The company has announced that it’s investigating suitable sites for commercial garbage-to-ethanol facilities — leading baby-owners everywhere to rejoice that they may never again have to feel guilty about throwing out enough diapers each day to put the elephant in this commercial to shame (and can I just be the first to say “WTF?” to that commercial).

Over the last month CleanTech Biofuels has formed major partnerships with Green Tech America and HFTA UCal Berkeley to purchase and develop novel equipment and methods they hope will make the production of ethanol from garbage a reality. CleanTech boasts that their technology can be used to produce ethanol locally using waste that would otherwise end up in landfills — potentially reducing waste disposed of in those landfills by as much as 90%. From a recent CleanTech press release:

It is estimated that Americans [each] produce 4.4 pounds of waste per day, or 229 million tons of trash annually nationwide. This waste represents a virtually endless source of cellulosic feedstock for the production of biofuels that potentially will be available to CleanTech at almost no cost, and in some locations at a profit.

The comment about receiving feedstock at a profit is what really intrigues me. As far as I know, there are no other types of ethanol production facilities that have the potential to receive feedstock at a profit. In fact, in most cases this is a major sticking point between making cellulosic ethanol at an acceptable price and seeing dreams go down the tubes.

CleanTech isn’t alone in the push to make ethanol from waste. BlueFire Ethanol (why do all these ethanol company names have to be two words shoved together but both still capitalized?) recently announced that it will be starting construction of a facility within weeks to convert landfill waste into ethanol, and Coskata Inc. is also constructing a demonstration facility that will use municipal waste as a feedstock.

It appears that these companies are on the path to becoming major competitors. They should just merge now and avoid the future pain. CleanFireCoskataBlueTech sound like a good name to you?

The great part about making fuel from garbage is that many communities already pay fees to garbage companies to accept trash - referred to as “tipping fees.” CleanTech is looking to site their facilities in communities with favorable tipping fees, allowing them to get paid before they even start selling the ethanol.

If CleanTech or BlueFire are successful, their ethanol could be the cheapest around — and you could relax knowing that those old Pokemon cards you finally threw out might actually be doing some good.

Green Options Network Posts Related to Ethanol and Energy from Garbage:

• GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Coskata Makes Cheap, Green Ethanol From Garbage
• GM Announces New Cellulosic Ethanol Partnership with Mascoma Corp.
• Fuel from Trash Will Power California Garbage Trucks
• A Truck That Runs on Coffee Grounds (and How Wood-Gas Powers Cars With Garbage)
• Run Your Car on Wood? No Joke.
• 2015: 30% of US Corn Harvest Will Be Gasoline

Image Credits: CleanTech Biofuels logo from CleanTech, garbage pile photo from Editor B’s Flickr photo library under Creative Commons

Enviu, together with 8 other innovation labs from Spain, Denmark, Poland, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands is soon to be launching the NEXT Europe Alliance. The launch is set for the upcoming iFest, the business inspiration fest in Spain  where there will be, “ideas and energy to solve the issues of the near future.”

Europe’s top sustainable innovation labs? An overview

All of the labs could be the subject of an article each, but aside from the universal thread of a focus on innovation, each one has a different place at the table:

Enviu is a business incubator and sustainability educator, working together with area government and firms, and aims to have a global scope. Innovation Lab is a company which monitors current and upcoming trends for a range of major companies. Idélabratoriet focuses on educating professionals how to effectively ideate, and manage what they come up with effectively. La Fabrique du Futur sums it elegantly when they say,

The future is everyone’s affair and does not just concern experts. We therefore constitute an “in vivo” and “in vitro” laboratory for the detection of emerging practises initiated by avant-garde people, among whom cultural creatives are in the forefront.

Switzerland’s Lift Lab combines innovation consulting, workshop centered conferences, and numerous publications. Again besting us in their command of English, they say, in regards to their blogs, “Follow this reader-enhanced, transparent and interactive exercise, and feel free to participate and add information and opinions!” Pantopicon and Trendbüro likewise serve to act as an extra brain, a people & resource connector, and an innovation accelerator for businesses.

