Archive for September, 2009

Collaboration between the Royal Dutch Shell and the World Leader in Cellulosic ethanol- Iogen are together planning to use post-harvested wheat stalks as their biomass. They are planning to use specialized enzymes for breaking down the cellulose in farm-raised fibers and converting it to sugars fermented into beer that is then distilled into ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol has identical molecules to conventional ethanol made from corn or sugarcane. The difference is that cellulosic ethanol is derived from the non-food plant portion – in this case agricultural residue. Fuel derived from waste products, as cellulosic ethanol is, is a better long-term solution than using food crops for fuel.

They strongly believe that the Cellulosic ethanol will perform as well as any other bio-derived ethanol product as the research in this field has brought into light, the fact that cellulosic biomass is the most abundant raw material in the planet.

One of the major bottlenecks solved faced is the transportation issue; Iogen and Shell are putting in their full efforts to size their production-facility and efforts are underway to minimize the transportation costs.

Ethanol is usually shipped via truck or rail rather than piped through typical petroleum-based channels because of concerns over water and particulate contamination.

Ethanol is alcohol-based and thus corrosive, components can be damaged and engine fires sparked by leaking hoses, rings and gaskets if a consumer pumps more than a 10 percent blend of ethanol into a system not suitably engineered for the fuel. Extinguishing an ethanol blaze requires firefighting foam differing from that used on petroleum conflagrations; repairers concerned about shop fires have been urged to ensure that their local departments have the correct foam onboard the response apparatus.

As discussed earlier, Cellulosic ethanol’s non-grain content could fuel a wider field of acceptance than conventional ethanol because it lessens the likelihood of food riots such as those that broke out last year in Africa, Mexico and Haiti over surging corn prices.

Cellulosic ethanol has a kernel-free makeup and it is poised to overcome the maze of issues surrounding maize and global crop allotments. It addition to wheat straw, cellulosic ethanol can be created from discarded corn stalks, barley straw, wood chips and sawdust, switchgrass, algae and other municipal solid wastes.

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POET has secured a funding of about $6.85 million for producing 700 tons of cellulosic biomass. POETS with its research team are finding ways to curb the barriers faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry.

The feedstock of choice are the “Cobs” by this American cellulosic ethanol company. As discussed earlier, the major advantage with cellulosic ethanol is the fact that it can use multiple feedstock . Any feedstock which has contains cellulose can be used.

The work of this cellulosic ethanol company is that they are going to redesign the cobs to make it economically viable . Research efforts are underway to find the best harvesting methods to produce cellulosic ethanol commercializing.

This company will secure few more millions next year, and this will be widely used to develop the feedstock infrastructure for cellulosic ethanol production.

Apparently, POET is also taking considerable efforts to go hand in hand with the equipment manufacturers to make the cob-harvesting technology easier than before.

They have also planned to encourage the farmers and other people by giving away incentives to those who are early adopters of this cob-harvesting technology.

About POET

POET is proud to be a pioneer in unlocking the power of cellulosic ethanol. They have been in this field for the past 20 years and they have started turning biomass into fuel with a remarkable efficiency. Earlier, they were produicing ethanol from corn, however, now they are concentrating on cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on earth. It is more difficult to breakdown cellulose to its basic components in order to convert them into ethanol, but our ability to do it efficiently will radically expand the range of materials that can be used for ethanol production.

Although cellulosic ethanol is chemically identical to the ethanol, the processes for handling the raw material feedstock, breaking it down and fermenting it pose serious biochemical and engineering challenges. POET‘s research team has set out to curb away the bottlenecks faced by the growing cellulosic ethanol industry.

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Cellulosic ethanol is an alternative fuel made from a wide variety of non-food plant materials such as agricultural wastes such as corn stover and cereal straws, industrial plant waste like saw dust and paper pulp, and energy crops grown specifically for fuel production like switchgrass.

By using a variety of regional feedstock for refining cellulosic ethanol, the fuel can be produced in nearly every region of the country. Though it requires a more complex refining process, cellulosic ethanol contains more net energy and results in lower greenhouse emissions than traditional corn-based ethanol.

