Posted By Maurice Picow On December 6, 2009  In Cleantech, Science & Technology |

A Seambiotic algae farm grows biofuel

Seambiotic’s been teaming up with NASA ^[1] to to create a biofuel suitable for sending astronauts into space (?), and now this company is once again making news in a new venture with the China Goudian utility company ^[2] to grow micro algae for use as a biodiesel fuel to power electrical power stations all over China.

Founded in 2003, Seambiotic ^[3] develops and produces marine microalgae for the nutraceuticals ^[4] and biofuel industries by using flue gas from electric power plants.

Seambiotic’s success in utilizing an organic substance that is found in abundance in the world’s oceans and in fresh water sources as well, may one day solve much of the world’s energy needs as well as provide food products for the earth’s continuing increasing population.

The new venture with one of China’s largest utility companies, which operates more than 100 power stations, will build its first commercial farm on 12 hectares (30 acres) in Penglai, a city in Shandong Province ^[5].

The $10 million farm will utilize carbon dioxide being expelled from the power station in Penglai. It is expected to be operational some time in 2010.  On Seambiotic’s website, ^[6]the growth of microalgae requires an abundance of solar radiation in a wide range of temperatures. The algae is best grown in shallow ponds where both light and temperature play a part in the algae’s growth, they say, which is then “fed” by an abundance of carbon dioxide. In this case, by using the flue gases ^[7] from coal-burning power stations, which are abundant in China.

By utilizing the carbon dioxide that otherwise would escape into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming, these “greenhouse gases ^[8]” are channeled into the algae cultivation ponds to stimulate algae growth.

Algae as both a food source and as a bio fuel has been the subject of many projects all over the world, utilizing one of the earth’s most abundant plants that has been  supplying much of our oxygen as well as being food for marine life as part of their food chain.

Being able to utilize this natural wonder product to provide food products for both animals and human beings, as well as an environmentally cleaner bio fuel, may one day reduce or even eliminate the need for using oil and coal as a fuel source, as well as reduce the problems of global warming. This good news in advance of the Copenhagen climate change talks which begin this week.

Photo: ^[9]www.seambiotic.com ^[3]

::www.cleantech.com/news ^[10]

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One of the car maker’s oldest and largest plants is being converted to house clean tech companies

Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen 11 Sep 2009

A Ford car plant which was recently shut down as part of cost savings by the car maker is being converted into a facility for renewable energy companies.

The facility in Wixom, Michigan, which at the height of production had about 5,000 workers, closed in 2007 with the loss of 1,000 jobs. The site will now be converted into a business park for a series of renewable energy companies, which the backers claim could generate about 4,000 jobs.

Ford said it has been working with energy storage system provider Xtreme Power and solar panel maker Clairvoyant Energy, who will be the first companies to take up residency in the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space. The two renewable energy providers have invested about $725m (£635m) to redevelop the site, with work expected to begin early next year and clean tech manufacturing expected to get underway in 2011.

“The Wixom Assembly Plant served Ford well for half a century and we wanted to ensure it served Michigan well into the future,” said Ford executive chairman Bill Ford. “Thanks to the collaborative efforts of two visionary energy companies and the leadership of state and local officials, we are transforming our Wixom facility into one of the largest renewable energy parks in the US. I can’t imagine a better way to use this facility – for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.”

Although Ford and the other companies involved discussed their role in developing the site, the backers also admit that state and local incentives were key to the project including refundable battery and photovoltaic tax credits, Michigan Economic Growth Authority employment tax credits, Renaissance Zone tax incentives and brownfield tax credits.

Xtreme Power systems, which develops technology to integrate renewable energy onto the electricity grid, will use more than one million square feet of the site.

“This move is significant on both ends of the spectrum,” said Carlos Coe, president and chief executive of Xtreme Power. “It underscores a significant shift toward the accelerated commercialisation and adoption of strategic renewable energy technologies, due in large part to the deepened commitment on the part of local, state and federal policymakers to support companies like ours.”

For its part, Clairvoyant Energy says it will have the capacity to produce more than 2.5 million solar panels a year at the Wixom site, which the company claims could equate to the need for one large coal plant every year.

“Clairvoyant Energy is fully energised to respond to the call to create the green jobs of tomorrow – today,” said David Hardee, chief executive of Clairvoyant Energy.

The Wixom Assembly Plant was one of Ford’s largest and oldest manufacturing sites, producing 6.6 million vehicles during its 50 years of operation. Production began in 1957 when Wixom became Lincoln Division’s new national headquarters and the sole producer of all vehicles for the Lincoln Division.

“Over the years, Wixom Assembly produced the Lincoln Continental, Town Car, LS, Mark VI, VII and VIII, as well as the Ford Thunderbird and Ford GT,” Ford said in a statement.

