Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstock- Will Switchgrass be the Best Choice?

posted by Sumukee @ 5:02 AM | Tuesday, September 29, 2009 0 Comments

As discussed in my previous posts, the cellulosic biomass constitutes to be the most abundant biological matter in the planet. Almost anything and everything can be used as a cellulosic biomass. Plants such as switch grass have been recognized as the best bionergy crops for producing cellulosic ethanol.

Benefits of using Switch grass:

1. They are perennial bionergy crops.
2. They have high energy efficiency.
3. Comparatively, they are economically feasible.
4. It does not require as much nitrogen as a corn crop and is harvested once per year
5. Switchgrass produce 13 times more energy from the crop than is put in, which exceed soybeans at 3:1 or sugarcane at 8:1.
6. The advantage of switchgrass is that it is drought resistant, making it less of a burden on irrigation supply, and produces more energy than corn.
7. Switchgrass and corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions up to 90%. Such ethanol produces 80% more energy as compared to the amount of energy used for processing.
8. Estimated average greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from switchgrass were 94% lower than estimated average greenhouse gas GHG from gasoline .

Commercialization of Switchgrass :

Switchgrass can be a prospering renewable fuel in the future. Many companies have started building refineries that convert biomass to ethanol. Some companies are producing improved strains of yeast and enzymes that can produce better switchgrass and corn ethanol in the future.

These developments will open new doors of opportunities for farmers, investors, biotechnology firms, and project developers in near future. Some companies are trying to produce switchgrass from the wastes generated during the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Improvements and developments in the field of genetics, biotechnology and agronomics may further enhance the sustainability and biofuel yield of switchgrass. Research is underway in finding the best bioenergy crop for cellulosic ethanol.

For those of the scientific bent - Full article

Labels: bioenergy, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol, switchgrass

Cellulose based Biofuels can Tackle Climatic Change

posted by Sumukee @ 2:13 AM | 0 Comments

In one of my post earlier, I had mentioned the fact that cellulose based ethanol might prove a solution for good health as well as will help tackling the weather change. Check out the link!

Cellulosic ethanol is considered better for the environment as well , as it reduces the carbon emissions. This has been brought into light by the scientists in Singapore and Swiss. Most importantly, the carbon diosixde emissions can be reduced by about 80 % and using cellulosic ethanol is indeed a clean energy solution.

Scientists and researchers believe in the potential of the cellulosic biomass as it is the most abundant biological material present and it is also known to reduce the environmental costs to a considerable extent. Using cellulose based fuels will serve dual purpose, they will reduce the fossil-fuels dependency and also will help tackling the climate change.

Estimates from 173 countries show that about 82.93 billion liters of cellulosic ethanol can be produced from the world’s waste available thereby reducing the carbon foot-prints to a considerable extent.

See more

Other related blog posts

Cellulosic Ethanol is better for Health!
Cellulosic Ethanol will soon help Acquiring Energy IndependenceCellulosic Ethanol Feedstock Infrastructure is Slowly Developing
Cellulosic Ethanol - A General Review...

Labels: bioethanol, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulosic Ethanol will soon help Acquiring Energy Independence..

posted by Sumukee @ 1:10 AM | 0 Comments

Collaboration between the Royal Dutch Shell and the World Leader in Cellulosic ethanol- Iogen are together planning to use post-harvested wheat stalks as their biomass. They are planning to use specialized enzymes for breaking down the cellulose in farm-raised fibers and converting it to sugars fermented into beer that is then distilled into ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol has identical molecules to conventional ethanol made from corn or sugarcane. The difference is that cellulosic ethanol is derived from the non-food plant portion – in this case agricultural residue. Fuel derived from waste products, as cellulosic ethanol is, is a better long-term solution than using food crops for fuel.

They strongly believe that the Cellulosic ethanol will perform as well as any other bio-derived ethanol product as the research in this field has brought into light, the fact that cellulosic biomass is the most abundant raw material in the planet.

One of the major bottlenecks solved faced is the transportation issue; Iogen and Shell are putting in their full efforts to size their production-facility and efforts are underway to minimize the transportation costs.

Ethanol is usually shipped via truck or rail rather than piped through typical petroleum-based channels because of concerns over water and particulate contamination.

Ethanol is alcohol-based and thus corrosive, components can be damaged and engine fires sparked by leaking hoses, rings and gaskets if a consumer pumps more than a 10 percent blend of ethanol into a system not suitably engineered for the fuel. Extinguishing an ethanol blaze requires firefighting foam differing from that used on petroleum conflagrations; repairers concerned about shop fires have been urged to ensure that their local departments have the correct foam onboard the response apparatus.

