Green Options

Sometimes, when you ask a question, you get a good answer.

A recent post on a push to increase the U.S. gasoline blend rate ended with this thought-provoker: At this rate, will cellulosic ethanol, from non-food plant materials, ever get off the ground?

Yes, replied Sam Salyer, a representative for a Massachusetts-based biofuel company called Qteros.

Needed is fuel from wood and waste, not food and haste. Some of the world’s best minds are focused on fuel from cellulosic and waste sources, in some cases from biological sources that remove CO2 from the air and enrich depleted soil. I am writing this article from the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals sponsored by NREL. 800 global bioscientists have gathered in San Francisco to share their research and showcase their progress. Many at the conference [...]

Here comes more dour empirical data.

Ongoing deforestation in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia has been further linked to the rising demand for biofuels, according to speakers at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):

“If reduced U.S. soybean production results in a parallel increase in Brazilian soybean production, a potential net release of 1,800 to 9,100 Tg (trillion grams) of CO2-equivalents of greenhouse

[...]

Alan Novak, Director of Alternative Fuels for Emerson Process Management and host of at least three BioEnergy Summits throughout the country, is optimistic for the future of advanced biofuels in meeting the nation and the world’s future transportation fuel needs.

The major problem with corn ethanol doesn’t come in its emissions while a car is in motion; it comes from the energy-intensive process used to make it in the first place, and the fertilizer needed to grow corn.

One of the main problems with the future of ethanol production is its relationship to corn. For some time now corn has been a prime source of ethanol. But as a result, corn that was once used for food is disappearing for fuel, and the increase in corn production has added increased fertilizer waste to waterways.

Now, a new study from Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and Mascoma Corporation in Lebanon, N.H., has made a discovery that will prove invaluable in production large quantities of cellulosic ethanol, a likely substitute.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst have made a potentially ground-breaking discovery in the production of biofuels from sustainable, non-food sources.

By heating cellulosic plant material to between 750 and 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit in the presence of a catalyst, then quickly cooling it, the team of graduate students led by associate professor George W. Huber was able to produce a mixture of hydrocarbons identical to gasoline in less than two minutes. The conversion is a relatively simple, one-step process that could create biogasoline for as little as $1 per gallon.

Photo Source: marinebiology.edu

In case you didn’t know, the “dead zone” isn’t just a novel by Steven King or an old TV show, it’s an area about the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico that during the summer months is incapable of supporting sea life. The dead zone is created when fertilizer run off promote algae growth, which in turn throws off the oceans equilibrium by using all the available oxygen, killing everything else. So, good for algae perhaps, but bad for the sea life in general.

Carectomy recently reported that ethanol production for passenger vehicles could be responsible for a growth in this dead zone. In their words:

Corn is the biggest culprit in creating these environments, and now that the U.S. is looking to biofuels as a solution to its energy needs, the problem’s only getting worse. Bush signed legislation at the end of 2007 that will triple the amount of corn ethanol produced over the next several years.

More after the jump!

Last week at the Auto Show, I had the opportunity to be interviewed for a few short online video segments by coBRANDiT. My interview made it into a few different clips, including the Coskata biofuel announcement. Take a look at the following videos:

Download Coskata Announcement

 

Matt Kelly of NextGear was kind enough to pass along video of our breakfast with Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors, which took place last week at the NAIAS.

Mr. Wagoner addressed a variety of issues, including the Coskata ethanol announcement, the future of the Hummer brand (hint: smaller), the risks associated with producing the Chevy Volt, and [...]

We had the opportunity to sit down with Bob Lutz on Sunday, a 72-year old icon whose no nonsense attitude and charismatic demeanor have led some to dub him the ‘Rockstar’ of the automotive world. Our conversation focused on two of the hottest topics at the auto show: GM’s ethanol partnership with Coskata, and the Chevy Volt. I’ve summarized/paraphrased/and copied the conversation below:

How personally involved are you in the release of the Chevy Volt?
I’m way more closely involved with the Volt than with any other GM vehicle, which has something to do with the uncharted waters of innovative design, new technology, and because it’s such an unconventional motor.

Could you talk more about the Coskata announcement and cellulosic ethanol production?
The whole deal is that it doesn’t use such expensive enzymes to break material down. This kind of production [enzymatic cellulosic ethanol] is time consuming and the step that has been kind of a hindrance for the ability to mass produce cellulosic ethanol. What you can do here is take all this waste material, anything except glass or metal, grind it up into a powder, produce plasma with something like a lightning bolt or massive electric charge. This turns the material to gas, which goes to anaerobic bacteria—which naturally exist in nature—and that live and reproduce in this environment, and they output ethanol. Further steps separate the ethanol and water. All of these things, the scrubber, the shredder, the plasma initiator for the gas, all this is known technology. The big idea is combining all of these elements, not inventing new technology.