In May, Ford announced that it would invest $550m in converting a Michigan plant currently used to manufacture SUVs into a factory specialising in small, fuel-efficient cars that will also produce its first electric vehicle.

Documentary film maker Michael Moore covered the plight of sacked Michigan car workers in his 1989 film Roger and Me.

Permalink: http://www.businessgreen.com/2249323
This article was printed from the BusinessGreen.com web site

BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER, May 31, 2009

In downtown L’Anse in the Upper Peninsula, a dormant 50-year-old coal plant smokestack is operating again. Instead of coal, the L’Anse Warden Electric Co. plant creates electricity and steam by burning biomass, such as old railroad ties, recycled tires and sawmill waste.

The biomass plant is the first such plant to open in Michigan since the state passed a requirement for renewable energy last fall.

Next month, its owners will start paying farmers to plant hybrid trees that eventually will become fuel.

The Warden plant, which opened in November but will become fully operational this week, produces enough energy to power 20,000 homes and provides steam to a nearby factory that makes ceiling tiles.

Its owners hope to convert three more coal plants in the region to biomass — in White Pine, Marquette and Escanaba.

It’s part of a move by small companies and utilities to burn wood instead of coal, and it’s becoming a booming business in northern Michigan.

— By Daniel Gorelick, Science Planet, 22 April 2009

Guest Blogger

Chaitan Khosla and Harmit Vora

Stanford University

Fossil fuels account for 95 percent of world energy usage. Consumption of coal, petroleum, and natural gas has increased significantly over the last several decades, as have carbon dioxide emissions, the primary reason for global climate change.

The implications of climate change have stimulated significant efforts to discover and commercialize renewable sources of energy that have zero or reduced net carbon dioxide emissions. Finding replacements for gasoline has received significant attention in the United States, where the transportation sector consumes the most energy. Biofuels, liquid fuels derived from renewable plants, have been viewed as prime candidates to replace gasoline.

Commercialized Biofuels

The two predominant biofuels on the U.S market today are corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel. Corn ethanol has drawbacks that might hurt its long-term chances in the biofuels market. It is not as energy-rich as gasoline – a gallon of ethanol contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline. Ethanol can’t be distributed using existing infrastructure because it has different chemical properties than gasoline. Unless significant modifications are made to current automobiles, ethanol can only be used in low percentage blends with gasoline.

The other major biofuel, biodiesel, is derived from lipids (fat) in plant seeds. Biodiesel’s biggest barrier to widespread use is the availability of raw material. A recent study showed that if all the plant (and even animal lipids) in the United States were dedicated to produce biofuels, the amount of biofuel produced would be less than five percent of the total volume of liquid fuels consumed each year.

The raw material for both corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel is food crops, so increasing production could create challenging impacts on global food markets.

Advanced Biofuels: cellulosic ethanol and algal biodiesel

Cellulosic ethanol is a well-publicized new biofuel that can be produced from non-food crops (cellulose is a carbohydrate found in all plants). Cellulosic ethanol produces 300 percent more energy than is used in its production, a significantly better energy yield than corn ethanol or soybean biodiesel, but it shares the inherent energy and distribution disadvantages of corn ethanol.

One of the most immediate challenges with commercialization of cellulosic ethanol is that cellulose and a related carbohydrate, hemicellulose, are difficult, and hence expensive, to break down into the simple sugars required for ethanol production. Thus, improving the efficiency of the initial cellulose processing steps is key to making this and other biofuels economically feasible.

There is interest in using microscopic algae to produce biodiesel. While providing the benefits in energy density and engine compatibility of biodiesel, it may not suffer from the same supply issues because simple sugars (and potentially cellulose) can be used as a starting material. Algae are also better stores of oils than plant seeds.

There have been increasing efforts to genetically engineer well-known organisms, such as the bacteria E. coli, to produce novel biofuels efficiently. Researchers have hijacked E. coli’s biosynthetic pathway for the amino acid valine to produce isobutanol, a more energy dense, less volatile alcohol than ethanol. Our own research has focused on theproduction of energy-dense fuels using the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in E. coli.

Long-promised cellulosic ethanol is in modest production, but hurdles remain.

By Mark Clayton | The Christian Science Monitor/ February 13, 2009

Scotland, S.D.

With one foot planted in a pile of corn cobs, Mark Stowers explains how agricultural waste, transformed into ethanol, will turbocharge the US economy, boost its energy security, and help save the planet, too.

This holy grail of biofuels, called cellulosic ethanol, has been “five years from commercialization” for so long that even Dr. Stowers admits it’s become a joke.

But now the research director for POET, the nation’s largest ethanolmaker, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., says that despite bad economic news and major obstacles, cellulosic’s time is near. Other scientists agree.

Corn-based ethanol, which many critics argue does not do enough to slow climate change, is nearing US production limits. In Washington, cellulosic ethanol is gaining political traction. And cellulosic technology seems ready for prime time – at last.