Each of these lab’s sites, and the resources they lead to will likely serve as an inspiration to you. Dig in! See if you can find who said,

Our strength rests on a foundation of comprehensive knowledge, a flair for dissemination and a capacity for innovation. Three building blocks never occurring in isolation.

Readers: Where else do you see innovation sprouting out there, in terms of sustainable and social ventures?

Further resources:

Fuel For Your Entrepreneurial Brain - Ecopreneurist

Who’s the Greenest of them all? Hint: Look to the Developing World!  - Ecopreneurist

Recession Proof Your Green Business : Ecopreneurist

Sustainable Seafood Done Right: Happy Shrimp - Triple Pundit

Image source: enviuilab.blogspot.com

I’ve heard of making fuel from wood before, but rarely does using wood as fuel come up. However, just today I was pointed to this site, hosted by a local radio station, with a real-life example of someone burning wood as a fuel in his truck.

I can’t say for sure how the system works, whether it’s dual fuel or the wood-burning supplies all the fuel the engine needs, but it doesn’t appear to be a hoax and is certainly interesting. Evidently, during WWII, there was some experimenting with alternative fuels (due to shortages caused by the war), and one of the results was the wood burning automobile.

I can’t comment on emissions, but something tells me this practice would be not the choice of people concerned about air quality or GHGs. Another problem I see is that wood is not very energy dense compared to liquid fuels, meaning you would need a lot of trees and a big “wood tank” to get any sort of range out of your wood-powered vehicle (WPV).

That said, this WPV is definitely on the neat side of things. For another real-life example, check out a truck that runs on coffee grounds.
See two more pictures below, and for more, visit this site.

Posts Related to Car Hacks and Alternative Fuels:

• A Truck That Runs on Coffee Grounds (and How Wood-Gas Powers Cars With Garbage)
• Car Hacker’s Hummer Gets 60 MPG
• How to Get 76 MPG
• Six New Technologies Will Help Manufacturers Reach the 35 MPG Goal (Without Hybrids)
• The Cleanest Cars on Earth: Honda Civic GX and Other Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs)
• MicroFueler Makes $1/gal Homebrew Ethanol From Sugar
• 376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959)
• Car and Driver Increase Pinto Fuel Economy with $11 of Ecomods
• Sick of Gas?: Convert Your Car To Run On Electricity

Image credit: Claire L. Evans at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

And yet, there may be times that nothing’s coming to you. You’re either stuck for a new idea, or having doubts about or missing pieces to what you’re currently working on. In steps Springwise. Springwise is hub for people to share ideas, and is smartly designed for rapid skimming, by category, keyword, and country.

Now, you may say, what’s new about this? There are lots of business and entrepreneurial blogs and publications out there. Fair enough. Amsterdam based Springwise puts it well when they say,

Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. We ferociously track more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.

They also enlist the eyes and minds of an additional 8000 Springspotters in 70 countries to keep an on the ground perspective on what’s going on.

What does this look like?

One idea that stuck out to me is the MyHab. In the UK, where music festivals and rain are both abundant, they have created temporary shelter that is durable, waterproof, raised, and recyclable. Rather then have to lug, set up, break down, clean (or perhaps throw away) a tent for the festival, you reserve one, similar to a hotel, and can have them visually customized.

Then when you’re done, you leave, nothing more to do, while MyHab breaks them down and recycles them. Now it might be said why don’t they reuse them, but still, this is a step ahead towards reducing waste and increasing the quality of experience  for festival goers. Or you might say “Hmm, I have an idea to improve upon this service. I’ll do it myself, modifying it for the US. Or help consult with MyHab to further strengthen their offer.”

