plant material by fermenting all five types of the plant’s sugars.

The researchers used genes from a fungus to re-engineer a yeast strain developed at Purdue. The new yeast can ferment the sugar arabinose in addition to the other sugars found in plant material such as corn stalks, straw, switchgrass and other crop residues.

The addition of new genes to the yeast strain should increase the amount of ethanol that can be produced from cellulosic material. Arabinose makes up about 10 percent of the sugars contained in those plants.

In addition to creating this new arabinose-fermenting yeast, the scientists also were able to develop strains that are more resistant to acetic acid, which gets into yeast cells and slows the fermentation process, adding to the cost of ethanol production.

The ethanol co-product known as DDGs or dried distillers grain is mostly used as livestock feed, but a food grade version could help improve human nutrition.

South Dakota State University research shows a traditional Asian flatbread called chapathi (or chapati) gets a big boost in protein and fiber when fortified with food-grade distillers grains.

SDSU food scientist Padu Krishnan said it is one example of the ways DDGS could help improve human nutrition worldwide – and provide a new market for the ethanol co-product. Krishnan, a cereal chemist, has been studying and writing about the possibility of using DDGS in human diets since the early 1990s. Especially now with new state-of-the-art ethanol plants coming online in recent years, Krishnan said, the ethanol industry is well poised to make food-grade DDGS.

In lab studies, Krishnan and his colleagues found that using DDGS to make up 10 percent of the dough in chapathi, an Asian whole wheat unleavened bread eaten in South Asia and East Africa, boosted the fiber from 2.9 percent to 7.8 percent, while using 20 percent DDGS in the dough increased the fiber to 10.3 percent. Protein content also increased by using DDGS in the dough, up to 15.3 percent by adding 20 percent to the dough.

DDGS is ideal for including in human diets because it contains 40 percent dietary fiber and nearly 37 percent protein.

A new study from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) finds benefits to the gasoline blended with 20 percent ethanol (E20).

The study by RIT’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies indicates that E20 reduces emissions of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide compared with traditional gasoline or E10 blends. In addition, the research team found no measurable impact to vehicle drivability or maintenance in conventional internal combustion engines.

Using a 10-vehicle fleet owned and operated by Monroe County, N.Y., researchers fueled the vehicles – all with older gasoline engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol blends – over the accumulation of at least 100,000 miles per vehicle. Researchers found that the fleet showed an average reduction of 23 percent for carbon monoxide and a 13 percent reduction for hydrocarbon emissions, with no measurable stress on vehicle operation or mechanics.

“There have been concerns raised that any increase in blend would negatively impact standard internal combustion engines, however our data shows that vehicle performance remained constant, while carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions were decreased even over E10 blends,” said Brian Hilton, senior staff engineer at the center and member of the research team.

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says the study provides good data to support their “Green Jobs Waiver,” which seeks an increase in the allowable blend of ethanol with gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, by showing that higher blends are fine for older model vehicles.

“This new study confirms what we’ve been saying all along. Increasing the use of ethanol in our fuel can help clean our environment, strengthen our national security and create jobs, all without any impact on the drivability of our cars,” Buis said.

Representatives from the University of Florida, Buckeye Technologies Inc. and the Florida Legislature broke ground for a new pilot plant to produce ethanol from cellulosic biomass.

Funded by a $20 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature, the plant will be built at the Perry, Fla. facility of Buckeye Technologies Inc., a manufacturer and worldwide distributor of cellulose-based specialty products made from wood and cotton. It is scheduled to be operational by spring 2011.

Much of the plant’s research will be based on the work of Lonnie Ingram, UF distinguished professor of microbiology and cell science and director of the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuels. Ingram engineered an E. coli bacterium that breaks down inedible plant material into sugars that can be processed into fuel-grade cellulosic ethanol. Variations of the technology are already at work in fuel plants in Louisiana and Japan.

Click on photo, courtesy of IFAS news, for a larger view. Pictured left to right: Lonnie Ingram, UF distinguished professor of microbiology and cell science; Leonard Bembry, Florida House of Representatives District 10; Ralph Poppell, Florida House of Representatives District 29; Debbie Mayfield, Florida House of Representatives District 80; John Crowe, Buckeye Technologies, Inc. chief executive officer; Bernie Machen, University of Florida president; Cynthia O’Connell, University of Florida Board of Trustees; Larry Arrington, University of Florida interim senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources.

Poplar trees could get more popular if they prove to be the next big ethanol feedstock.

A team of researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Bowie State University is working on ways to use the hybrid trees to make ethanol and other biofuels, since they could be grown on plantations and harvested without affecting existing woodlands. Poplar, which is also known as cottonwood or aspen, is already commonly cultivated for the production of paper and timber.

The study is funded by a $3.2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Project, which supports research on plants seen as having economic and agricultural importance. Using the recently completed poplar genome, the researchers are focusing on ways to improve the tree’s nitrogen processing capability, which will enhance its growth rate and feasibility for use in fuel production.

Land grant universities around the Midwest are joining together to hold simultaneous state conferences to discuss biofuels and the future of renewable energy.

The 2009 Bio eConference – “Growing the Bioeconomy: Solutions for Sustainability” - will be held on December 1 through a network of co-host sites that will be “sharing content through high-speed communication systems to promote agriculturally-based sustainable solutions to global climate change and energy supply.” The conference will also be available online for a fee.

Among the universities taking part in the conference are Iowa State, Michigan State, North Dakota State, Purdue and the Universities of Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. The conference will run from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST on December 1.

One of the nation’s largest farm shows is the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. I’ve been attending thanks to the support of Growth Energy and covering the show on our AgWired website. I did find a couple of stories I thought I’d share with you here including this one from the University of Florida exhibit.

One of my stops in their building included the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals & Fuels. On hand to tell their story and give us an update on their activities was Sheilachu P. Gomez, Assistant Director, pictured here. She says the Center is primarily for the development of the technology to convert biomass to ethanol and organic acids. They have two patents that have been purchased by two companies already (an ethanol patent to Verenium and organic acids patent to Myriant). They have a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol production to optimize biomass conversion at the campus and have a planned plant to be located in Perry, FL. The last is a partnership with Myriant and Buckeye. In the future Sheila says they’re looking more into the value added products of the production process.

You can listen to my interview with Sheila below:

Feel free to browse my photos from the show: Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album. I will have another story on switchgrass posted soon.

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