Portuguese researchers finding ways to reduce water use in biodiesel production

BiofuelsDigest


Meghan Sapp | March 24, 2014


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Biomass industry needs to prepare for water constraints

Phys.org


by Phil Ciciora
February 28, 2014

Wastewater May Decrease Environmental Impact of Cellulosic Ethanol Production

TriplePundit.com
By Leon Kaye
March 13th, 2013   Read more

Water-wise biofuel crop study to alter plants metabolic, photosynthesis process

Phys.org
September 14, 2012

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Molecular sponge absorbs toxins, produces biofuel

The Western Producer
Posted May. 29th, 2012 by William DeKay


Lee Wilson thinks he has found a cost effective way to help produce biofuel using wheat straw.


In a lab at the University of Saskatchewan, the chemist and his team of graduate students have developed various types of what Wilson terms “molecular sponges.” 


Some sponges are designed to take specific impurities out of water, such as pesticides. Others can remove toxins from water used in the oilsands.


Still another sponge separates ethanol and water to make cellulosic ethanol.


“It’s a game changer for parts of the agro economy,” he said.


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Enzyme study shows DDGS dewatering applications

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Holly Jessen November 22, 2011

A one-month plant trial showed a commercial enzyme could help extract water from distillers grains, saving natural gas, electricity and water used in the ethanol process. More work needs to be done, said David Johnston, a sustainable biofuels and co-products food technologist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, adding that now that the idea is out there, ethanol plants can start testing the idea internally. “I think that there would be some other process benefits that we couldn’t tell in a one-month trial,” he said. “The enzyme does something that should actually help in some of the unit operations, as far as maintenance and that sort of thing, but it’s something that you would really need to do in the long run to show and prove.”

The study was conducted at Center Ethanol Co. LLC, a 54 MMgy ethanol plant in Sauget, Ill. For the study, one pound of an enzyme supplied by Genencor was added for each 1,000 pounds of corn. Similar products from other ethanol enzyme makers could also be used, Johnston said. The enzyme, which typically is used as a cellulose preparation, was added as an additional enzyme during fermentation with no added equipment necessary.

As a result, scientists found that the natural gas usage for the dryer was reduced by 14 percent because the enzyme boosted water extraction in the centrifuge. “The enzyme is believed to disrupt that physical structure that the water is binding to, basically it makes it so it doesn’t hold on to the water as tightly,” he said. Using an existing economic model of ethanol production, researchers found that using the enzyme to dewater the stillage resulted in a reduction of natural gas usage by 12 percent and a reduction of electricity consumption by 2.4 percent. Water recycling opportunities can also be increase because more suspended solids are removed during the decanter centrifuge operation, Johnston added. In all, researchers calculated a 10 percent water reduction with the use of the enzyme for dewatering.

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FAO Says Agriculture Key to Addressing Future Water and Energy Needs

Biofuels Journal
Date Posted: November 18, 2011

Rome/Bonn—As pressure on the world's water resources reaches unsustainable levels in an increasing number of regions, a "business-as-usual" approach to economic development and natural resource management will no longer be possible, FAO said Nov. 17.

Agriculture will be key to the implementation of sustainable water management, the Organization told attendees at an international meeting on water, energy and food security being held in Bonn.

Speaking on the sidelines at the Bonn 2011 Nexus Conference, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources, Alexander Mueller, said: "Tackling the challenges of food security, economic development and energy security in a context of ongoing population growth will require a renewed and re-imagined focus on agricultural development.

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Improving Ethanol Production Economics

WOWT.com
Updated: 8:51 AM May 20, 2011

Iowa State engineer scales up process that could improve economics of ethanol production.
Iowa State University's Hans van Leeuwen has moved his research team's award-winning idea for improving ethanol production from a laboratory to a pilot plant.

Now he knows the idea, which produces a new animal feed and cleans water that can be recycled back into ethanol production, works more efficiently in batches of up to 350 gallons than on a lab bench.

"We're learning we can reliably produce good quality and good quantities," said van Leeuwen, Iowa State's Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor of Engineering in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering.