The ideas here, no matter the category, seem skewed towards the sustainable and the social ventures. But there are others that are nonetheless intriguing, like the pedestrian curtain. Perhaps impractical, but definitely food for thought.

Readers: Where are some of your favorite sources of inspiration for ideas? What are some interesting ideas you’ve seen lately? Please comment below.

Additional resources:

Idea Blob: An Infectious Way To Fund Your Green Business

Green Dreams: Inspiration From Green Design Businesses

How To Approach A Venture Capital Firm With Your Eco Business

Before you get too excited, please note that the unit is probably too expensive for your next block party, unless you’ve got an extra $9,995 lying around somewhere. Fortunately, state and Federal tax credits can halve this, but that still keeps it out of the price range of the average American.

How could making ethanol be so expensive? As Thomas Quinn quipped, this is “third-grade science. You just mix together water, sugar and yeast, and in a few hours, you start getting ethanol.” That’s not the hard part; what’s difficult is purifying ethanol to the degree that it can be mixed successfully with gasoline.

Ethanol has been made from yeast-fermentation of grain, fruits, and vegetables for thousands of years. Distillation, which gets around the 15% alcohol concentration limit that kills yeast, followed shortly thereafter. Adding ethanol to motor fuel takes things one step further. To mix properly with gasoline, ethanol must be anhydrous (containing no water) at 100% pure, or 200-proof. Homemade ethanol stills can easily produce 95% pure, or 190-proof, ethanol. But getting that last 5% of water out of the ethanol can require just as much energy as it did to get out the first 95%.

It could be the ingenuity of putting several thousand years of knowledge into one box makes the MicroFueler so costly. It can fill its own 35-gallon tank with E100 (100% ethanol) in about a week by fermenting the sugar, water and yeast internally, then separating out the water through a membrane filter.

Compared to homebrewing biodiesel, which can be done with less than $100 worth of equipment, making ethanol for motor fuel seems complicated and expensive. While sugar appears to be a cheap, ubiquitous resource, according to one expert it takes 10 to 14 pounds of sugar to make a gallon of ethanol. Right now, raw sugar sells in the United States for about 20 cents a pound.

Although the cost of each gallon of ethanol produced in the MicroFueler depends on the price of sugar, electricity, and water, Thomas Quinn maintains that it can be made for somewhere around $1 per gallon. The company is trying to make inedible sugar available from Mexico, which can be bought for as little as 2.5 cents per pound.

I like the idea, but this probably isn’t something that will go mainstream unless the price comes down. If you want more information about homebrewing ethanol, or plans to make your own still (which would be substantially cheaper), see these resources:

• RunningOnAlcohol Library
• JourneyToForever Ethanol Resources

Posts Related to Ethanol and Biodiesel:

• Study: Your Car Can Run On 20% Ethanol
• 6 Ways To Find And Use Biodiesel Anywhere
• Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths Dispelled
• Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

Via: NYT
Photo Credit: Popular Mechanics

Will companies pull back from risky projects? Or will they re-jigger their efforts to support products that thrive in a recession…new or not.

Suddenly, innovation has a bull’s-eye on its back. As the recession debate shifts from “what if” to “how long,” claims a recent article in Business Week on the world’s most innovative companies.

Green entrepreneurs have no choice. Innovation is why they are in business. But, what strategies make the most sense for eco-friendly businesses facing a not-so-friendly economy?

Professor Scott Shane, writes about Four Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in a Recession. How do these apply to green businesses?

1.Failing to take advantage of decreasing costs. Most businesses are both suppliers and customers at the same time. When demand slackens, your suppliers are hurting too. So often you can strike a better deal to cut your costs by paying your suppliers less or hiring better people at a lower cost.

Understanding this basic concept and being willing to bargain with your suppliers holds true for eco entrepreneurs too. But, because we often have few suppliers from which to choose recessionary times are those when it is important to evaluate the health of those suppliers and either seek out new ones or consolidate your business with the strongest.

