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Forty six students from across the country and the world, most of them graduate students or post-doctoral researchers, were filing in to hear Steven Fales, an Iowa State professor of agronomy, speak about "Next Generation Biofuels: What are the Challenges?"

The intensive program features talks, tours, demonstrations and tests that cover the opportunities and the challenges of developing a bioeconomy. The talks cover starch chemistry, plant biology, cell wall biochemistry, biofuels production, biofuels economics, next generation feedstocks and more. The tours include visits to Cargill headquarters in Minneapolis, Iowa State's BioCentury Research Farm, the Renewable Energy Group biodiesel plant in Ralston and the Lincolnway Energy ethanol plant near Nevada. And there are three exams to keep the students focused.

After several years of participating in a biorenewables program in Europe, "We thought this was our chance to bring students from around the world to the center of the real action in biorenewables," said Larry Johnson, the director of Iowa State's Center for Crop Utilization Research and the university's BioCentury Research Farm, a professor of food science and human nutrition and a program organizer.

Biofuels

Besides, "I feel we need to do a much better job of articulating the need and the opportunities and the state of the technology around biofuels," Johnson said. "Biofuels have taken such huge and terrible hits based on faulty information, we need to get the other side of the story out - one that is based on sound science."

The state of the science was front and center during Fales' talk. He walked the students through a paper he co-wrote that outlines five steps to build a biofuels industry based on cellulosic biomass rather than grain. He said researchers need to:

1. Gather and assess biomass yield data
2. Redesign crop systems to optimize biomass production without limiting yields of food, feed and fiber
3. Develop advanced energy crops ("This is as exciting to me as medical science," Fales told the students. "This is no longer about farming. This is about life sciences. There are now tremendous opportunities in the life sciences.")
4. Plan and build the technologies, logistics and infrastructure necessary to transport and store biomass
5. Spread the facts about the promise and challenges of a bioeconomy through education and extension programs.

Abigail Martin, a doctoral student in environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said Fales and others at Iowa State's intensive program are providing her with a different perspective on energy and environmental issues.

In California, she said the discussion is about land-use policies and low-carbon fuel standards. In Iowa, she's hearing about new cropping systems and sustainable ag practices. She said the new perspectives can contribute to her research of biofuel policies and regulations.

Raj Raman - the associate director of educational programs for Iowa State's Bioeconomy Institute, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and a program organizer - said one goal of the intensive program was to bring students from a variety of backgrounds together to share and debate their views.

Another goal was to share some of Iowa State's expertise in biorenewable research and technology. Iowa State's Bioeconomy Institute boasts more than 160 affiliated faculty members across the university and more than $51 million in cumulative sponsored research funding from industry and federal agencies since 2002. Its director, Robert C. Brown, has written one textbook on biorenewables and an upcoming book about biofuels.

"This is an important topic," Raman said, "and we have a unique ability and expertise to share it with the world."

A $600,000 gift from Cargill is supporting the Intensive Program in Biorenewables and other Iowa State education programs focused on the bioeconomy.

Air Resources Board adopted a regulation that will implement California Governor Schwarzenegger's Low Carbon Fuel Standard calling for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from California's transportation fuels by ten percent by 2020.

The new regulation is aimed at diversifying the variety of fuels used for transportation. It will boost the market for alternative-fuel vehicles and achieve 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2020. ARB representatives describe the measure as the most important early-action called for under AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act (Nunez, 2006).

"The new standard means we can begin to break our century-old dependence on petroleum and provide California with greater energy security" said ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. "The drive to force the market toward greater use of alternative fuels will be a boon to the state's economy and public health - it reduces air pollution, creates new jobs and continues California's leadership in the fight against global warming."

According to ARB analyses, to produce the more than 1.5 billion gallons of biofuels needed, over 25 new biofuel facilities will have to be built and will create more than 3,000 new jobs, mostly in the state's rural areas.