What van Leeuwen and a team of Iowa State researchers are producing is a fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus, that makes a high-quality, high-protein animal feed from the leftovers of ethanol production. The process of growing the fungus also cleans water from ethanol production so that it can be recycled back into fuel production. And the process, called MycoMeal, could one day produce a low-cost nutritional supplement for people.

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Algae as biofuel source contemplated

UPI.com Published: April 13, 2011 at 8:24 PM

RICHLAND, Wash., April 13 (UPI) -- Algae is being promoted as a biofuel source to replace fossil fuels but growing algae or any biofuel feedstock can require a lot of water, U.S. researchers say.

A study by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that carefully selecting locations for growing algae can drastically reduce how much water is needed for algal biofuel. Algae grown in a water-wise manner could help meet congressionally mandated renewable fuel targets by replacing 17 percent of the nation's imported oil for transportation, a paper published in the journal Water Resources Research said.

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Draft EPA report: Biofuels threaten habitat, water quality

The Hill
By Ben Geman - 01/28/11 11:25 AM ET

A draft Environmental Protection Agency report concludes that expanded production of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel carries an array of ecological risks in the U.S. and other nations, and calls for improved policies to mitigate these harms.

The report is required under a 2007 energy law that vastly increased the national biofuels mandate but also called for new analysis of the ecological effects of expanded development.

The draft finds, for instance, that growing biofuels crops can affect water quality through erosion and fertilizer runoff, among other factors.

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Genetic mutation helps plants use less water without biomass loss

sify news
2011-01-12 17:10:00

Purdue University researchers have made a discovery that could reduce the amount of water required for growing plants and help plants survive and thrive in adverse conditions.

They have found a genetic mutation that allows a plant to better endure drought without losing biomass.

Plants can naturally control the opening and closing of stomata, pores that take in carbon dioxide and release water. During drought conditions, a plant might close its stomata to conserve water. By doing so, however, the plant also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide it can take in, which limits photosynthesis and growth.

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Ethanol producers more efficient on many fronts

Illinois Farm Bureau
Monday, October 18, 2010

Ethanol production is becoming more efficient when calculated by various measurements, several experts said at last week’s forum at the University of Illinois’ Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research (CABER) in Champaign.

Kishore Rajagopalan with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center noted ethanol manufacturers continue to reduce the amount water used per gallon of ethanol produced and may be able to make further reductions.

Over the years, ethanol plants have reduced water used per gallon of ethanol from 6.5 gallons down to 3 fewer gallons, according to Rajagopalan.

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New biochemical process halves water purification cost

UPI.com
Published: Sept. 13, 2010 at 6:42 PM

CHICAGO, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A new biochemical carbon dioxide water purification process from Krebs & Sisler energy firm halves the cost of turning effluent and salt water into a potable drinking resource in a move with potential for use worldwide.

U.S. government, military and corporate agencies spend billions on purifying water while prohibitive costs and lack of affordable means keeps safe water out of the reach of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

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Professor develops water-saving AD process

Biomass Magazine
September 2010
By Lisa Gibson
Posted September 8, 2010 at 9:40 a.m. CST

A Colorado State University professor is developing an anaerobic digester that uses less water than conventional systems, making it ideal and economically feasible for use at feedlots and dairies in the western states.

Sybil Sharvelle, assistant professor of engineering, said her process is separated into stages, beginning with water trickling over the solids and converting the organic material into liquid organic acids. Then the acids are converted to methane in a separate high-rate digestion reactor. Sharvelle has experimented mainly with animal waste, but said the process is appropriate for any waste with solids content of more than 40 percent. “Aside from manure, we are also testing the reactor for conversion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste to methane,” she said. The amount of water saved varies depending on the quality of the feedstock, she added.

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Expanding Ethanol Dehydration

Ethanol Producer Magazine April 2010
By Felipe Tavares, Jansley Pascoal and Bruno Maia

A number of alternative methods are available for debottlenecking cooling water systems and the molecular sieves that are used for ethanol dehydration.

Ethanol is gaining wide popularity as an alternative fuel as the value of diminishing crude oil reserves increases and research is directed toward the possibilities of employing biomass materials for fuel. Current U.S. policies are motivating ethanol dehydration companies in Central American and Caribbean countries to increase production capacity either by starting new plants or expanding existing ones. Expansion is often preferable as it usually involves a better ratio between throughput expansion and capital costs than new construction. Besides that, a plant upgrade will take less time than building an entirely new unit.