Cellulosic biofuels are fuels which are produced from wood, grasses, and other non-edible parts of plants. The biofuel is produced mainly from lignocelluloses. This product is found mainly in corn stover, switchgrass, and even wood chips which are the byproduct of farming and lawn maintenance.

There are many advantages to using this kind of fuel, but it requires a much greater amount of processing than standard fossil fuel production, which has limited its use in the United States. However, this hasn’t stopped scientists and researchers alike from looking into the best cellulosic biofuel producers.

Switchgrass and miscanthus are the two main biomass materials which are being observed in studies today, mainly due to their high productivity per acre grown. While these two plants are at the forefront of bio-technology, cellulose is found in every natural green plant, bush, or tree. Because of this, many scientists believe with the right technology, in the future we will be able to reduce our dependence on foreign oil entirely through the burning of cellulosic biofuels. Apparently, research is underway to find out more about the prospects of other feedstock which can be used as a cellulosic biomass.

The main problem with relying on cellulosic biofuels is the procedure in which they are produced. They must be fermented before they are combusted to produce ethanol gas, and this process requires acres and acres of space in order to function properly. If products are recycled properly, this waste could be turned into a fuel which could power tomorrow’s cars and power plants.

Provided below is the list of companies who have had secured funds for cellulosic ethanol research.

• Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas, LLC of Chesterfield, Missouri, up to $76 million.

• ALICO, Inc. of LaBelle, Florida, up to $33 million.

• Blue Fire Ethanol, Inc. of Irvine, California, up to $40 million.

• Broin Companies of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, up to $80 million
.
• Iogen Biorefinery Partners, LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, up to $80 million.
Range Fuels (formerly Kergy Inc.) of Broomfield, Colorado, up to $76 million.

Why Cellulosic Ethanol? – Link to my previous post

a. Cellulosic ethanol production prevents the danger that food cropping
b. Supply of raw material is also more abundant than corn-based ethanol production.

c. Use of fertilizers and watering essential for corn for ethanol production is also not required to such an extent for cellulosic ethanol.

d. The best thing I love about CE is that the fact that traditional ethanol cellulosic ethanol uses only lignin, which has energy content equal to coal, it doesn’t use fossil fuels during manufacture Lignin is a bi-product of the conversion process from bio-mass to ethanol, and does not need to be procured extra. Thus, no expensive fossil fuel is required for the cellulosic manufacturing process,

e. Most importantly, the amount of harmful CO2 produced while using the lignin is totally compensated by the absorption from the original plants in photosynthesis.

f. The usage of the perennial switch grass for cellulosic ethanol also bodes well for the environment and efficiency. This grass has a deep root system which helps prevents soil erosion and contributes toward soil fertility.

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Comet Biorefining, a London company, is a leader in the field of biomass conversion and biomass pretreatment. Comet’s knowledge and experience in the pretreatment of biomass spans numerous raw materials and many end use applications. This sustainability company has announced a new sugar technology to digest a wide range of cellulosic biomass and convert it into ethanol fuels.

This cellulosic ethanol technology employs cellulosic ethanol feedstock such as wood chips, switch grass and corn cobs to produce cellulosic sugars and then convert it into fuels. For the production of these cheap pre-treatment methods were used and these sugars were shipped to the biorefineries wherein they are converted into ethanol.

The greatest advantage with this cellulosic sugar is the fact that if remains stable for a long-time even after pre-treatment due to its high –density. Hence, this advantage makes it possible to be shipped or transported to biorefineries in farther places as well.

This breakthrough will definitely reduce the capital and operating costs of the biofuel companies , whooonly processes the cellulosic sugar for bioethanol . This will further help them to focus more on developing better enzyme technology to carry out the steps to make biofuel from the broken down sugar.
Comet Biorefining has demonstrated this unique technology at pilot scale and estimates that cellulosic sugar can be produced for as low as 7 cents per pound based on laboratory testing. Comet Biorefining plans to build a demonstration facility in 2010 and partner with biofuels technology developers to provide them with cellulosic sugar for their processes. Comet Biorefining’s goal is to license its Cellulosic Sugar Technology worldwide.