2. Thinking the only way to increase demand is to cut price. Price cuts aren’t the only way to stimulate demand, and they aren’t the best approach for entrepreneurs. On average, entrepreneurs are more successful when they compete on service, quality, or something other than price.

Price cutting is a strategy that works best in a very competitive environment when there are easily substitutable products. That’s not often the situation in which a green entrepreneur finds him or herself. On the other hand, there is a “tipping point” a price at which a consumer won’t pay more for a better quality or greener product. That point may be dropping in your product category so it’s worth doing some research to see at what price the consumer isn’t willing to pay to go green.

3. Failing to recognize increased competition. In a recession, competition accelerates because more businesses are chasing less total demand. In addition, when unemployment rises, people start businesses …further increasing competition. So the need to have a competitive advantage is even more important in a recession than in a booming economy.

Recessions are well known as a time when down sized executives and laid off workers start businesses. Green is hot so many of those companies will be selling eco friendly products. Just as competition increases from large mainstream companies, it is also increasing from small start-ups. This is the time to ensure that you have a strong unique positioning and are promoting that differentiation at every opportunity.

4. Forgetting that some products, or even whole businesses, are counter cyclical. When customers cut back on their spending, they often substitute one product for another. For instance, in a recession, people might cut back the number of steak dinners that they eat out. But, … increase their purchase of cheaper foods, like pasta, making pasta a counter cyclical product. So, entrepreneurs need to avoid assuming that demand for everything goes down in a recession.

Many green products should actually do very well during this downturn. Though you may have been promoting your company’s products as eco friendly if they are also money saving, now is the time to emphasize that benefit. Products and services that are both are sure winners in this economy.

Related Posts:

How to Reach Green Consumers - Using Psychographics To Define Your Target Market

Consumers Say They’ll Use More Coupons. How Can Eco-Entrepreneurs Benefit?

Get Advice on Founding and Funding a Green/Clean Technology Business

Photo Courtesy: aturkus on Flickr under Creative Commons License

Teams from around the world are gearing up for the Automotive X Prize, a competition that will award part of $10 million to the team that builds the cleanest production-ready 100 MPGe (mile per gallon equivalent) vehicle.

This isn’t a race centered on space-age concept cars that will never see a US highway, but aims to jump-start the auto industry with revolutionary, super-efficient vehicles that consumers will actually want to buy. Entries must be ready for production and have a business plan outlining how they’ll be brought to market. They’ll also be judged on safety, cost, and features.

But the heart of the race is the requirement for ultra-efficiency, which can bring out the best in beautiful aerodynamic cars and new green technology (see below). All entries must get over 100 MPGe and meet strict emissions standards.

Over 60 teams have entered since the X Prize Foundation released guidelines for the contest over a year ago. I’ve already covered three of the competing vehicles here:

• Tesla Motor’s All-Electric Roadster, which just entered commercial production,
• Aptera’s $26,000 Electric Car and 300 MPG Hybrid which should be available next year, and
• Loremo’s 117 MPG Diesel Hybrid Sportscar

Teams can compete in two different vehicle classes: Mainstream or Alternative. Mainstream vehicles must be able to carry four passengers and have four wheels. Alternative entries only need to carry two passengers, and only require two wheels.

Preliminary judging for cost, safety, features, and business plan will take place before the end of the year. In 2009, vehicles still in the running will compete in a qualifying race designed to reflect typical consumer driving patterns, varied terrain, and weather. The Grand Prize Final Race will take place in 2010, and the winner must maintain 100 MPGe while emitting less than 200 g/mi of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and meeting legal emissions criteria in all 50 states.

It looks to be an exciting race. For more information, check out the website for the Progressive Automotive X Prize.