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Ethanol is not a water hog

FarmIndustryNews.com
Feb 25, 2010 4:23 PM

“There’s too much attention on water usage by ethanol plants,” says Sangwon Suh, assistant professor, Bioproducts/Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota. “The bigger elephant is irrigation.” As production technology has advanced and ethanol plants have improved water recycling efforts, it takes an average of less than four gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol. This is down from about 10 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol produced a decade ago. Depending on where conventional oil is sourced and the type of recovery method used, it can take from three to five gallons of water to produce a gallon of gasoline. Each gallon of gasoline recovered from oil sands can consume up to eight gallons of water.

The water issue takes on greater significance in areas where crops are irrigated. Suh calculates that when both ethanol process water and irrigation are taken into account, its takes 142 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol. A study conducted by Suh and colleagues at the University of Minnesota highlights the need to promote ethanol development in states with lower irrigation rates. The study, “Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States,” was published in the March 10 issue of Environmental Science & Technology (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es8031067).


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Water scarcity = Energy crisis

BiofuelsWatch.com
by Mike Hammond
Posted on January 2nd 2010

Water shortages can have many undesirable effects on the economy. What is less accepted globally is the fact that water and energy are very much interlinked and it sooner or later will pile up leading towards economic threat as there is mass migration, defense warfare and scarcity of food and this threat is being faced in most of the countries.

As water being the basic element needed for the process of energy production, it needs proper utilization ensuring zero wastage as most of the energy productions make heavy use of water. In Saudi Arabia, oil sites pump more water to increase the base reservoir pressure than the oil it generates. As per the U.S Department of Energy, an oil shale needs more than 6 gallons of water to produce about 1 gallon gasoline, whereas a conventional crude needs just about 2 to 2.5 gallons water to produce a gallon of gasoline.

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How much water is needed to grow bioenergy crops?

EnvironmentalExpert.com
Source: European Commission, Environment DG
Sep. 3, 2009

A Dutch study has assessed the water requirements of 13 bioenergy crops across the world. The findings could help select the best crops and locations to produce bioenergy.

The EU climate action and renewable energy package has set a target of increasing the share of renewable energy to 20 per cent of energy used by 20201. This includes a minimum 10 per cent share for transport, which could include biofuels. This study used the concept of a water footprint in order to compare the water needs of various crops.

A water footprint is the total annual volume of fresh water used to produce goods and services at the place of production and in this case is measured in m3 of water per Gigajoule of energy produced (m3/GJ). In this study it consists of two components: rainwater used during crop growth and surface and groundwater for irrigation.

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MSU receives $1.7 million in stimulus funding for sustainability research

Michigan State University
Published: Aug. 10, 2009 E-mail Editor

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University scientists working with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center will use $1.7 million in federal stimulus funding to study the environmental benefits and consequences of cellulosic biofuel crops.

The Department of Energy awarded a total of $8.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to the center, which includes partners University of Wisconsin-Madison and MSU. About half of that money will be used to enhance and accelerate sustainability research, and the other half will research plant cell wall imaging technology.

The money allocated to biofuel sustainability research will be used to study carbon cycling, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions associated with biofuel cropping systems, as well as develop more complex modeling technology, said Phil Robertson, MSU professor of crop and soil sciences who leads GLBRC sustainability research.

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Legacy Act may fund wastewater piping to ethanol plant

MankatoFreePress.com
By Mark Fischenich
The Free Press

WINNEBAGO — A groundbreaking, and groundwater-saving, plan to use municipal wastewater at the Corn Plus ethanol plant in Winnebago is in line for $1 million in state funds.

The funding, provided through revenue generated by the Legacy Act constitutional amendment for the outdoors and the arts, would help cover the cost of piping treated wastewater from Winnebago’s homes and businesses to the ethanol plant east of town. The project would address one of the major criticisms of ethanol production — that it consumes large amounts of groundwater to generate alternative fuels.

“It was just a no-brainer as far as how we should use water at ethanol plants,” said Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, who represents Winnebago and ushered the funding through the legislative process.

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