As discussed earlier, Cellulosic ethanol’s non-grain content could fuel a wider field of acceptance than conventional ethanol because it lessens the likelihood of food riots such as those that broke out last year in Africa, Mexico and Haiti over surging corn prices.

Cellulosic ethanol has a kernel-free makeup and it is poised to overcome the maze of issues surrounding maize and global crop allotments. It addition to wheat straw, cellulosic ethanol can be created from discarded corn stalks, barley straw, wood chips and sawdust, switchgrass, algae and other municipal solid wastes.

See more

Labels: Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstock Infrastructure is Slowly Developing

posted by Sumukee @ 12:00 AM | 0 Comments

POET has secured a funding of about $6.85 million for producing 700 tons of cellulosic biomass. POETS with its research team are finding ways to curb the barriers faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry.

The feedstock of choice are the “Cobs” by this American cellulosic ethanol company. As discussed earlier, the major advantage with cellulosic ethanol is the fact that it can use multiple feedstock . Any feedstock which has contains cellulose can be used.

The work of this cellulosic ethanol company is that they are going to redesign the cobs to make it economically viable . Research efforts are underway to find the best harvesting methods to produce cellulosic ethanol commercializing.

This company will secure few more millions next year, and this will be widely used to develop the feedstock infrastructure for cellulosic ethanol production.

Apparently, POET is also taking considerable efforts to go hand in hand with the equipment manufacturers to make the cob-harvesting technology easier than before.

They have also planned to encourage the farmers and other people by giving away incentives to those who are early adopters of this cob-harvesting technology.


About POET

POET is proud to be a pioneer in unlocking the power of cellulosic ethanol. They have been in this field for the past 20 years and they have started turning biomass into fuel with a remarkable efficiency. Earlier, they were produicing ethanol from corn, however, now they are concentrating on cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on earth. It is more difficult to breakdown cellulose to its basic components in order to convert them into ethanol, but our ability to do it efficiently will radically expand the range of materials that can be used for ethanol production.

Although cellulosic ethanol is chemically identical to the ethanol, the processes for handling the raw material feedstock, breaking it down and fermenting it pose serious biochemical and engineering challenges. POET‘s research team has set out to curb away the bottlenecks faced by the growing cellulosic ethanol industry.

See more

Labels: Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulosic Ethanol - A General Review...

posted by Sumukee @ 8:02 AM | Monday, September 28, 2009 0 Comments

Cellulosic ethanol is an alternative fuel made from a wide variety of non-food plant materials such as agricultural wastes such as corn stover and cereal straws, industrial plant waste like saw dust and paper pulp, and energy crops grown specifically for fuel production like switchgrass.

By using a variety of regional feedstock for refining cellulosic ethanol, the fuel can be produced in nearly every region of the country. Though it requires a more complex refining process, cellulosic ethanol contains more net energy and results in lower greenhouse emissions than traditional corn-based ethanol.

Cellulosic biofuels are fuels which are produced from wood, grasses, and other non-edible parts of plants. The biofuel is produced mainly from lignocelluloses. This product is found mainly in corn stover, switchgrass, and even wood chips which are the byproduct of farming and lawn maintenance.

There are many advantages to using this kind of fuel, but it requires a much greater amount of processing than standard fossil fuel production, which has limited its use in the United States. However, this hasn’t stopped scientists and researchers alike from looking into the best cellulosic biofuel producers.

Switchgrass and miscanthus are the two main biomass materials which are being observed in studies today, mainly due to their high productivity per acre grown. While these two plants are at the forefront of bio-technology, cellulose is found in every natural green plant, bush, or tree. Because of this, many scientists believe with the right technology, in the future we will be able to reduce our dependence on foreign oil entirely through the burning of cellulosic biofuels. Apparently, research is underway to find out more about the prospects of other feedstock which can be used as a cellulosic biomass.

The main problem with relying on cellulosic biofuels is the procedure in which they are produced. They must be fermented before they are combusted to produce ethanol gas, and this process requires acres and acres of space in order to function properly. If products are recycled properly, this waste could be turned into a fuel which could power tomorrow’s cars and power plants.

Provided below is the list of companies who have had secured funds for cellulosic ethanol research.

• Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas, LLC of Chesterfield, Missouri, up to $76 million.