Source: Autopia (Mar. 20, 2008): Tesla, Aptera Among the Dozens Vying for the Automotive X-Prize

Related Posts:
Tesla’s First Electric Vehicle, 2008 Roadster, Now Under Production
Electric Tara Tiny Steals Tata Nano’s Position as World’s Cheapest Car
How Biodiesel Fuel-Cells Could Power The Future (And Your Car)
The World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car: 285 MPG, Not A Hybrid
Get 120 MPG Out of Your Prius (Plug It In)

Photo Credit: AXP Blog

After years of development, the Washington-based company InnovaTek is testing a hand-sized microreactor that can convert virtually any liquid fuel into hydrogen, producing a portable hydrogen stream for use in adjoining fuel-cells.

Since the microreactor units can be linked together, InnovaTek has developed systems capable of producing anywhere from 1 to 160 gallons of hydrogen per minute—enough to supply a hydrogen refueling station or, even more exciting, creating on-board hydrogen for fuel-cell powered vehicles.

That’s InnovaTek’s eventual goal anyway: having their technology built into cars, where energy-dense renewable fuels could be converted into motion, bypassing combustion and the production of exhaust gases entirely, and powering a much more efficient engine. (Imagine for a moment, filling up on biodiesel and driving off to the exhaust-free hum of an electric motor.) InnovaTek plans on commercially licensing the microreactors by 2009.

Weighing less than one pound, the square piece of shiny steel (pictured above) houses an array of microchannels containing patented catalytic sites. Each microtube helps convert (or reform) a continuous stream of hydrogen from fuels like gasoline, diesel, vegetable oil, biodiesel, propane, natural gas, even the glycerol byproduct from biodiesel manufacturing.

While hydrogen produced by the device has been lauded as the “energy of the future,” it faces major developmental issues. Hydrogen is not a great energy carrier. It has a relatively low energy density, it’s difficult and dangerous to transport, and finding a way to store it on-board in hydrogen-powered vehicles has proven difficult (the first Mercedes F-cell had a range of only 110 miles). The refueling infrastructure is also non-existent.

Even more to the point, we haven’t yet established a renewable source of energy to produce hydrogen.

But that hasn’t stopped us from building hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars. GM, Ford, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota all have prototypes in the works, and Mercedes already released their subcompact F cell in late 2007.

Taking all this into consideration, Innovatek’s reactor could revolutionize the energy and transportation infrastructure of the country.

Innovatek has already signed a $500,000 joint development agreement with Chevron to pursue fuel processing technology for hydrogen refueling stations. (If you think that’s big, in Sept. ‘06 the Navy also awarded Innovatek with a $1.8 million contract to develop portable recharging systems for equipment Marines typically carry by foot.) One of Innovatek’s chief board members commented on their ability to reduce the cost of hydrogen generation: “The smaller system size, reduced catalyst volume, and more efficient process that is realized with InnovaTek’s technology represents another significant step in moving the hydrogen economy from science to commercial reality,” he said.

While InnovTtek’s reactor can run on a variety of non-renewable hydrocarbon sources they, like the potentially revolutionary Coskata Biofuels, are expressly interested in sustainable power, even to the point of preferring biodiesel in their test runs. Innovatek also said that biodiesel just plain works better: it contains fewer impurities and reforms at lower temperatures than petrodiesel.

Now let me beat naysayers to the punch here: no way are we going to power all of America’s cars on biodiesel, even using this kind of technology. I’m also interested in investigating what byproducts the microreactor produces and how they would be collected and used. But without being able to write off algae biodiesel or other majorly productive feedstocks as potential solutions, and based on the inherent coolness of this device, I think we could all be cautiously optimistic.

