New $3 million grant to develop novel biomass conversion process

nanowerk.com


Posted: Jan 30, 2014


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OU research team developing novel biomass conversion process

Phys.org

October 24th, 2013

 

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Oklahoma researchers find promising cellulosic biofuels genes in rumen fungus

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | June 10, 2013

 

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Gene discovery could boost energy crop production

BrighterEnergy.org
December 30, 2010
By James Cartledge

Researchers at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore said the discovery could mean farmers and ranchers producing a greater amount of feedstock for biofuels and electricity generation without taking up more land.

Postdoctoral fellow Huanzhong Wang found a gene that controls the production of lignin in the central portions of the stems of Arabidopsis and Medicago truncatula, species commonly used as models for the study of plant genetic processes.

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Switchgrass could be used to produce biomass efficiently

DNAIndia.com
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 15:21 IST Email

Washington: A new study has determined that 50 million US acres of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture could be converted from current uses to the production of perennial grasses, such as switchgrass, from which biomass could be harvested for use as a biofuel feedstock quite efficiently.

An agronomist at Oklahoma State University, Regents professor Emeritus Charles Taliaferro, designed and conducted an experiment to determine biomass yield from alternative levels of nitrogen fertilizer for a single and double harvest per year system for four perennial grass species.

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Research partners receive $4.2 million grant

Southwest Farm Press
Nov 13, 2009 11:17 AM, By Donald Stotts, Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University and its partner institutions in industry are receiving $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue groundbreaking work in the development of biofuels.

The OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources’ Ray Huhnke said the funding received through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture represents great news for the public and diverse stakeholders within Oklahoma’s bioenergy industry.

“These funds will enhance key work being done by our cooperating scientists and engineers to develop advances in practices and technologies necessary to ensure efficient and sustainable production of cellulosic ethanol feedstocks,” he said.

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Oklahoma: OSU experts discuss sweet sorghum use in ethanol

The Joplin Globe
The Associate Press

Published October 21, 2009 11:36 pm - CHICKASHA, Okla. — With demand growing for ethanol produced from sources other than corn, researchers at Oklahoma State University said Wednesday that state agriculture producers could someday grow sweet sorghum or switchgrass as cash crops.

Division scientists and engineers from OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources spoke during a “biofuels field day” at the university’s South Central Research Station in Chickasha about the potential of crops that could be grown by Oklahoma farmers for use in ethanol production.

Little sweet sorghum is grown in Oklahoma because there hasn’t been much need for it, said Danielle Bellmer, a food process engineer at OSU’s Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center who talked enthusiastically Wednesday about the plant’s potential as a renewable energy crop.

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Okla. researchers hope 1,000-acre switchgrass experiment turns up a cash-making biofuel

Los Angeles Times
MURRAY EVANS Associated Press Writer
September 9, 2009 12:44 a.m.

ARDMORE, Okla. (AP) — Watching grass grow is tedious, but researchers in the Oklahoma Panhandle say they'll stare at their switchgrass — all 1,000 acres of it — until they know whether they've found a commercially viable source of biofuel.

The site is billed as the largest such project in the world as scientists try to determine if making ethanol from switchgrass is cost effective. The goal is to determine whether small-scale experiments of using the tall, thin plant native to the Great Plains to make ethanol can be duplicated on a large scale.

And if so, whether farmers and others involved in its production could make a profit.

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Okla. researchers look for cash in the switchgrass

Associated Press
By MURRAY EVANS (AP) – 9-9-09

ARDMORE, Okla. — Watching grass grow is tedious, but researchers in the Oklahoma Panhandle say they'll stare at their switchgrass — all 1,000 acres of it — until they know whether they've found a commercially viable source of biofuel.
The site is billed as the largest such project in the world as scientists try to determine if making ethanol from switchgrass is cost effective. The goal is to determine whether small-scale experiments of using the tall, thin plant native to the Great Plains to make ethanol can be duplicated on a large scale.
And if so, whether farmers and others involved in its production could make a profit.

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Oklahoma draws biofuel interest at BIO 2009

NewsOK.com
BY JIM STAFFORD
Published: May 20, 2009

Switchgrass is popular topic in Atlanta for Noble Foundation officials

ATLANTA — The exhibition hall at the BIO 2009 trade show had been opened for only a few minutes Tuesday morning when a visitor to the Oklahoma booth inquired about switchgrass as a biofuel alternative.

Steve Rhines, vice president and general counsel with the Noble Foundation patiently answered the questions from the visitor from Taiwan.

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OSU breaks ground on Ardmore facility

KXII TV News
Posted: 6:50 PM May 1, 2009 Last Updated: 6:50 PM May 1, 2009
Reporter: KXII-TV Staff

ARDMORE, OK -- A forerunner in agricultural sciences and natural resources studies and a longstanding land grant university will soon have an office in Texoma.

Oklahoma State University leaders, Noble Foundation representatives, and Oklahoma state legislators broke ground on a new institute for agricultural biosciences Friday in Ardmore.

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Oklahoma Governor Names New Energy Secretary

North American Windpower
by NAW staff on Monday 29 December 2008

Gov. Brad Henry, D-Okla., has accepted the resignation of Oklahoma Secretary of Energy David Fleischaker and immediately named Fleischaker's deputy to succeed him in the top energy post. Robert Wegener has served as the state's deputy secretary of energy since 2005.

Fleischaker recently informed the governor of his desire to return to the private sector, where he serves as president and CEO of Jolen Operating Co.

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Oklahoma State Regents help finance biofuel grant

The Daily O'Collegian - Stillwater, OK
By Kyle Milton Staff Writer
Published: November 19, 2008

An Oklahoma research group received a $20 million grant to help energize the state’s growing biofuel research and finance bioenergy education.

