The Next Big Fuel Source: Microbes?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.14.06
Termite guts and canvas-eating jungle bugs could be the key to kicking the oil habit and achieving energy independence. At least that's what scientists working on creating ethanol from plant waste are hoping. In a process much like making grain alcohol or beer, microbes that can process woody cellulose into sugar are put to work on plant waste; after a few microbiological twists and turns, the result is ethanol without the corn. Last year, current practices yielded only 4 billion gallons of ethanol last year (compared to the 140 billion gallons of gasoline used in the U.S.), and there's growing concern throughout the Midwestern corn belt that the 95 U.S. ethanol plants are increasingly poaching corn meant for the dinner table or livestock feed. The plant-waste process, called "cellulosic ethanol," dodges this problem by making fuel from farm waste such as straw, corn stalks and other inedible agricultural leftovers.
Breaking cellulose into sugar to spin straw into ethanol has been studied for over the last 50 years. Until quite recently, the technological hurdles and costs have been daunting enough to force ethanol producers to rely on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn. Lately, though, it's received a boost from an unlikely source: President Bush and the State of the Union address. While the remark itself may have been more soaring rhetoric and another empty promise, the mere mention of it could prove beneficial to this burgeoning process. "We have been at this for 25 years and we had hoped to be in commercial production by now," said Jeff Passmore, an executive vice president at Iogen, an Ottawa-based ethanol-maker. "What the president has done is -- perhaps -- put some wind in the sails." Iogen is producing ethanol by exploiting the destructive nature of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, which caused the "jungle rot" of tents and uniforms in the Pacific theater during World War II. Nathanael Greene, an analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, adds, "The technologies are out there to do this, but we need to convince the public this is real and not just a science project."
Iogen opened a small, $40 million factory in 2004 to show it can produce cellulosic ethanol in commercial quantities. In the last two years, it has produced 65,000 gallons of ethanol that is blended with 85 percent gasoline to fuel about three dozen company and Canadian government vehicles. Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has invested $40 million for a 30 percent ownership stake in Iogen; Petro-Canada and the Canadian government are also investors. The company will build a $350 million, commercial-scale factory next year if it can secure financing -- which has long been a big if and remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks to bringing cellulosic ethanol to gas pumps. Under a best-case scenario, Passmore said Iogen won't be producing commercial quantities until 2009. Keep up the good work, guys! via ::Wired
Bummer for the corn-future speculators.
Great for us humans.
But the inevitable microbe uprising will be a problem.
As you note, using the "waste" products is much better than converting corn to ethanol. Removing that organic matter from the fields, however, will result in increased requirements for chemical fertilizer application. Right now, the stalks are either burned off or plowed under (or both).
Nice story!
I hope this is the answer for the future.
I Digg!
This does seem like a great idea. There is a pilot plant for cellulose ethanol starting in Spain. http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=5217
The iogen material seems like it might be VERY optomistic. Of course there are other solutions in this space like changing world technologies (garbage into oil) and biodiesel. All of which move us towards a carbohydrate for oil future, which might be renewable.
However, when I take a look at my energy footprint I use more joules of energy commuting to work (1/2 gallong of gas is 62.5 million joules) than I do in the entire rest of the day (about 9 killowatt hours a day of usage at 58% efficiency is 55.8 million joules). So to me it seems like driving is the big waste of energy every day. The solution to me seems like http://www.skytran.net
Long term I think that solar energy (probably thin film) will be the only solution to our energy needs. So I think we're underinvesting in this important technology. What can I do to increase investment in thin film solar?
i wonder how much cellulosic waste is produced locally, just as food biproducts and general municipal activites.
If a smaller local plant could be set up, it could create domestic production and domestic consuption of fuel, adding a whole new aspect of sustainibility.
Yes - driving itself is the problem.
Carrying around 1.5 tons of metal, plastic and glass with you everyday just to live, and calling it normal, is the problem.
Maybe biofuels for motorbikes will be sustainable, but surely never for cars (well, that's if we want to grow to crops to eat at the same time).
Perfect for the new Ford Flex-Fuel Hybrid! Toyota is holding out for the re-legalization of industrial hemp agriculture in the USA to seriously tackle alcohol fuels... maybe with a little help from the Canadian Auto Workers Union.
The article doesn't say whether it takes Iogen more energy to produce 65,000 gal of ethanol than is contained in 65,000 gal of ethanol. Anyone know?
A more efficent use of mircobes might be for the production of butanol. As gasoline is not pure I suspect crude butanol might be usable. It is probably easier to make for cellulose etc.
A near-forgotten science fiction novel first published in 1949 described just such a process -- I read it more than 40 years ago, and in the interim often wondered how long until reality would catch up! The novel was "Needle" by Hal Clement; its setting was a Pacific island on which the main industry was digesting fast-growing tropical foliage into oil in big vats using microbes. Hal Clement (real name Harry Stubbs) only died in 2003, after a long career as writer and teacher.
Seems that at the moment this is just another way of making ethanol production even less efficient than it already is. If it was a commercially viable alternative they wouldn't have any trouble getting funding for a plant. Unfortunately looks like we're going to have to wait for the next big step in the science behind it before saying goodbye to oil
Iogen's process is self sustaining once it gets going. Lignin waste products left over are used as fuel for steam/elctricity. Many corn ethanol plants from the late 70's and early 80's were built with government subsidies. If oil prices remain high, the success of cellulosic ethanol by whatever process is certain.
I researched this topic after the passing mention of switchgrass in the SOTU. The best info I found is here.
I am convinced the energy cost of creating ethanol is overblown. It takes energy to make gas from petroleum. It takes energy to get hydrogen from water. Here's two questions:
1) Where does the energy to create steam come from? A: Why not burn biomass instead of coal or fossil fuels?
2) How much land would be needed to grow biomass for ethanol? A: 1000 gal per acre would support one car per year. 40 million cars take 40 million acres and a lot of fertilizer, pesticide, water, and erosion.
Conclusion: Start conserving now! Change where we live relative to work or forget about saving for college and retirement: all your money will go to fuel your 2000 pounds of metal and plastic!
There has been a lot of research, both at UC Berkeley and Cornell, about the overall energy efficiency of using ethanol as a fuel replacement.
Unfortunately, some of the reseach is pessimistic; the infrastructure cost of producing, purifying, then transporting ethanol might be nearly that of the energy the ethanol it produces. Some even suggest it could be even higher than the energy provided by the ethanol itself.
On the other hand, other researchers are more optimistic. And regardless, the biggest benefits are reduced greenhouse gas emissions and (non-sustainable) petrol consumption.
I link to a few media reports from Berkeley and Cornell on my blog; if you're interested, click my name below.