Related Posts:

NEW: First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online April 1, 2008

GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap, Green Ethanol?
First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Goes Online, Makes Fuel From Wood Waste
Switchgrass Could Displace 30% of US Petroleum Usage With 94% GHG Reduction
BREAKING NEWS: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible
A Biodiesel Prius? VW To Release 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid
The World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car: 285 MPG, Not A Hybrid

Sources:
InnovaTek, Inc. (see “Press Releases”)
Biodiesel Magazine (Mar. 2008): Power Without the Burn
Grainnet (Mar. 17, 08): InnovaTek Introduces New Fuel Cell Processor Technology That Favors Biodiesel

Via: Biodiesel Magazine
Photo Credit: InnovaTek

This is what a team of engineers can do when challenged to push the limits of fuel efficiency and technology. You may have already heard of VW’s 1-liter car, but take a closer look. It’s a sports-economy concept car produced a few years ago by VW engineers, to answer one big question: could they build a car that consumes less than 3 liters of fuel for every 100 km traveled?

It turns out they could, but they didn’t stop there. Instead, VW blew by that goal to create a car that uses only 1 liter of fuel for every 100 km. That’s 285 MPG.

To accomplish such a feat, VW’s engineers had to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch. They knew that fuel efficiency depends on aerodynamics and weight, so they created a bullet-shaped, ultra-lightweight (640 lbs) carbon-fiber car powered by a new, completely redesigned diesel engine. To save more weight, they didn’t even paint it:

Proper aerodynamics were key to the low fuel consumption. VW engineers knew they needed a small frontal area. This led to its unusually narrow, bullet-shaped body where the passenger sits behind the driver. As well, the car features an aircraft-like canopy, enclosed rear wheels, special flat carbon-fibre front wheel covers, and an aerodynamic underpan. Even the side cooling air inlets only open when the engine needs cooling, and otherwise stay closed. . .the 1-Litre-Car has an amazingly low coefficient of drag of 0.16 (a typical car has a drag coefficient of approximately 0.30 ).

Everything in the car was made out of lightweight carbon-fiber or magnesium, gears were hollowed, and bolts were made from titanium. Like the electric Aptera Typ1 that I wrote about earlier, the VW 1L was designed without side mirrors (too much drag), instead relying on internal video screens to guide the driver. And also like the Aptera, safety was of particular concern:

Despite its small size and light weight, Volkswagen says the 1-Litre-Car is as safe as a GT sports car registered for racing. With the aid of computer crash simulations, the car was designed with built-in crash tubes, pressure sensors for airbag control, and front crumple zones. Its aluminum fuel tank is located in a protected area behind the passengers. As well, the 1-Litre-Car includes ABS and ESP (electronic stability program).

The existence of the VW 1-Liter car suggests the possibility of drastically reducing our vehicle fuel consumption without any major advances in technology. You probably won’t ever see the VW 1-Liter on the road, but don’t think something like this will never come to the market. You’ll see Aptera’s electric and plug-in hybrids within the next year, and they look like spaceships too.

Addendum: VW’s 1L car will be released in 2010!

Related Posts on Green Car Technology:

Affordable Electric Cars Coming to US in 2009
Mercedes 40-MPG Diesel Hybrid: Cleanest SUV on the Planet
Tesla Motors Sues Fisker Automotive Over Electric Car Design
Aptera’s $26,000 Electric Car and 300 MPG Hybrid Coming Soon
Subaru STI: Is Diesel the Intersection of Power and Fuel Economy?
376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959)

Source:
CanadianDriver (Jun. 5, 2002): Feature: VW 1-Litre-Car
Volkswagen UK

Photo Credit: Canadian Driver

Just to mix things up a bit, take a look at this car from the 2008 Eco-Marathon, registering at a whopping 7,148 MPG (via Autopia):

Looking like one of those space caskets from Star Trek, the single-seat racer you see to the left, constructed by a team from the French technical school St. Joseph La Joliverie and dubbed the Microjoule, traveled an amazing 7,148 miles on a single gallon of fuel (in other words, almost ten miles per teaspoon).

Shell’s Eco-Marathon race is self-described as “an educational project that integrates the sustainable development values with driving a vehicle using the least amount of energy. ” The car that travels the greatest distance and uses the least amount of fuel wins.