The National Science Foundation and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education donated the grant to the Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. OSU, OU and the Samuel Roberts Noble Research Foundation will also help in “Building Oklahoma’s Leadership Role in Cellulosic Bioenergy.”

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Noble Foundation receives funds to study switchgrass

BioMass Magazine - November 2008
By Ryan C. Christiansen
Web exclusive posted Nov. 14, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. CST

The National Science Foundation and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have awarded more than $1.2 million to scientists at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla., an independent, nonprofit institute conducting plant science research.

The funding, provided through the Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), will enable the foundation to continue studies to improve varieties of switchgrass for the production of cellulosic ethanol. The Noble Foundation is developing new switchgrass varieties for ethanol production with Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma through the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center. As a member of the U.S. DOE Bioenergy Science Center, the foundation is also working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Huhnke named 2008 Sarkeys Distinguished Professor

High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal

Oklahoma State University's Ray Huhnke has been named the 2008 recipient of the Sarkeys Distinguished Professor Award by the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

The Sarkeys award is based on outstanding contributions to agriculture through teaching, research or extension efforts. The award was established by the Sarkeys Foundation in 1980 to honor Elmo Baumann, an agronomist who worked with the foundation after his retirement from OSU.

Huhnke serves as director of the DASNR Biobased Products and Energy Center. The main activity of the center is to coordinate and provide leadership for the division's nationally recognized bioenergy programs and serve as a liaison with the bioenergy industry.
The center also is a catalyst for identifying multi-disciplinary priorities and enhancing the development of grants, contracts and cooperative agreements with government agencies, private industry, tribal nations and communities, thereby streamlining efforts to provide solutions to bioenergy issues.

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Plant researcher named top Oklahoma scientist

NewsOK.com
BY JIM STAFFORD
Published: October 21, 2008

For years, Richard Dixon has directed a corps of scientists at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation working to improve plants for use as animal forage or energy sources.

As director of the Noble Foundation’s plant biology division, Dixon’s work in lignin attracted little attention outside the community of researchers until the nation discovered a thirst for alternative energy sources.

"The ironic thing is that nobody has been hugely interested in plant natural products for many years,” Dixon said. "But as soon as the bioenergy business caught on, all of a sudden lots of people want to give us money.”

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Switchgrass field in Oklahoma holds hopes for ethanol alternative

Los Angeles Times
By Murray Evans, The Associated Press
September 24, 2008

Researchers are monitoring a 1,000-acre plot to see whether the native plant can replace corn as an ingredient for the fuel.

GUYMON, OKLA. -- Curtis Raines describes himself as "just a dumb old farmer" who's not afraid to ask an obvious question: Why grow corn for fuel when it could be used to feed hungry people?

"That just doesn't make a lot of sense to me," Raines said.

The 64-year-old Oklahoma Panhandle farmer is growing a 1,000-acre plot of switchgrass, billed as the world's largest of its type, to test whether the native plant can replace corn in making ethanol.

The Oklahoma Bioenergy Center project is designed to find out whether laboratory experiments using switchgrass to make ethanol can be duplicated on a large scale. The crop will help feed a biorefinery plant planned for southwest Kansas.

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Cellulosic Ethanol Using Gasification-Fermentation

RedOrbit.com
Posted on: Sunday, 21 September 2008, 03:00 CDT
By Huhnke, Raymond L

The push for the United States to produce more biofuels was reinforced by the recent amendment to the 2005 Renewable Fuels Standard, setting a new target of 136 billion L (36 billion gal) by 2022. Cellulosic biofuels will play a major role in reaching this goal. For nearly a decade, the multidisciplinary biofuels research team led by Oklahoma State University (OSU) has been investigating a gasification-fermentation process in which low-cost, under-utilized biomass, such as perennial grasses and crop residues, is converted to ethanol and other value-added products. A holistic approach is being employed, addressing the more critical issues along the continuum from biomass production to liquid fuel generation. In this bioconversion process, the total biomass including lignin is utilized, which can result in high energy conversion efficiency.
The process begins with biomass gasification where, under a controlled oxygen supply, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin are converted to a producer gas, primarily CO, CO2, and H^sub 2^. The producer gas then flows through a cleaning and cooling system and is subsequently directed to a bioreactor. The gas is bubbled through the bioreactor where microorganisms (acetogens) convert the gas into ethanol and other value-added products. The mixture is further processed to separate and recover these products.

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Biofuels production plays to U.S. strengths

Southwest Farm Press
Sep 18, 2008 10:24 AM
By Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Adding biofuels as a significant part of the U.S. energy equation “plays to America’s strengths,” says David Fleischaker, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy.
Fleischaker, keynote luncheon speaker at the recent International Conference on Sorghum for Biofuel in Houston, said renewable energy should be part of the country’s solution to energy security. He offered reasons biofuels will:

• Reduce dependence on foreign oil.
• Reduce funding for terrorist organizations
• Revitalize the world economy, and
• Enhance our environmental profile.

He said the United States is not among the leaders in oil reserves but is a leader in biomass production. “We have an enormous potential resource,” Fleischaker said. “Our challenge it to put it to work in a sustainable fashion.”

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Shaping Oklahoma’s Renewable Energy Future

CattleNetwork.com

7/17/2008 3:23:00 PM

STILLWATER, Okla. – Traditional economies may suggest that bigger is better, but the Oklahoma State University Biofuels Team has received widespread recognition for cautioning that is not the case with all forms of renewable energy.

“Our vision of the future intersection of energy and agriculture involves a decentralized energy production system,” said Danielle Bellmer, OSU coordinator of the team’s development efforts with sweet sorghum ethanol.

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