Pilot and demonstration plants have shown promising results, and the London company believes that even small pretreatment plants can provide cellulosic sugars for large biofuel industries thereby making their biofuel production economically viable.

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There are loads and loads of feedstock containing cellulose as a biomass to derive ethanol fuel. Recent studies show that alfalfa can be used as a cellulosic biomass. Alfaalfa, commonly known as the Lucerne grass is by far the most popular legume and research studies have revealed that it can serve as one of the best feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production.

I actually listened to Dave Miller, a biotech researcher interview about the potential os cellulosic ethanol and here is an outline of what he said: He feels that this crop has great potential than other cellulosic biomass due to the fact that it is environmentally very friendly. Moreover, it is a very good crop for crop-rotation and most importantly, it fixes nitrogen and prevents soil erosion as well.

However, efforts are on the way to “redesign” the crop to reduce the lignin content. The problem the cellulosic ethanol industry is facing is the high-lignin which poses the problem of pre-processing. That s the reason why Dave Miller and his team are planning to genetically modify the alfalfa and redesign the crop it for easy biomass digestion.

Preliminary efforts by Dave Millers group revealed that alfalfa has greater potential as a cellulosic biomass feedstock, when compared to other cellulosic biomass. In addition, Miller says preliminary work shows alfalfa is competitive with other feedstock for its ability to convert to cellulosic ethanol and that a corn/alfalfa rotation creates a very favorable carbon footprint for ethanol production.

Why alfalfa?

1. Great potential as a cellulosic biomass.
2. Can be used as a rotation crop.
3. Prevents soil erosion
4. It being a legume fixes nitrogen to the soil.
5. Preliminary tests show that alfalfa is better than many other cellulosic biomasses.

For the large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol, many feedstocks which are cellulosic in nature can be considered as a feedstock and identification of crops such as alfalfa is indeed a major breakthrough in the development of the cellulosic ethanol industry.

Check out the Full Article

As discussed in my earlier posts, cellulosic ethanol is the most abundant biological material present on earth and deriving oil from it is indeed an excellent idea. There are a number of economic, social and sustainability issues faced by this industry. Research is underway to curb these bottlenecks so as to start using a sustainable biofuel such as Cellulosic Ethanol.

The major advantage offered by the cellulose based ethanol fuel is the fact that the feedstock is very cheap. However, purification of the feedstock seems to pose a problem when economic barriers are taken into consideration. These impurities, if not properly removed even damage the equipments.

Using cellulosic ethanol might not interfere with the food chain, as only non- food crops are being used as a biomass. The problem, here again, is the complexity of the cellulosic molecule; it is extremely hard to digest (or) hydrolyze the cellulosic material, which requires lot of expensive enzymes to break – up them unlike the starchy y materials. I think the solution of using the wonder bacteria would solve the problem of digesting the cellulosic biomass and has gained a lot of popularity among the ethanol researchers.

U.S is one of the top-leaders in cellulosic ethanol research and considerable research is being taken by the researchers there to gain some energy independence. The ethanol from cellulose (that is the way they term the name), also known as EFC employs cost effective methods such as acid-hydrolysis. Generally, there are three methods to digest the cellulosic biomass (a) Acid-hydrolysis (b) enzymatic-hydrolysis (c) thermo chemical processes. However, most popularly used method is the acid –hydrolysis due to the cheapness of sulfuric acid.

Acid-hydrolysis can be either dilute or concentrated; dilute-acid hydrolysis is usually performed at high temperatures and pressure. The barrier we face here is that the fact that, when high temperatures and pressure is applied it sometimes damages the equipment. Hence, specialized equipment having the ability to withstand high temperature and pressure must be brought into use. These specialized equipments are available only in exorbitant prices. Yet another issue is the efficiency of this method is only 50% thereby yielding less sugar. The biggest advantage of dilute acid processes is their fast rate of reaction, which facilitates continuous processing. However, the feedstocks must be reduced in size in order to make it a continuous process.