• ALICO, Inc. of LaBelle, Florida, up to $33 million.

• Blue Fire Ethanol, Inc. of Irvine, California, up to $40 million.

• Broin Companies of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, up to $80 million
.
• Iogen Biorefinery Partners, LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, up to $80 million.
Range Fuels (formerly Kergy Inc.) of Broomfield, Colorado, up to $76 million.

Why Cellulosic Ethanol? - Link to my previous post

a. Cellulosic ethanol production prevents the danger that food cropping
b. Supply of raw material is also more abundant than corn-based ethanol production.

c. Use of fertilizers and watering essential for corn for ethanol production is also not required to such an extent for cellulosic ethanol.

d. The best thing I love about CE is that the fact that traditional ethanol cellulosic ethanol uses only lignin, which has energy content equal to coal, it doesn’t use fossil fuels during manufacture Lignin is a bi-product of the conversion process from bio-mass to ethanol, and does not need to be procured extra. Thus, no expensive fossil fuel is required for the cellulosic manufacturing process,

e. Most importantly, the amount of harmful CO2 produced while using the lignin is totally compensated by the absorption from the original plants in photosynthesis.

f. The usage of the perennial switch grass for cellulosic ethanol also bodes well for the environment and efficiency. This grass has a deep root system which helps prevents soil erosion and contributes toward soil fertility.

See more

Labels: Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Enzymes, Ethanol

Cellulosic Ethanol Industry Recognizes Another Potential Feedstock..

posted by Sumukee @ 3:00 AM | 0 Comments

There are loads and loads of feedstock containing cellulose as a biomass to derive ethanol fuel. Recent studies show that alfalfa can be used as a cellulosic biomass. Alfaalfa, commonly known as the Lucerne grass is by far the most popular legume and research studies have revealed that it can serve as one of the best feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production.

I actually listened to Dave Miller, a biotech researcher interview about the potential os cellulosic ethanol and here is an outline of what he said: He feels that this crop has great potential than other cellulosic biomass due to the fact that it is environmentally very friendly. Moreover, it is a very good crop for crop-rotation and most importantly, it fixes nitrogen and prevents soil erosion as well.

However, efforts are on the way to “redesign” the crop to reduce the lignin content. The problem the cellulosic ethanol industry is facing is the high-lignin which poses the problem of pre-processing. That s the reason why Dave Miller and his team are planning to genetically modify the alfalfa and redesign the crop it for easy biomass digestion.

Preliminary efforts by Dave Millers group revealed that alfalfa has greater potential as a cellulosic biomass feedstock, when compared to other cellulosic biomass. In addition, Miller says preliminary work shows alfalfa is competitive with other feedstock for its ability to convert to cellulosic ethanol and that a corn/alfalfa rotation creates a very favorable carbon footprint for ethanol production.

Why alfalfa?

1. Great potential as a cellulosic biomass.
2. Can be used as a rotation crop.
3. Prevents soil erosion
4. It being a legume fixes nitrogen to the soil.
5. Preliminary tests show that alfalfa is better than many other cellulosic biomasses.

For the large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol, many feedstocks which are cellulosic in nature can be considered as a feedstock and identification of crops such as alfalfa is indeed a major breakthrough in the development of the cellulosic ethanol industry.

Check out the Full Article

Labels: biofuel, Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulose based Ethanol has a Great Potential.

posted by Sumukee @ 1:28 AM | 0 Comments

As discussed in my earlier posts, cellulosic ethanol is the most abundant biological material present on earth and deriving oil from it is indeed an excellent idea. There are a number of economic, social and sustainability issues faced by this industry. Research is underway to curb these bottlenecks so as to start using a sustainable biofuel such as Cellulosic Ethanol.

The major advantage offered by the cellulose based ethanol fuel is the fact that the feedstock is very cheap. However, purification of the feedstock seems to pose a problem when economic barriers are taken into consideration. These impurities, if not properly removed even damage the equipments.

Using cellulosic ethanol might not interfere with the food chain, as only non- food crops are being used as a biomass. The problem, here again, is the complexity of the cellulosic molecule; it is extremely hard to digest (or) hydrolyze the cellulosic material, which requires lot of expensive enzymes to break – up them unlike the starchy y materials. I think the solution of using the wonder bacteria would solve the problem of digesting the cellulosic biomass and has gained a lot of popularity among the ethanol researchers.