‘Cellulosic ethanol is real’

The proof, Stowers says, lies inside a nearby windowless, high-roofed single-story metal building. Filled with a maze of pipes and vats, this $8 million test facility is a miniature cellulosic ethanol plant that pumps out 20,000 gallons a year of nearly clear alcohol extracted from cobs like the ones beneath his feet.

“This pilot plant shows cellulosic ethanol is real – that the technology is here,” Stowers says. “Ultimately, cellulosic will allow us to make significant inroads to replacing oil for our nation’s gasoline needs.”

The 2007 Energy Inde­pen­dence and Security Act Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) calls for boosting production of biofuels to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022 – about 15 billion gallons of it corn ethanol, the rest cellulosic. (By contrast, the US produced about 9 billion gallons of corn ethanol last year.) That would replace about one-fifth of the nation’s gasoline needs without displa­cing current crops.

But looking forward, biofuels could play a far larger role. By 2030, biofuels may reach 60 billion gallons, according to a new report released Feb. 10 by Sandia National Laboratory. That would require 480 million tons of biomass, including 215 million tons of dedicated energy crops like switchgrass. Such fuel crops would require 48 million acres of what is now pasture or idle land, the report says.

Such a shift would slash annual US tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions by 260 million tons a year – about equal to the emissions from 45 coal-fired power plants. Cellulosic ethanol feedstock crops would require little or no irrigation, a big advantage over corn. The cost: about $250 billion, the same or less than that of boosting US oil production by the same amount.

One-third of nation’s needs by 2030?

With a few key technology improvements, the United States could do even better, creating up to 90 billion gallons of ethanol by 2030, enough to meet one-third of the nation’s transportation fuel needs, Sandia found. In that scenario, about 75 billion gallons would be cellulosic fuel. Just 15 billion gallons a year would come from corn, the report said.

Getting there will be a huge challenge. The handful of pilot cellulosic plants in the US produce maybe 1 million gallons a year. Production would have to be ramped up a thousandfold to meet the 2013 federal goal of 1 billion gallons. That seems unlikely, given the economy’s tailspin.

Of the six commercial-scale cellulosic biofuel plants funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), two have bowed out. Another smaller-scale project supported by DOE, a partnership between Lignol Energy of Vancouver and Calgary-based Suncor, withdrew Feb. 9.

Not on track at the moment

As of right now, “we’re not on track” to produce 1 billion gallons of biofuel annually by 2013, says Thomas Foust, biomass technology manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. “Obviously, the credit crunch and recession have put dampers on and delayed commercial plants. But a number of companies are still pursuing it very vigorously. We’re doing the same.”

Next year, the POET company will begin construction of its first 25-million-gallon commercial-scale cellulosic plant dubbed “Liberty” in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Stowers says.

The DOE is paying for 40 percent of the $200 million facility, expected to open in 2011. After that, POET plans to “bolt on” similar corn-cob-munching cellulosic factories at its 26 conventional corn-based ethanol production facilities, he says.

Not to be outdone, Range Fuels, a Broomfield, Colo., company, last month won an $80 million loan guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture for the nation’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, now under construction in Soperton, Ga. It aims to begin production next year.

‘Blend wall’ may crimp ethanol

To succeed, cellulosic will have to buck not only low oil prices, the credit crunch, and recession, but also uncertain demand – thanks to the “blend wall.”

The RFS today requires refiners to blend into gasoline about 14 billion gallons of ethanol – about 10 percent of US gasoline consumption. But with ethanol production capacity near that level now, cellulosic producers may not find many buyers – unless the national blend mandate for ethanol is raised to 15 percent or higher, which is what ethanol producers and farmers would like.

“The blend wall has a huge potential impact on cellulosic ethanol development,” Foust says. “The No. 1 issue is a stagnant economy. But next to that, the issue that won’t resolve itself is the blend wall.”

Some environmental groups worry that this means traditional corn-based ethanol will benefit more than environmentally friendly cellulosic. Others say older vehicles’ emissions systems will be damaged by a higher percentage of alcohol in fuel, thus worsening air pollution.

Low oil prices hurt ethanol

“We can’t afford to play fast and loose with Clean Air Act protections,” says Nathanael Greene, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental activist group.

Another huge hurdle is cost-competitiveness. Cellulosic ethanol requires a more complex process that uses costly enzymes. At present, a gallon of cellulosic ethanol costs about $2.25 a gallon to produce: That’s 40 to 50 cents more than corn ethanol and 75 cents more than gasoline. But under Sandia’s projections, cellulosic ethanol’s retail cost could fall to just $1.72 a gallon without any incentives or taxes and still be competitive with gasoline – if oil costs $90 per barrel.

But with a barrel of crude now selling for roughly $40, it’s difficult for cellulosic or even corn ethanol to compete. Still, POET, Foust, and others are looking ahead to when the global economy stabilizes and oil bounces back to around $90 a barrel.

