Biomass Research

KSmc.com
Sep 9 2009 1:48PM
KXMBTV Bismarck

Farmers are always trying to generate as many dollars as possible from their acres., but when does taking too much from the soil turn negative? At the Northern Great Plains Research Lab south of Mandan one expert is trying to find out if you can harvest your crop and all the plant that comes with it...without hurting your long-term production.

It's about give and take.

You can only expect so much from your soil before you better start looking at giving a little back. (Dave Archer / Ag. Economist) "How do you maintain the soil resource at what point is it worth economically is it worth removing that material versus returning it to the soil and having it enhance productivity of subsquent crops." Ag Economist Dave Archer is breaking down the dollars and cents of harvesting biomass. (Dave Archer / Ag. Economist) "So we can look at some of those trade offs on getting paid for it right now versus what you are going to lose in terms of crop yields." Archer says if cellulosic materiallike strawbecomes a standard staple in creating bio-energy we need to know how much material we can harvest off our fields without hurting the soil.

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Biofuels: The next generation

The Stanly News and Press
Published: September 09, 2009 09:47 am
By Jennifer Woodford

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 — Boldly going where no state has gone before, North Carolina is moving its biofuels industry from first generation to second generation technologies and a more affordable and available source of fuel for the nation.

First generation biofuels are dependent on sugars, starches, vegetable oil and animal fats as feedstock to produce biodiesel and ethanol.

Second generation technologies are based on biomass such as agricultural waste. This is important because second-generation feedstocks, the raw materials that biofuels are produced from, are expected, as manufacturing processes advance, to provide a renewable source for fuel, at more competitive prices and in a more environmentally friendly manner.

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To make better biofuels, researchers add hydrogen

cnet.com
September 8, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
by Martin LaMonica

Research on nuclear energy and hydrogen has yielded what backers say is a technology that could replace U.S. oil imports with biofuels made from agricultural by-products.

Scientists at Idaho National Laboratory have been working for the past year and a half on a process to convert biomass, such straw or crop residue, into liquid fuels at a far higher efficiency than existing cellulosic ethanol technologies.

Rather than one single development, the technology--named bio-syntrolysis--ties together multiple processes, but it has electrolysis, or splitting water to make hydrogen, at is starting point. When combined with a carbon-free electricity source, the approach could deliver a carbon-neutral biofuel, according to models done at INL which has done research for decades in nuclear energy.

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Power Plays: Biofuel's New Crop

The Wall Street Journal
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
By MARA LEMOS STEIN And SARI KRIEGER

There has been a resurgence of investment interest in the U.S. biofuel industry focused on technologies that use algae to make fuel.

The appeal of algae is that it can potentially produce fuel without diverting food crops or large swathes of land. Ethanol derived from corn has been blamed by some for driving up food prices, while large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol would require cultivation of plants such as switchgrass that are grown only in small amounts now.

When exposed to light and carbon-dioxide, pools of algae produce lipids that can be refined into oil. The algae consumes the carbon-dioxide during the process, scoring a double hit for protecting the environment.

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Brazil's 2009 Ethanol Production Volume Set to Break Records

Renewable Energy World.com
September 8, 2009
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

The Brazilian sugar and alcohol sector will grind a record-breaking volume of sugarcane this year according to results of a second national crop survey, released last week by Conab. The results show that the total harvest is expected to reach 629.02 million tons, a 10% increase over 2008. The growth is a result of better distribution of rainfall and expanded planted area, which reached 7.74 million hectares.

For the survey, Conab sent 50 technicians into to the field. In the period August 2-15, 2009 they interviewed representatives from 389 mills in all Brazilian states.

While the current productivity index of about 81 tons per hectare will be maintained, a larger volume will be used for sugar production, representing approximately 45% of the total crop, almost 2% more than in the previous year.

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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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Groups call on Michigan to adopt low carbon fuel standard

Crain's Detroit Business
2:12 p.m., Sep. 8, 2009
By Amy Lane

Environmental groups and other interests on Tuesday called for the state to require oil refineries and fuel blenders to reduce the overall carbon content of vehicle fuels sold in the state.The “low carbon fuel standard” would require fuel providers to meet a declining standard for greenhouse gas emissions – a move that backers said would encourage the development of the most promising fuel sources, such as cellulosic ethanol and electricity for electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.


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Fungal Map Of Mutations Key To Increasing Enzyme Production For Bioenergy Use

ScienceDaily.com

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2009) — In half a century, one fungus has gone from being the bane of the Army quartermasters' existence in the Pacific to industry staple and someday, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's mission to promote national energy security through clean, renewable energy development, a biofuel producers' best friend.

Trichoderma reesei's makeover is due in part to scientific explorations that led to the development of mutant fungal strains that produce large quantities of biomass-degrading enzymes.

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New Process Uses Algae to Produce Alternative Fuel

VOANews.com
By Greg Flakus Houston, Texas
02 September 2009

Researchers around the world are trying to find alternative fuels to replace fossil fuels, which are finite and might not be available in sufficient quantities in coming decades to meet the growing world demand for energy. In addition, burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which is linked to climate change. One U.S. company may have found a partial solution to both problems by using carbon dioxide to grow algae, which can be used to produce fuel.

On a 9.6-hectare tract of land on the Texas coast south of Houston, a start-up company from Florida called Algenol, in partnership with the Dow Chemical company, plans to build more than 3,000 bioreactors, starting next year. The bioreactors will grow algae that can produce ethanol fuel through a special process that involves using carbon dioxide from nearby coal-burning power plants to promote faster growth of the algae.

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Fulcrum BioEnergy Announces Next Generation Ethanol Breakthrough

prnewswire.com

Opens the Door to the Large-Scale Production of Ethanol Derived from GarbageFulcrum's Process Integrates New, Innovative Technologies with Existing Systems in Novel Ways with Significant Results

PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc., a leader in the next generation of advanced biofuels, announced today that it has successfully demonstrated the ability to economically produce renewable ethanol. This milestone - achieved at the company's TurningPoint Ethanol Demonstration Plant - confirms the second of the two new technologies that Fulcrum will use for the large-scale production of transportation fuel from garbage that would otherwise be landfilled.

"The operating results from our TurningPoint Ethanol Plant represent a watershed event for Fulcrum and this new industry. It opens the door to our large development program that will reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create new green jobs," stated E. James Macias, Fulcrum President and CEO. "By demonstrating first the clean and efficient conversion of garbage to syngas, and now syngas to ethanol, we have demonstrated that the technology is ready for deployment at our first large-scale project, the Sierra BioFuels Plant."

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