Of course, at some point the notion of fuel economy becomes arbitrary (and absurd). I probably used more gasoline walking to the library today (amount of food energy I had to eat to get here X the embodied energy of my food).

But more power to the engineers involved. I fully support their employment in the auto industry.

Here are two of the other competitors:

Related Posts:

The World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car: 285 MPG, Not A Hybrid
Aptera’s $26,000 Electric Car and 300 MPG Hybrid Coming Soon
376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959)

Source: Autopia

Photo Credit: Shell

GM already has a vested interested in ethanol, with 2.5 million FlexFuel model vehicles already on the road (15 models planned for 2009), and plans to make half their fleet ethanol-ready by 2012. The partnership is a win-win situation as Bill Roe, President and CEO of Coskata puts it: “GM is enabling Coskata to produce the next generation of biofuels - without using a food source - making it economically viable and commercially available.”

GM will test Coskata’s ethanol at the Milford Proving Grounds by late 2008, followed by completion of a 40,000 gallon per year commercial demonstration facility by the end of the year. A larger, 100 million gallon per year facility is currently being sited for construction in the U.S.

Coskata claims it can produce ethanol for under $1.00 per gallon from almost any carbon-containing feedstock, while reducing greenhouse gas emission by 84% compared to gasoline, using only 1 gallon of water for each gallon ethanol produced, and returning 7.7 times as much energy as is used in the production process.

How is this possible? The numbers, which verge on the fantastic, come straight from well-to-wheels analysis by Argonne National Laboratories and seem to be the product of a unique combination of innovative engineering, proprietary microorganisms, and patented reactor designs.

And here’s the punchline: Coskata will use gasification technology to turn carbon-containing materials into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can then be converted into ethanol by their highly-specialized microorganisms.

Gasification is a different process for achieving the same endpoint, but works on a wider variety of materials and uses unconventional microbial pathways. Instead of producing sugar (as in other cellulosic-ethanol production methods), carbon-based materials undergo partial combustion to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen, a gaseous mixture known as synthesis gas (or syngas for short). I was assured during a series of short interviews that not only did Argonne’s analysis take into account the energy required for gasification, but also produced no harmful emissions since the gas is filtered through a scrubber before further processing.

So what kind of organism is willing to eat carbon monoxide and hydrogen and produce ethanol? On January 4th, I had the good fortune to tour the Coskata biofuel pilot plant and world headquarters, which is part business office, ethanol production facility, and microbiology R&D lab. Located just outside Chicago, the unassuming building houses 25,000 square feet of the most technologically advanced equipment available, including one of only a handful of specialized Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometers used in the U.S. This fancy machinery allows researchers to rapidly evaluate new microbial strains, part of the neverending quest for improved efficiency, or the next breakthrough in alcohol fuels (biobutanol, anyone?). Combining genetic manipulation with real-time analytic equipment gives scientists a way to see how each change affects an organism—it’s like evolution at 1,000 miles per hour.

But Coskata’s bugs are pretty good already: they can convert any ratio of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into ethanol, a striking feat if you think about it. Few understand this better than Dr. Dick Tobey, VP of R&D and Engineering at Coskata biofuels. He confirmed for me that, yes, these are unique and highly developed organisms, with thirteen catalytic sites that preferentially attack CO or H2 (syngas), but can function on either gas pure. Discerning readers will note that pure hydrogen cannot be converted to CH3OH (ethanol) without an additional carbon input. The microbe’s trick? Pull extra carbon and oxygen from the water (H2O) bath in which it resides. As if that wasn’t good enough, Coskata’s organisms produce only ethanol, which mitigates contamination issues and increases overall yield.

