[Carpenter Prairie Discussion] cellulosics 101

Steve Flick steveaflick at earthlink.net
Tue Dec 29 12:35:19 CST 2009 

I will speak about this at the Governors conference January 9 2010. Come out
and support this new upstart industry!

 

Regards

 

Steve 

Think Green.  Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.




 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Oberle [mailto:foberle at nemr.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 11:02 AM
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Subject: Fw: cellulosics 101

 

FYI: A basic 101 course in "What is Cellulosics?" And should the
conservation community engage into this important movement?         

 

 

 

 


Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstocks


Plants contain the cellulosic materials cellulose and hemicellulose. These
complex polymers form the structure of plant stalks, leaves, trunks,
branches, and husks. They are also in products made from plants, such as
paper. Cellulosic feedstocks contain sugars within their cellulose and
hemicellulose, but they are more difficult to biochemically convert into
ethanol than starch- and sugar-based feedstocks. Cellulose resists being
broken down into its component sugars. Hemicellulose is easier to break
down, but the resulting sugars are difficult to ferment. The plant compound
lignin also resists biochemical conversion.

Developing processes to break down these components of biomass economically
has been the focus of research by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and
other government and industry groups. Significant progress has resulted in
biochemical conversion processes to break down cellulose and hemicellulose
and thermochemical conversion processes to break down lignin. Together,
these processes could unlock the potential of cellulosic feedstocks for
ethanol <http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/ethanol/production_cellulosic.html>
production. Visit the DOE Biomass Program's Deployment
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/deployment.html>  page to learn about
DOE-supported cellulosic ethanol biorefinery projects and view a project
map.

Photo of two farmers in a field of switchgrass.

Cellulosic feedstocks suited to ethanol production include the following:

*	Agricultural residue—crop residues such as wheat straw and corn
stalks, leaves, and husks 
*	Forestry residue—logging and mill residues such as wood chips,
sawdust, and pulping liquor 
*	Grasses—hardy, fast-growing grasses such as switchgrass grown
specifically for ethanol production 
*	Municipal and other wastes—plant-derived wastes such as household
garbage, paper products, paper pulp, and food-processing waste 
*	Trees—fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow grown
specifically for ethanol production 

These feedstocks have many advantages over starch- and sugar-based
feedstocks. They are much more abundant and thus can be used to produce more
substantial amounts of ethanol to meet U.S. fuel demand. They are waste
products or, in the case of trees and grasses grown specifically for ethanol
production, can be grown on marginal lands not suitable for other crops.
Less fossil fuel energy is required to grow/collect them and convert them to
ethanol (see Energy <http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/ethanol/balance.html>
Balance of Ethanol), and they are not human food products.

However, limitations on cellulosic feedstock quantities do exist. For
example, limits must be placed on the amount of crop residue removed to
protect lands from erosion and to sustain soil organic carbon. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Renewable
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs/programs.htm?np_code=202&docid=15
193>  Energy Assessment Project is determining the amount of residue needed
to protect the soil resource, comparing economic implications of using
stover as a bioenergy feedstock versus a source of carbon to build soil
organic carbon, and providing harvest rate recommendations and guidelines.

To learn more, see the DOE Biomass Program's Bioethanol
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/abcs_biofuels.html#feed>  Feedstocks
page.

 

 



Ethanol is used as a fuel in many countries, including Brazil, where it is
produced from sugar cane and in the United States, where fuel grade ethanol
is produced from corn. However, neither of these sources is cellulosic
ethanol. Mascoma’s transformative technology uses yeast and bacteria to
produce ethanol from non-food agricultural and forestry materials sources
such as switchgrass, wood, and agricultural waste. These sustainable raw
materials are known as "feedstocks” or “cellulosic biomass”.  



All plants convert solar energy into strongly linked chains of sugar known
as cellulose. Anyone who has ever made beer knows that yeast can make
ethanol from sugar. Yeast, however, cannot easily convert the sugar in
cellulose to ethanol without the chains first being broken down into simple
sugars. There are two principle approaches to breaking the cellulose chains
into sugars. 

Thermochemical conversion involves the breaking down of biomass into a
mixture of gases and then converting the gasses into ethanol. Although
thermochemical conversional is a simpler and relatively mature technology,
it requires significant capital and energy expenses.

Biochemical methods rely on the use of enzymes to break down the cellulose
into sugar. Where do these enzymes come from? In Nature, organisms such as
termites live on sugars derived from cellulose. Similar to humans, the
digestive system of a termite requires bacteria to digest food. But in the
case of termites, the resident bacteria produce special enzymes that can
break down cellulose into simple sugars that are used to fuel the termite’s
body. In industry, the enzymes used to break down the cellulose into sugars
come from yeast and bacteria which then also ferment the sugar into ethanol.




No one knows the first use of ethanol (or alcohol) by humans but the
discovery of stone-age beer containers suggests that the earliest
fermentations were carried out about 12,000 years ago. From early production
of wine and beer to fuel for Indy Race Cars, we are all familiar with
ethanol. 