Economy’s long shadow hurts, too

Recession and the credit crunch are the deepest shadows over cellulosic development, Foust says. Of the 20 or so investment banks that financed billions in corn-ethanol development over the past decade, only five are still in business. And with oil cheap and ethanol demand weak, investor appetite for more ethanol production is tepid.

That may change. The new stimulus bill has $500 million allocated for the development of “leading edge biofuels.”

Besides economics, critical environmental concerns remain. Key among them: Which method is the most environmentally friendly?

Environmentalists like Mr. Greene aren’t eager to support cellulosic ethanol unless it can be proved that the impact from its development – including US and EU policies – is a clear plus for the environment.

Larger climate impact must be weighed

By law, “advanced biofuels” like cellulosic ethanol must be certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as producing at least 60 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline does. Mr. Stowers and others are optimistic that that’s a slam-dunk.

But what about the climatic impact of biofuels as the result of crop shifts and land-use change worldwide? What would be the impact if farmers plow under marginal grasslands and forests to grow switchgrass? How much agricultural waste can be collected from farm fields before the result is more erosion?

The land-use question over corn-based ethanol has fired debate since last summer, when one study found diversion of US corn production for fuel had cut US corn exports. That, in turn, caused developing nations to plant more corn, a shift that may have negated the advantage of corn ethanol over gasoline in terms of its overall impact on global warming.

Now the same debate is likely to erupt for cellulosic ethanol, not only for its potential effect on food prices but also its net impact on climate.

Food crops vs. fuel crops

“One of the points often made in favor of cellulosic ethanols,” says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental activist group, “is that the feedstocks for it, like switchgrass, would be grown on marginal land. But if it is that profitable on marginal land, ima­gine how profitable it would be on prime crop land. There’s nothing to stop it from happening.”

The EPA, charged with evaluating the carbon footprint of cellulosic ethanol to determine if it meets the 60 percent threshold, has done a preliminary land-use impact evaluation. But those tentative results haven’t been released because the methodology is being refined, experts say.

“Indirect land-use impacts is a new analysis area that’s very tough, from a modeling and data point of view,” says Wallace Tyner, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. “But we’re making progress. Within the next year we are going to narrow the bounds considerably.”

Getting ethanol feedstock right is key

All of this leaves NRDC’s Greene wanting government to take a slower, closer look at potential cellulosic feedstocks like switchgrass, miscanthus, poplar, and other crops in order to get federal policy toward cellulosic right from the start.

“The refining technology is obviously a challenge that will succumb to American innovation,” he says. “But getting the feedstock right is key. If we mow down corn to put in switchgrass, well, you’ve got that food versus fuel trade-off again.”

Harvesting agriculture “wastes” for biofuels also raises critical questions and needs closer analysis. POET, for instance, gets high marks from Greene for its careful evaluation of the impact of removing corn cobs from farm fields, which the company and others say appears to deduct only about 2 to 3 percent of the nutrients.

Even so, it turns out most corn stover – which is everything but the corn kernel (stalk, leaves, and cobs) – is badly needed for soil enrichment and to prevent erosion.

Crop waste helps fields, too

“A portion of the [corn] stover can be made available as feedstock for bioenergy purposes,” say Douglas Karlen, research leader for soil and water quality at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Harvesters would have to be outfitted with software to gauge exactly how much corn stover was taken from the field, he says.

“There’s not a blanket or uniform amount,” Dr. Karlen says. “It has to vary not only by farm, but within an individual field. The amount taken has to vary because the land varies.”

Search for substitute to petroleum-based products led to innovation

By Bryn Nelson, Columnist MSNBC,  Dec. 22, 2008

Just in time for Christmas, German researchers are ramping up a manufacturing technique for making intricate Nativity figurines, toys, and even hi-fi speaker boxes from a renewable and surprisingly versatile source: liquid wood.

The bio-plastic dubbed Arboform, derived from wood pulp-based lignin, can be mixed with hemp, flax or wood fibers and other additives such as wax to create a strong, nontoxic alternative to petroleum-based plastics, according to its manufacturers.

Crude oil is the basis of the chemical for plastics, said Norbert Eisenreich, a senior researcher and deputy of the directors at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology in Pfinztal, Germany. As the price of crude oil increases, he said, so does the price of plastics — and the interest in finding replacements.

The growing list of health concerns linked to plastic ingredients, such as heavy metals and softeners known as phthalates, also has increased the impetus to find a good substitute for manufacturing toys and other products.

The institute began looking for alternatives to oil-based products in the mid-’90s, said Eisenreich. To decrease the dependence on oil, however, any alternative material would need to be relatively abundant. Lignin, he said, offers an ideal candidate because tens of millions of tons are often discarded as a byproduct of the papermaking process.

The idea for liquid wood grew from this realization: “Why not compose material out of the waste of this paper-making?”