Coskata’s other key technology is a proprietary bioreactor system. Their patented organisms live in a colony called a ‘biofilm’, which coats the surface of a thin, semi-permeable membrane likened to Gortex. Each membrane is about the width of a human hair and shaped like a straw, which allows syngas to flow freely through the hollow interior. The hair-thin straws are clumped together into several inch-thick tubes, and are housed in a large, water-filled cylinder. Water can’t flow into the straw, and syngas can’t flow out unless it interacts with part of the biofilm. This design is extremely effective because it prevents dilution of syngas and increases bacterial surface area. Bacteria don’t have to work to ‘find’ syngas, as they would if they were floating in an unstructured mixture.

Most importantly, a system of modular bioreactor tubes is almost infinitely scalable. Coskata’s larger 40,000 gallon facility will simply be an expanded version of their several-gallon per day pilot plant. To discuss more about how the process works I’ll leave you to fellow GO Media Writer Philip Proefrock. He’ll also be covering the front end of this system, gasification technology.

The new partnership between Coskata Biofuels and General Motors is worth taking seriously as it may have broad implications for the future of transportation. GM will continue to produce FlexFuel vehicles in significant numbers and, if Coskata’s promise holds out, we may be seeing a cheap, renewable and non-corn based source of ethanol within the next few years.

For another cellulosic-ethanol related announcement, see later post: Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

Goodwin leads me over to a red 2005 H3 Hummer that’s up on jacks, its mechanicals removed. He aims to use the turbine to turn the Hummer into a tricked-out electric hybrid. Like most hybrids, it’ll have two engines, including an electric motor. But in this case, the second will be the turbine, Goodwin’s secret ingredient. Whenever the truck’s juice runs low, the turbine will roar into action for a few seconds, powering a generator with such gusto that it’ll recharge a set of “supercapacitor” batteries in seconds.This means the H3’s electric motor will be able to perform awesome feats of acceleration and power over and over again, like a Prius on steroids. What’s more, the turbine will burn biodiesel, a renewable fuel with much lower emissions than normal diesel; a hydrogen-injection system will then cut those low emissions in half. And when it’s time to fill the tank, he’ll be able to just pull up to the back of a diner and dump in its excess french-fry grease–as he does with his many other Hummers. Oh, yeah, he adds, the horsepower will double–from 300 to 600.

Power and Efficiency? The notion seems contrary to everything we’ve seen from the auto industry in the last 20 years. But Goodwin is disproving the ’status quo’ by concrete example, the Hummer hybrid being one of many. He’s gotten 100 mpg out of a Lincoln continental and developed a bolt-on kit for diesel engines that doubles fuel economy and reduces emissions by 80%. Goodwin’s a model iconoclast, with a love for the environment and big vehicles.

So Goodwin decided to prove that environmentalism and power could go together–by making his new lemon into exhibit A. First, he pulled the gas engine so he could drop in a Duramax V8, GM’s core diesel for large trucks. Diesel technology is crucial to all of Goodwin’s innovations because it offers several advantages over traditional gasoline engines. Pound for pound, diesel offers more power and torque; it’s also inherently more efficient, offering up to 40% better mileage and 20% lower emissions in engines of comparable size. What’s more, many diesel engines can easily accept a wide range of biodiesel–from the high-quality stuff produced at refineries to the melted chicken grease siphoned off from the local KFC.

Goodwin’s endorsement of diesel engines makes sense, and he has a 3-part plan to wean the nation from gasoline. First, aggressively mass-produce diesel passenger vehicles. Converting just 1/3 of our nations passenger vehicles and light trucks to diesel would eliminate Saudi Arabian oil imports. Second, start producing diesel-electric hybrid cars, the holy-grail for biodiesel enthusiasts. After reading this article I’m convinced it’s possible (the whole ‘diesels are too heavy argument’ is ridiculous). And third, produce hybrids with a dual fuel mode, such as hydrogen or propane injection. I’ve heard of propane injection, which shoots a small amount of propane into the combustion chamber along the diesel fuel, increasing mileage, horsepower, and decreasing emissions.

“Detroit could do all this stuff overnight if it wanted to,” he adds.

For a thoroughly interesting read, see the FastCompany.com article (November 2007).

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