Production of fuels within the state will also keep consumer dollars local by reducing the need to make fuel purchases from beyond its borders.

The regulation requires providers, refiners, importers and blenders to ensure that the fuels they provide for the California market meet an average declining standard of 'carbon intensity'. This is established by determining the sum of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, transportation and consumption of a fuel, also referred to as the fuel pathway.

Economic mechanisms will allow the market to choose the most cost-effective clean fuels (those with the lowest carbon intensity) giving California consumers the widest variety of fuel options.

Seeking to enhance private sector and federal investment into alternative fuel production and distribution, California is also providing funding to assist in the early development and deployment of the most promising low-carbon fuels. The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, AB 118 (Nunez, 2007), managed by the California Energy Commission, will provide approximately $120 million dollars per year over seven years to deploy the cleanest fuels and vehicles.

Regulators expect the new generation of fuels to come from the development of technology that uses algae, wood, agricultural waste such as straw, common invasive weeds such as switchgrass, and even from municipal solid waste.

The standard is also expected to drive the availability of plug-in hybrid, battery electric and fuel-cell powered cars while promoting investment in electric charging stations and hydrogen fueling stations.

California's Governor issued the executive order requiring a low carbon fuel standard in early 2007. It directed the state to drive down greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector which accounts for 40% of the state's total greenhouse gas emissions.

The regulation is designed to increase the use of alternative fuels, replacing 20 percent of the fuel used by cars in California with clean alternative fuels by 2020, including electricity, biofuels, hydrogen and other options.

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain health based air quality standards.

(left) Researchers hike Yellowstone National Park, left, on the hunt for microbes that could potentially be used in bioenergy production.

(right) They analyze the samples back home in the lab

Bioenergy from Microscopic Organisms

Oak Ridge National Laboratory microbiologist Tommy Phelps sees the untapped potential of bioenergy in shelves of bottles and beakers containing microscopic organisms that just might hold the elusive bug or enzyme capable of digesting large quantities of plant matter into ethanol.

Phelps's current batch of microbes, stockpiled in dozens of bottles of silt, rocks and soils, was collected from Yellowstone National Park, where the hot springs that draw millions of summertime visitors also nurture microscopic life in their boiling waters. These bugs, in turn, beckon microbiologists like Phelps, who seek a solution to transform Earth's abundant cellulosic sources into a modern energy supply. Yellowstone's warm waters offer the promise of microbes that can rapidly and efficiently degrade cellulose—the woody, leafy matter that makes up plants. Scientists hope to tap the power of these microbes for industrial-scale consolidated bioprocessing of plants, including trees and switchgrass, the species central to the BioEnergy Science Center's research efforts.

BioEnergy Science Center

The hunt for this cellulosic "super bug" is part of a suite of efforts under way at the BioEnergy Science Center, headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since being named one of three $135 million Department of Energy bioenergy research centers, researchers at ORNL and its partner institutions have quickly gotten to work.

DOE's ambitious goal is to replace by 2030 one-third of the nation's transportation fuel with cellulosebased sources. At these centers, researchers are carrying out the targeted, fundamental science needed to bridge the gap between the potential of cellulose-based fuels and their reality.

Current microbes and enzymes are relatively slow at attacking plant matter's complicated and protective structure. Researchers will determine precisely the genes involved in the interaction of the microbes and enzymes to break apart cellulose. Other genes responsible for producing undesirable products, such as acetic acids, will be knocked out in the hope of, ultimately, developing the perfect ethanol-manufacturing microbe. Particular enzymes will be isolated as well and genetically analyzed, with a focus on determining the ideal formula of enzyme or microbe and enzyme to serve as the vehicle for cellulosic ethanol production.