Liquid wood, Eisenreich said, combines the high stability and good acoustical properties of wood with the injection-molded capabilities of plastic.

Woodworking, by contrast, can yield intricate figurines but is an arduous, time-consuming process. “Now you make only one complex mold,” he said, “and you can do mass-production. You can make figures.”

In paper mills, wood is typically separated into its three main components: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose.

Lignin, which tends to give paper a brownish hue, can be used for lower-quality newsprint but is most often separated out with a sulfite- or sulfate-based pulping process prior to the production of high-quality paper.

By mixing that discarded lignin with fibers and wax, Tecnaro, a spin-off German company, has refined a technique for producing plastic-like pellets. Under high-pressure conditions, Eisenreich said, the composite material behaves like melted plastic, allowing it to be injected through a nozzle into a mold and made into a wide range of forms.

Beyond the nine Nativity figurines crafted in collaboration with German toy manufacturer Schleich, the Arboform material has been fashioned into everything from loudspeaker boxes and car parts to golf tees and ballpoint pens.

Customers can even buy liquid wood watches on the company’s Web site, where it reports a current capacity of 300 tons annual output of its biomaterial, but adds that the amount “can be increased easily.”

To make the material more toy-friendly, researchers dramatically reduced the high sulfur content typically associated with the separation of lignin from wood’s other fibers. Eisenreich said a range of processes are widely available for separating lignins without the need for sulfur chemicals.

The institute’s solution, he said, was to use high-pressure hydrolysis (with nothing more than water, high temperature and high pressure) to yield water insoluble lignin. The resulting material maintains its stability even if exposed to water or saliva.

The Arboform material also can be broken into pieces and recycled as a filler. Though it can’t be re-melted, he said, it can be burned just like wood.

Giving cast-off lignin a second look
Terry Collins, leader of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Green Science in Pittsburgh, Pa., said in an e-mail that the German liquid wood manufacturing process “sounds very encouraging indeed,” though he warned that as “with all potentially green alternatives, devils can lie in the details.”

Collins, a professor of chemistry, said that if he was advising Tecnaro on the commercial potential of Arboform, he would recommend a variety of toxicity assays and include a reasonable amount of analysis of the compounds in the extracts from a representative set of wood sources.

“Over time, I would be asking for ever more sophisticated analyses,” he said, “and if the product is to become a major one that children will be exposed to, I would like to see multigenerational animal studies done on appropriate extracts to develop good evidence that developmental disruption is unlikely to be associated with the products.”

So far, Eisenreich said, commercial interest in liquid wood applications has been stronger in Europe than in the United States, though he hopes a shift toward more environmentally friendly solutions in the U.S. may help boost interest here as well.

When crude oil topped $100 dollars per barrel, “this was the best situation for this company,” he said, noting that the accompanying rise in the price of plastics led to multiple new orders for Tecnaro’s test products.

With lignin widely available throughout North America, he said the liquid wood manufacturing process could provide a compelling new use for a home-grown raw material.

Robert Norris, leader of the Polymer Matrix Composites Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said the effort to find more renewable replacements for petroleum-based products similarly led his group to investigate the use of lignin as a precursor for carbon fiber.

Lignin can be spun into a fiber, he said, “and you burn off everything but the carbon to achieve a higher stiffness and strength from the carbon fibers.”

Lignin is an attractive source because it is relatively cheap and contains a high percentage of carbon.

Although increased efficiencies in the papermaking process have cut back on lignin waste, the biomaterial is still widely seen as having little value apart from fuel.

But as paper companies begin to feel more pressure from importing wood, Norris said, they’re looking at new uses for lignin that could boost its value beyond even that of their primary paper products, providing a new opportunity for manufacturers of carbon fibers or liquid wood to make their case. Ditto for a slew of other companies.

According to the Lignin Institute, a trade association of lignin manufacturers in North America, “Lignin uses have expanded into literally hundreds of applications — impacting on many facets of our daily lives.”

© 2008 msnbc.com Reprints

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28283260/

ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2008) — Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel.  But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.

By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.

Gasification is a process that turns carbon-based feedstocks under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled atmosphere into synthesis gas, or syngas.  Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.

In this transmission electron micrograph of the mesoporous nanospheres, the nano-scale catalyst particles show up as the dark spots. Using particles this small (~ 3nm) increases the overall surface area of the catalyst by roughly 100 times. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Ames Laboratory)

It’s basically the same technique that was used to extract the gas from coal that fueled gas light fixtures prior to the advent of the electric light bulb.  The advantage of gasification compared to fermentation technologies is that it can be used in a variety of applications, including process heat, electric power generation, and synthesis of commodity chemicals and fuels.

“There was some interest in converting syngas into ethanol during the first oil crisis back in the 70s,” said Ames Lab chemist and Chemical and Biological Science Program Director Victor Lin.  “The problem was that catalysis technology at that time didn’t allow selectivity in the byproducts.  They could produce ethanol, but you’d also get methane, aldehydes and a number of other undesirable products.”