Research efforts in various places have brought in a solution for this problem; the cellulosic biomass consists of the C5 and the C6 sugars. As I said earlier, the problem we are facing at the moment is lesser yield of sugar during hydrolysis. This can be very much increased by first performing a mild process, wherein, only the five-carbon sugars get broken up and then a harsher process, to extract the six-carbon sugars. This solution is still not being widely employed. Research is underway.

The concentrated acid hydrolysis uses comparatively milder temperature and pressure. When compared against the acid-hydrolysis, it yields higher quantities of sugar. The problem here is, the process is extremely slow and research is still underway to find a cost-effective acid-recovery system.

The potential of enzymatic hydrolysis, thermochemical proceses and their bottlenecks faced by them can be obtained from this link. Thus, producing ethanol from cellulosic has a great potential due to the vast availability of the biomass feedstock. However, the routes to cellulosic ethanol are still not techno-economically feasible.

As discussed in the previous posts, cellulose based ethanol have great prospects, however, there are many bottlenecks witnessed to commercialize the production of cellulosic ethanol.

DOE has identified the various barriers witnessed by the cellulosic ethanol industry. These include the economic, sustainability, storage barriers, which have been briefly explained in the preceding paragraphs.

Provided below are the highlights of the bottlenecks faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry:

Summary of the bottlenecks faced by the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry:

1) The enzymes used in cellulosic biomass production are too expensive. The solution for those was produced by certain thermophilic baceteria, but research is still underway to find if they are the best choice for the biomass breakdown.
2) Efforts are still on the way to find robust organisms which can utilise all the sugars even in impure environments.
3) Research is underway to find microorganisms which can aerobically ferment to produce cellulosic ethanol. This will help a great deal in reducing fermentation costs.
4) Removing the impurities generated by fermentation is very expensive.

Bottlenecks related to Cost:

1) Efforts are still underway to commercialize the cellulosic ethanol production and make is economically viable. The pretreatment methods are still expensive and the industry is still in its nascence.
2) Biotechnological research which includes genetic modification makes the investors worry about the risk they might create to the native population.
3) Cellulosic biomass is still expensive due to issues such as transportation, as discussed in my previous post. Also, the biomass feedstock are changeable. For example, unknown quantities of the biomass might be lost to extreme weather.
4) High capital costs are still a big problem faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry.
5) There is yet another problem with ethanol; it costs more than and still gives about 34% lesser energy than gasoline.

Bottlenecks related to Storage:

1) Even if pretreatment is made cheaper, there are some harvesting issues which have to be overcome to enable the large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol. There are still no harvesting machines to harvest the cellulosic biomass.
2) The harvesting machines which are currently available will not be able to handle tons of biomass.
3) There are still issues for storing the wet biomass, which if not properly stored might result in rotting and lead to spoilage, making it unusable.

Bottlenecks related to Preprocessing:

1) To find the best methods or organisms for preprocessing, properties of the biomass must be researched extensively.
2) Apparently, the issues in removing the impurities present in the biomass is posing problems for large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol.
3) These impurities present are removed by employing methods such as grinding, compacting and blending.
4) If these preprocessing steps are not done properly, it might damage the equipment.
5) The harvest season of each cellulosic biomass is different because of which it is a bit difficult to harvest the cellulosic biomass to pre-process them and store them.
6) A multi-step process is required for a enzymatic break-down and this is really expensive. Though many cellulosic ethanol companies are coming up with innovative pre-treatment ideas, no pretreatment method as been confirmed to be entirely economically viable.
7) When these microorganisms or enzymes are added to the fermenter , sterilization is required so as to maintain a sterile environment and to prevent contamination and the issue here is , when batch sterilization is done it might pollute the waterways if the impurities from the equipment is improperly disposed.

For those of the scientific bent – Full article