U.S is one of the top-leaders in cellulosic ethanol research and considerable research is being taken by the researchers there to gain some energy independence. The ethanol from cellulose (that is the way they term the name), also known as EFC employs cost effective methods such as acid-hydrolysis. Generally, there are three methods to digest the cellulosic biomass (a) Acid-hydrolysis (b) enzymatic-hydrolysis (c) thermo chemical processes. However, most popularly used method is the acid –hydrolysis due to the cheapness of sulfuric acid.

Acid-hydrolysis can be either dilute or concentrated; dilute-acid hydrolysis is usually performed at high temperatures and pressure. The barrier we face here is that the fact that, when high temperatures and pressure is applied it sometimes damages the equipment. Hence, specialized equipment having the ability to withstand high temperature and pressure must be brought into use. These specialized equipments are available only in exorbitant prices. Yet another issue is the efficiency of this method is only 50% thereby yielding less sugar. The biggest advantage of dilute acid processes is their fast rate of reaction, which facilitates continuous processing. However, the feedstocks must be reduced in size in order to make it a continuous process.

Research efforts in various places have brought in a solution for this problem; the cellulosic biomass consists of the C5 and the C6 sugars. As I said earlier, the problem we are facing at the moment is lesser yield of sugar during hydrolysis. This can be very much increased by first performing a mild process, wherein, only the five-carbon sugars get broken up and then a harsher process, to extract the six-carbon sugars. This solution is still not being widely employed. Research is underway.

The concentrated acid hydrolysis uses comparatively milder temperature and pressure. When compared against the acid-hydrolysis, it yields higher quantities of sugar. The problem here is, the process is extremely slow and research is still underway to find a cost-effective acid-recovery system.

The potential of enzymatic hydrolysis, thermochemical proceses and their bottlenecks faced by them can be obtained from this link. Thus, producing ethanol from cellulosic has a great potential due to the vast availability of the biomass feedstock. However, the routes to cellulosic ethanol are still not techno-economically feasible.

Labels: Acid hydrolysis, biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulosic Ethanol Showstoppers...

posted by Sumukee @ 8:08 AM | Sunday, September 27, 2009 0 Comments

As discussed in the previous posts, cellulose based ethanol have great prospects, however, there are many bottlenecks witnessed to commercialize the production of cellulosic ethanol.

DOE has identified the various barriers witnessed by the cellulosic ethanol industry. These include the economic, sustainability, storage barriers, which have been briefly explained in the preceding paragraphs.

Provided below are the highlights of the bottlenecks faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry:

Summary of the bottlenecks faced by the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry:

1) The enzymes used in cellulosic biomass production are too expensive. The solution for those was produced by certain thermophilic baceteria, but research is still underway to find if they are the best choice for the biomass breakdown.
2) Efforts are still on the way to find robust organisms which can utilise all the sugars even in impure environments.
3) Research is underway to find microorganisms which can aerobically ferment to produce cellulosic ethanol. This will help a great deal in reducing fermentation costs.
4) Removing the impurities generated by fermentation is very expensive.

Bottlenecks related to Cost:

1) Efforts are still underway to commercialize the cellulosic ethanol production and make is economically viable. The pretreatment methods are still expensive and the industry is still in its nascence.
2) Biotechnological research which includes genetic modification makes the investors worry about the risk they might create to the native population.
3) Cellulosic biomass is still expensive due to issues such as transportation, as discussed in my previous post. Also, the biomass feedstock are changeable. For example, unknown quantities of the biomass might be lost to extreme weather.
4) High capital costs are still a big problem faced by the cellulosic ethanol industry.
5) There is yet another problem with ethanol; it costs more than and still gives about 34% lesser energy than gasoline.

Bottlenecks related to Storage:

1) Even if pretreatment is made cheaper, there are some harvesting issues which have to be overcome to enable the large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol. There are still no harvesting machines to harvest the cellulosic biomass.
2) The harvesting machines which are currently available will not be able to handle tons of biomass.
3) There are still issues for storing the wet biomass, which if not properly stored might result in rotting and lead to spoilage, making it unusable.

Bottlenecks related to Preprocessing:

1) To find the best methods or organisms for preprocessing, properties of the biomass must be researched extensively.
2) Apparently, the issues in removing the impurities present in the biomass is posing problems for large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol.
3) These impurities present are removed by employing methods such as grinding, compacting and blending.
4) If these preprocessing steps are not done properly, it might damage the equipment.
5) The harvest season of each cellulosic biomass is different because of which it is a bit difficult to harvest the cellulosic biomass to pre-process them and store them.
6) A multi-step process is required for a enzymatic break-down and this is really expensive. Though many cellulosic ethanol companies are coming up with innovative pre-treatment ideas, no pretreatment method as been confirmed to be entirely economically viable.
7) When these microorganisms or enzymes are added to the fermenter , sterilization is required so as to maintain a sterile environment and to prevent contamination and the issue here is , when batch sterilization is done it might pollute the waterways if the impurities from the equipment is improperly disposed.