A catalyst is a material that facilitates and speeds up a chemical reaction without chemically changing the catalyst itself.  In studying the chemical reactions in syngas conversion, Lin found that the carbon monoxide molecules that yielded ethanol could be “activated” in the presence of a catalyst with a unique structural feature.

“If we can increase this ‘activated’ CO adsorption on the surface of the catalyst, it improves the opportunity for the formation of ethanol molecules,” Lin said.  “And if we can increase the amount of surface area for the catalyst, we can increase the amount of ethanol produced.”

Lin’s group looked at using a metal alloy as the catalyst.  To increase the surface area, they used nano-scale catalyst particles dispersed widely within the structure of mesoporous nanospheres, tiny sponge-like balls with thousands of channels running through them.  The total surface area of these dispersed catalyst nanoparticles is roughly 100 times greater than the surface area you’d get with the same quantity of catalyst material in larger, macro-scale particles.

It is also important to control the chemical makeup of the syngas.  Researchers at ISU’s Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies , or CSET, have spent several years developing fluidized bed gasifiers to provide reliable operation and high-quality syngas for applications ranging from replacing natural gas in grain ethanol plants to providing hydrogen for fuel cells.

“Gasification to ethanol has received increasing attention as an attractive approach to reaching the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard of 36 billion gallons of biofuel,” said Robert Brown, CSET director.

“The great thing about using syngas to produce ethanol is that it expands the kinds of materials that can be converted into fuels,” Lin said.  “You can use the waste product from the distilling process or any number of other sources of biomass, such as switchgrass or wood pulp. Basically any carbon-based material can be converted into syngas.  And once we have syngas, we can turn that into ethanol.”

The research is funded by the DOE’s Offices of Basic Energy Sciences and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

DOE/Ames Laboratory (2008, August 14). Turning Waste Material Into Ethanol. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 15, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/08/080813164640.htm

ScienceDaily (July 11, 2008) — Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. Now, this ability of microorganisms to grow from an almost infinite variety of food sources may play a significant role in bailing out society from its current energy crisis, according to the Biodesign Institute’s Bruce Rittmann, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, and Rolf Halden.

In a new issue on “microbial ecology and sustainable energy” in the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology, the Biodesign researchers outline paths where bacteria are the best hope in producing renewable energy in large quantities without damaging the environment or competing with our food supply.

Two distinct, but complementary approaches will be needed. The first is to use microbes to convert biomass to useful energy. Different microorganisms can grow without oxygen to take this abundant organic matter and convert it to useful forms of energy such as methane, hydrogen, or even electricity. The second uses bacteria or algae that can capture sunlight to produce new biomass that can be turned into liquid fuels, like biodiesel, or converted by other microorganisms to useful energy. Both approaches currently are intensive areas of biofuel research at the Biodesign Institute, which has a joint project with petroleum giant BP to harvest photosynthetic bacteria to produce renewable liquid fuels, such as biodiesel.

What is it about bacteria that make them an attractive tool for a bioenergy researcher? Consider that one species of bacteria, the human gut bacterium E. coli, has become the workhorse of the multi-trillion dollar global biotech industry. Might other unearthed microbial treasures have the same potential in bioenergy applications?

The Biodesign team, in their Nature Review Microbiology perspective article, outlines the prospects for such applications. They believe the future of microbial bioenergy is brightened by recent advancements in genome technologies and other molecular-biology techniques.

Unlike the E. coli situation, using just one species may not work well for bioenergy, since, in nature, bacteria do not grow in isolation. In other words, no bacterium is an island. The very biodiversity that fills the Earth with bacteria and offers great bioenergy potential also presents a challenge for engineers. Even if one picks the ideal “bug,” growing, maintaining, and optimizing conditions for its use in bioenergy applications remains a daunting challenge in terms of scalability and reliability.

“Microbial communities that are used to harvest energy must be resilient to fluctuations in environmental conditions, variations in nutrient and energy inputs and intrusion by microbial invaders that might consume the desired energy product,” say the authors. The key to large-scale success in microbial bioenergy is managing the microbial community so that that the community delivers the desired bioenergy product reliably and at high rate.

In the absence of these molecular techniques, the authors state, our understanding of methanogenic communities progressed through slow, incremental advances over several decades. Today, society cannot wait decades for new bioenergy sources. Fortunately, an array of pre-genomic, genomic, and post-genomic tools is available to understand microorganisms involved in bioenergy production. Taking full advantage of these tools will greatly speed up scientific and technological advances, which is what society most needs.

Genomics provides the base sequence of the entire DNA in an organism, and the complete genome reveals all the possible biological reactions that a microorganism can carry out. In the past, complete genomes were only obtained for those microorganisms that could be isolated into pure culture, but it is now possible to sequence the genomes of uncultivated microorganisms using metagenomics.