Ethanol’s energy is derived from plants that in turn obtain their energy
from the sun. In this way, ethanol acts as a means of storing solar power in
liquid form. Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol that is obtained from the
non-edible portion of plant material. Cellulosic ethanol is identical in
composition and performance to ethanol derived from corn or sugar cane.
Cellulosic ethanol, however, has important environmental, economic and
sustainability advantages over conventional sources due to its source and
method of production. 

 (From Mascoma Corporation web site)

In nature, there are few strains of yeast or bacteria capable of directly
and efficiently producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass. The unique
technology developed by Mascoma Corporation uses yeast and bacteria that are
engineered to produce large quantities of the enzymes necessary to break
down the cellulose and ferment the resulting sugars into ethanol. Combining
these two steps (enzymatic digestion and fermentation) significantly reduces
costs by eliminating the need for enzyme produced in a separate refinery.
This process, called Consolidated Bioprocessing or “CBP”, will ultimately
enable the conversion of the solar energy contained in plants to ethanol in
just a few days. This represents a vastly different time scale than the
fossil fuels we use today which required millions of years to be formed from
decomposing plants and animals.

Technological barriers to achieve CBP have been overcome by dedication and
innovation. Mascoma Corporation recently announced major advances in CBP,
which were heralded by biofuels expert Bruce Dale as “a true breakthrough
that takes us much, much closer to billions of gallons of low-cost
cellulosic biofuels. Many had thought that CBP was years or even decades
away, but the future just arrived.

The Biomass Program uses the terms "Demonstration and Deployment" to
describe on-the-ground activities, including biorefinery plant construction
and operation. Engaging in actual fuel and co-product refining is a key
segment of the Program's work toward increased biofuels production and use.
In partnership with industry, deployment activities engage participants
across a variety of available technologies and feedstocks, in the quest to
develop clean, affordable, sustainable alternative fuels.

Biomass to Biofuels supply chain diagram with red highlight of biofuels
production segment: Feedstock production (picture of two men in a field of
switchgrass), feedstock logistics (picture of combine harvester in corn
field), biofuels production (picture of biorefinery), biofuels distribution
(picture of fuel pump for E85), biofuels end use (picture of car).

Information about the Biomass Program's complementary Research and
Development activities, including detailed discussion of internal
biorefinery
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/integrated_biorefineries.html>  and
infrastructure efforts, can be found on this Web site's Technologies
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/technologies.html>  page.

Information about current funding opportunities for Demonstration and
Deployment can be found on this Web site's Financial
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/financial_opportunities.html>
Opportunities page.

Map of DOE Cellulosic Biorefinery Deployment Projects (PDF
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/biofuels_project_locations.pdf>
104 KB)


Integrated Cellulosic Biorefineries


On February 28, 2007, DOE  <http://www.energy.gov/news/4827.htm> selected
six biorefinery projects to develop commercial-scale integrated
biorefineries demonstrating the use of a wide variety of cellulosic
feedstocks such as corn fiber, wood wastes, agriculture residues, municipal
solid wastes and potential energy crops. The goal is to demonstrate that
integrated biorefineries can operate profitably once their construction
costs are covered and can be replicated. DOE will invest up to $385 million
in the six projects over the next four years. When fully operational, these
facilities will be capable of producing more than 130 million gallons of
ethanol per year. 

While the refining process for cellulosic ethanol is more complex than that
of corn-based ethanol, cellulosic ethanol yields a somewhat greater net
energy benefit and results in lower greenhouse gas emissions. Of the six
selected companies, four—BlueFire Ethanol, Inc., Poet, Iogen Biorefinery
Partners, and Abengoa Bioenergy—will principally utilize biochemical
processes to free the sugars from the biomass and then ferment them into
alcohol. The two remaining companies, Range Fuels and Alico plan to use
thermochemical processes to first gasify the biomass into a "synthesis gas."
The synthesis gas will then be further converted to biofuels.

Current information about the projects and partner companies can be found on
this Web site's Financial
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/past_solicitations.html#Integrated_Cell
ulosic_Biorefineries>  Opportunities page.


Ten Percent Validation - Small-Scale Cellulosic Biorefineries


On January 29, 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced
<http://www.energy.gov/news/5903.htm>  it will provide up to $114 million,
over four years, to support the development of small-scale cellulosic
biorefineries. The projects will develop biorefineries at 10% of commercial
scale that produce liquid transportation fuels as well as biobased chemicals
and bioproducts used in industrial applications. Projects selected to
negotiate awards will use novel approaches and a variety of cellulosic
feedstocks to test new conversion processes. Combined with industry cost
share, more than $331 million will be invested in these four projects.

Current information about the projects and partner companies can be found on
this Web site's Financial
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/past_solicitations.html#Ten_Percent>
Opportunities page.

 

 

 

 

 


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