For those of the scientific bent - Full article

Labels: biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Cellulose Based Ethanol - Biofuel of the future!

posted by Sumukee @ 5:40 AM | 0 Comments

This post will prove extremely useful for people who stronlgy believe in the prospects of cellulosic ethanol.

We all realise the fact that the carbon- dioxide released by the fossil-fuels are mixing up with the atmosphere, increasing the levels of this noxious substances leading to global warming in the planet and this is the reason why I believe people should go in for biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol.

It is also beleived that the cellulosic ethanol can reduce about 85% of the emissions when compared to gasoline. Further sequesteration of the carbon- dioxide will lessen the emissions of poisonous susbstances like carbon-monoxide, sulfur and other dangerous gases.

Global availability of biomass feedstocks also would provide an international alternative to dependence on an increasingly strained oil-distribution system as well as a ready market for biofuel-production technologies.

Many people have been arising questions as to how much energy is required to produce ethanol? It requires very less energy to produce ethanol from cellulsic biomass and this is the reason why research is going on in different universities and various companies to produce cellulosic ethanol.

For those who believe in the future of the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry-Full Article

This article also provides further links showcasing the prospects of the cellulosic ethanol and its developments in the US.

Labels: biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

2G biofuels from non- food crops will replace fossil fuels

posted by Sumukee @ 12:19 AM | Saturday, September 26, 2009 0 Comments

2G biofuel sources includes almost all the non- food crops available on earth. Yup! I am talking about the cellulosic biomass, which is considered to be the most abundant biological material present in the planet. Cellulosic biomass is anything and everything such as waste, woody biomass, weeds such as Miscanthus. Many people believe the idea of cellulose based ethanol due to the fact that it used inedible waste products to produce Ethanol and this will even the solve the problems of waste disposal.

Producing cellulosic ethanol is still in its nascency, due to the fact that pretreatment procedures have still not been made economically viable. With the help of Synthetic Biology, 15 new fungal enzyme catalysts have been identified. These enzymes are considered to be stable and can easily digest the cellulosic biomass into sugars at high temperatures. Efforts are on the way to identify more organisms to easily break-down the cellulosic biomass, mostly derived from the waste.


Reference to this link will give you additional details about the recent discovery of a new fungus which which produces myco-diesel from waste. Improvements in Biotechnology, plant genetics and recombinant engineering technology are sure to exploit the biofuel potential from cellulosic biomass in the near future.

Labels: bioenergy, biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

A Thermophilic Microbe - Solution to make Cellulosic Ethanol a Reality!

posted by Sumukee @ 9:04 AM | Friday, September 25, 2009 0 Comments

TMO Renewables, a world leader in cellulosic ethanol production, in late June, developed a fermentation technique using a thermophilic bacterium, which can digest the cellulosic biomass rapidly to produce ethanol. This will be more useful in warm countries as they bacterium thrive well. The new process helps to produce ethanol from any cellulose-based material, most notably corn, domestic waste (paper, food) and second-generation feedstock such as leftovers from agriculture and industry such as straw from cereal crops, doing so in a highly-economical way that is practically carbon neutral.

The funny thing here is England, because of its weather might not be able to use this heat-loving bacterium in their country. There are better prospects for this in countries such as the U.S and representatives from this British company claim that about 25 ethanol plant owners have expressed interest in TMO’s process, TMO has also invited the attention of China, who are also interested in converting the rice husks and forest waste in their country into biofuels.

Apparently, TMO has not received any public support from their own country, wherein the government policies in UK haven’t offered enough support because of which the biofuel industry has not shown considerable improvement in neither growth nor investments.

The advantage offered by this bacterium is that, it very easily digests the cellulosic biomass and converts it rapidly into bioenergy.

1. This bacterium produces ethanol rapidly; it doesn’t require much of heating or cooling, hence the energy required is very less. Most importantly, this organism can maintain itself at a very high temperature and to distill ethanol from the beer doesn’t require any additional input of energy.