Plants with Good Biofuel Sugars

Microbes, however, are just a piece of the puzzle. Other researchers at the Oak Ridge center are going through similar steps to develop plants with qualities most conducive to processing into biofuel. Similar to the microbial work, researchers will analyze thousands of genetically modified switchgrass and poplar tree samples in order to discover and develop the best varieties for ethanol production. As part of the process, the biofeedstock, together with the microbes and the enzymes, will be joined in a complex matrix of analysis and R&D in order to develop the best biofuel recipe.

On the biomass formation side, the partners will produce samples of plant material genetically altered to modify their cell walls for optimum breakdown into usable sugars. Such altered species might feature lower amounts of lignin—the substance that holds cellulose fibers together—or a reduction in the crystallinity of the cellulose. ArborGen and ORNL will be primarily responsible for creating and studying various altered trees, while scientists from the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia and the Noble Foundation will take the lead in switchgrass research.

Read more at ORNL

April 7, 2008 -- Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.

In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic's group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.

While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.

"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."

For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.

"Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.

"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel."

Beyond academic laboratories, both small businesses and Fortune 500 petroleum refiners are pursuing green gasoline. Companies are designing ways to hybridize their existing refineries to enable petroleum products including fuels, textiles, and plastics to be made from either crude oil or biomass and the military community has shown strong interest in making jet fuel and diesel from the same sources.

"Huber's new process for the direct conversion of cellulose to gasoline aromatics is at the leading edge of the new ‘Green Gasoline' alternate energy paradigm that NSF, along with other federal agencies, is helping to promote," states Regalbuto.

Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal of biomass in a short time, Regalbuto emphasized that the process, in principle, does not require any external energy. "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel," he said. "There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't be any footprint."

The latest pathways to produce green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel are found in a report sponsored by NSF, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society entitled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" released April 1 (http://www.ecs.umass.edu/biofuels/). In the report, Huber and a host of leaders from academia, industry and government present a plan for making green gasoline a practical solution for the impending fuel crisis.

"We are currently working on understanding the chemistry of this process and designing new catalysts and reactors for this single step technique. This fundamental chemical understanding will allow us to design more efficient processes that will accelerate the commercialization of green gasoline," Huber said.

Principal Investigators
James Dumesic, University of Wisconsin-Madison (608) 262-1095 dumesic@cae.wisc.edu
George Huber, University of Massachusetts - Amherst (413) 545-0276 huber@ecs.umass.edu

Madison, Wis.-based Virent Energy Systems states that its BioForming technology, based on research started at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, uses a solid-state catalyst to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery.

And the company said the technology can take in a broad menu of feedstocks.

Virent Energy Systems, Inc. will enable the hydrogen economy by eliminating H2 storage and power density barriers from portable power systems ; while utilizing truly renewable

Virent was founded in 2002 by Dr. Randy Cortright and Dr. Jim Dumesic to commercialize the Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) process, an innovative technology the two invented and patented while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Although early research focused on generating hydrogen from sugar, as originally published in the journal Nature in 2002, the technology has since further evolved into the BioForming™ process, which enables the production of renewable liquid fuels, fuel gases, and other chemicals.

In 2005, Virent contracted with MG&E, a local Wisconsin utility, to build an integrated BioForming reactor and hydrogen/natural gas fueled generator for electricity production.  The success of this system, which began operating in December 2005 and can deliver up to 10 kW of power, demonstrated the viability of the BioForming process.  This sparked the interest of companies such as Cargill and Honda and ultimately led each to invest in the company in 2006. The production of gasoline via APR confirmed the technology was a new pathway to the production of liquid fuels and chemicals currently made from fossil fuels.

Virent’s BioForming™ process pioneers the commercial production of biofuels and bioproducts which are both sustainable and economical.  This technology can convert a wide roster of feedstocks, including non-food and home grown energy sources, into the variety of fuels and chemicals now made from fossil fuels.

Catalysts have been proven to be the most effective way to produce fuels and petrochemicals and have greater success utilizing cellulosic biomass than fermentation methods. Low energy input and biomass based feedstocks offer near zero CO2 emissions.

www.virent.com