To date, approximately 75 genomes are available from microorganisms that have a role in bioenergy production. These include 21 genomes from methane producing archaea, 24 genomes from bacteria that can produce hydrogen or electricity, and 30 genomes from cyanobacteria that are potential biodiesel producers. At least half of the completed microbial genomes that are relevant to bioenergy were released in the past 2 years, and more than 80 bioenergy-related genomes are currently being sequenced.

A great example is the Biodesign Institute’s biofuel bacterium, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the first bioenergy-relevant microorganism to be sequenced; its genome was released in 1995. This photosynthetic bacterium features membranes with high lipid (i.e., oil) content, which makes it an excellent biodiesel candidate.

The growing pool of genomic information provides molecular targets that support pre-genomic and post-genomic investigations, both of which provide essential information on what microorganisms are present in the community and what metabolic reactions they are carrying out. With genomics combined with high-throughput DNA sequencing and proteomics, our understanding of bioenergy-producing microorganisms should surge.

Because success with microbial bioenergy demands in-depth knowledge of the complex microbial communities that normally develop, a wide range of pre-genomic, genomic, and post-genomic tools is needed. The Biodesign team has unique expertise on using each kind of tool, and it’s perspective article provides needed information about these tools and how they can be used to unravel the structures and functions of microbial communities involved in renewable bioenergy.

The authors conclude, “Information from these tools, when properly integrated with advanced engineering tools and material, should accelerate the rate at which microbial bioenergy processes can be converted from the realm of intriguing science to real world practice.”

Journal reference:

1. Bruce E. Rittmann, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown & Rolf U. Halden. Pre-genomic, genomic and post-genomic study of microbial communities involved in bioenergy. Nature Reviews Microbiology, July 7, 2008 DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1939

Adapted from materials provided by Arizona State University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

John McCain, June 23, 2008

Fresno State University
Fresno, California

Thank you all very much. I appreciate the kind introduction from Jim Woolsey, and the warm welcome to Fresno State. I’m here to listen about energy issues as well as to talk. So let me just offer a few ideas before we begin our discussion.

All across this state and nation, people are hurting because the price of gasoline is higher than it should be, and more than many folks can afford. Because of far-off events in the world oil market, a barrel of oil has more than doubled in a year. And the bad effects of that are spreading across our economy. The cost of business is rising, the cost of food and other essentials is rising, the whole cost of living is rising. What isn’t rising is the value of your paychecks and the rate of America’s economic growth. Back in the 1970′s, they used to call this “stagflation.” And it feels the same today, because the unwise policies of our government have left America’s energy future in the control of others.

America imports about one third of its oil from Canada and Mexico and no one need worry about a reliance on friendly, stable neighbors, and partners in NAFTA. The Middle East and Venezuela are a different story. We import roughly a quarter of our oil from them, and they have a disproportionate impact on world prices. When we buy foreign oil from these and other sources, there are many consequences — all of them far-reaching and none of them good. Worst of all, by relying on foreign oil, we enrich bad actors in the world, some of whom finance terrorists.

Some in Washington seem to think that we can still persuade OPEC to lower prices — as if reason or cajolery had never been tried before. Others have even suggested suing OPEC — as if we can litigate our way to energy security. But America is not going to meet this great challenge as a supplicant or a plaintiff. We are not going to meet it with words at all — we are going to meet it with action. We’re going to produce more, conserve more, and invent more. And to a large extent, this strategy hinges on innovations in the cars and trucks we drive.

Ninety-seven percent of transportation in America runs on oil. And of all that oil, about 60 percent is used in cars and trucks. Yet the CAFE standards we apply to automakers — to increase the fuel efficiency of their cars — are lightly enforced by a small fine. The result is that some companies don’t even bother to observe CAFE standards. Instead they just write a check to the government and pass the cost along to you. Higher end auto companies like BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes employ some of the best engineering talent in the world. But that talent isn’t put to the job of fuel efficiency, when the penalties are too small to encourage innovation. CAFE standards should serve large national goals in energy independence, not the purpose of small-time revenue collection.

Innovation in the use of alternative fuels in transportation presents the greatest opportunity for energy independence. At the moment, entrepreneurs and engineers are trying to figure out which among the various alternatives to oil works best. Alcohol-based fuels are the farthest along in both development and commercial use. Some, such as ethanol, are on the market now, and new sources of ethanol are on the horizon that will not require the use of so much cropland. Corn-based ethanol, thanks to the money and influence of lobbyists, has been a case study in the law of unintended consequences. Our government pays to subsidize corn-based ethanol even as it collects tariffs that prevent consumers from benefiting from other kinds of ethanol, such as sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil. The result is that Americans take the financial hit coming and going. As taxpayers, we foot the bill for the enormous subsides paid to corn produ cers. And as consumers, we pay extra at the pump because of government barriers to cheaper products from abroad.

Here’s a better way. Instead of playing favorites, our government should level the playing field for all alcohol fuels that break the monopoly of gasoline, lowering both gasoline prices and carbon emissions. And this can be done with a simple federal standard to hasten the conversion of all new vehicles in America to flex-fuel technology — allowing drivers to use alcohol fuels instead of gas in their cars. Brazil went from about five to over 70 percent of all new vehicles with flex-fuel capacity. It did all that in just three years. Yet those same automakers that helped Brazil make the change say it will take them longer to reach the goal of 50 percent new flex-fuel vehicles for America. But I am confident they can do more, and do it faster, in the interest of our energy security. And if I am elected president, they will. Whether it takes a meeting with automakers during my first month in office, or my signature on an act of Congress, we will meet the goal of a swift conversion of American vehicles away from oil.

At the same time, smart policy can also help to broaden the market for energy-efficient cars. Right now we have a hodgepodge of incentives for the purchase of fuel-efficient cars. Different hybrids and natural-gas cars carry different incentives, ranging from a few hundreds dollars to four grand. They’re the handiwork of lobbyists, with all the inconsistency and irrationality that involves.

My administration will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit based on the reduction of carbon emissions. For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we will commit a 5,000 dollar tax credit for each and every customer who buys that car. For other vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit. And these large tax credits will be available to everyone — not just to those who have an accountant to explain it to them.

Furthermore, in the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure. From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success.

I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. This is one dollar for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency — and should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs.

My friends, energy security is the great national challenge of our time. And rising to this challenge will take all of the vision, creativity, and resolve of which we are capable. The good news is, these qualities have never been in short supply. We are the country of Edison, Fulton, and two brothers named Wright. It was American ingenuity that took three brave men to the moon and brought them back. Think of all the highest scientific endeavors of our age — the invention of the silicon chip, the creation of the Internet, the mapping of the human genome. In so many cases, you can draw a straight line back to American inventors, and often to the foresighted aid of the United States government.

For all the troubles and dangers our energy vulnerability presents, we know that we can overcome them, because we have overcome far worse problems and met far greater goals. Together, we Americans can achieve anything we set our minds to. I believe this about our country. I know this about our country. And now it is time to show those qualities once again.

Thank you.

John McCain, a U.S. Senator from Arizona, is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

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What’s green and makes electricity? An artificial leaf

_{By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent, May 20, 2008}

Photosynthesis is nearly the sole source of energy for the creatures inhabiting our planet, include the two-legged variety. For billions of years, since the appearance of the first vegetable cell, plants and bacteria have converted sunlight into energy-rich compounds. That is how all petroleum and coal reserves were created. Unfortunately, about 200 years of post-Industrial Revolution activity has wiped out most of these, and today’s vegetation cannot take up the slack.
Photovoltaic cells made of silicon can convert solar energy to electricity, but due to their extremely high price, it costs four times more to generate power this way than with coal or petroleum. Now, researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) claim to have created a prototype of a photovoltaic cell by genetically engineering proteins that produce energy using photosynthesis. If successful, this would enable energy production on a commercial scale through the construction of “artificial leaves.” The cells would even appear green, because of the wavelength of the light that they collect.

The new technology, developed by a team headed by TAU biochemist Prof. Chanoch Carmeli, will be presented Tuesday at an international conference, Renewable Energy and Beyond, that opens today at the university’s Ramat Aviv campus. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore is to attend the conference.
The new photovoltaic device is based on a genetically engineered dry protein, photosystem I (PS I), created from bacteria that carry out photosynthesis.
“On its own, nature creates for us materials that collect the sun’s energy, and all we need to do is extract them from the bacteria and use them,” said Prof. Abraham Kribus, TAU’s coordinator for renewable energy. “These materials do exactly the same thing as silicon-based photovoltaic cells � they collect sunlight and create an electrical charge.”
The project draws from several different branches of the sciences. In the first stage, the researchers grew cells that can produce large quantities of the PS I protein. “We introduced genetic changes into bacteria so that the proteins they create can bond to a substrate bottom metal and be suited for use,” Carmeli explained. The most complex stage involved placing the protein molecules on the substrate, all facing the same direction. Next, the surface was coated with a suitable conducting material. Electrical wires were then connected to the cells, which produced an electrical charge when exposed to light.
The research team includes Carmeli’s son, Dr. Itai Carmeli, an expert in nanotechnology, as well as Dr. Shachar Richter and Prof. Yossi Rosenwaks. The research is still in its early stages, and so far the team has only created a microscopic cell that produces a tiny amount of energy. Kribus said it is too early to talk about the total cost of producing electricity on a commercial scale using the new method. “Creating a complete cell will require processing stages that will require more time to develop,” he said.

source:  Haaretz