2. This organism has the ability of digesting the longer chain sugars of the cellulosic biomass, thereby reducing the pre-treatment costs to a considerable extent.

3. Interestingly, the fermentation process is so rapid that the capital costs on fermentation vessels can also be minimized .On the whole the entire process can be made economically viable.


See more

Labels: Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol, Thermophilic Microbe.

The Cellulosic Ethanol Story...

posted by Sumukee @ 7:04 AM | 0 Comments

Fuel ethanol produced from substances like Cellulose can contribute significantly to reducing the use of petroleum and will help a great deal in solving the energy crisis. Developments in science and technology in a number of disciplines are required to make cellulosic ethanol dream come true.

Cellulose is the most abundant biological molecule in the world. Cellulose is a polymer of sugar. Polymers are large molecules made up of simpler molecules bound together much like links in a chain. Cellulose is a polymer of glucose, a simple sugar that is easily consumed by yeast to produce ethanol. Cellulose is produced by every living plant on the earth, from single-celled algae in the oceans to giant redwood trees. This means that cellulose is the most abundant biological molecule in the world.

The way it works is as follows:

The cellulose chains are broken down into individual links thereby releasing which can be further used to produce ethanol to be used as a fuel. Many companies like Iogen, NREL, Mascoma are employing their own enzymes to make this industry reach great heights. You can refer to my previous post, if you wish to know more details about the technology employed by the top leaders in the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry.

Conventional Ethanol Vs Cellulosic Ethanol:

Cellulosic Ethanol has a number of advantages when compared to the conventional ethanol. Differences between conventional ethanol and cellulosic ethanol have also been highlighted in my previous post. They share a lot of similarities as well . The technology for fermentation,distillation and recovery of the ethanol are the same.

Challenges faced by the Cellulosic Ethanol Indusry :

The major challenges are linked to reducing the costs associated with production, harvest, transportation, and up-front processing in order to make cellulosic ethanol competitive with grain-based fuel ethanol and gasoline.

The major processing challenges are linked to the biology and chemistry of the processing steps. Plant genetics research and biotechnology are giving researchers the tools to increase agricultural yield of cellulosic plant material that is tailor-made for conversion to biofuels.Advances in biotechnology and engineering will help a great deal in achieving the goal of making CE a reality

Issues with the Pre-treatment technology:

This is done to soften the cellulosic material to make the cellulose more susceptible to being broken down. There are some issues in pretreatment of cellulosic ethanol.. Better understanding of the chemistry of plant cell walls and the chemical reactions that occur during pretreatment is leading to improvements in these technologies which lower the cost for producing ethanol. The leading pretreatment technologies under development use a combination of chemicals (water, acid, caustics, and/or ammonia) and heat to partially break down the cellulose or convert it into a more reactive form.

I, along with companies like Iogen, TMO renewables ,Mascoma and many other sustainable minds believe that Cellulosic Ethanol will soon definetely solve the enrgy- crisis.

Full report

Labels: bioenergy, Bioenergy Enzymes, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Why is Cellulosic Ethanol Best as a Biofuel ?

posted by Sumukee @ 4:56 AM | 0 Comments

Furious research has been going on in the efforts to commercialize Cellulosic ethanol and make it more cheaper.

As discussed earlier, cellulosic ethanol can be produced from a wide variety of cellulosic substances such as agricultural plant wastes like corn stover, cereal straws, and sugarcane bagasse. or cellulosic feedstock or plant wastes from industrial processes like sawdust, paper pulp as well as switchgrass.

Wastes like sawdust and paper pulp are especially useful, because they are already processed to a degree and eliminate a step from the cellulosic ethanol production process, saving cost.

Why do I think Cellulosic Ethanol is the best ?

a. Cellulosic ethanol production prevents the danger that food cropping will turn into more lucrative fuel-cropping.

b. Supply of raw material is also more abundant than corn-based ethanol production.

c. Use of fertilizers and watering essential for corn for ethanol production is also not required to such an extent for cellulosic ethanol.

d. The best thing I love about CE is that the fact that traditional ethanol cellulosic ethanol uses only lignin, which has energy content equal to coal, it doesn’t use fossil fuels during manufacture Lignin is a bi-product of the conversion process from bio-mass to ethanol, and does not need to be procured extra. Thus, no expensive fossil fuel is required for the cellulosic manufacturing process,

e. Most importantly, the amount of harmful CO2 produced while using the lignin is totally compensated by the absorption from the original plants in photosynthesis.

f. The usage of the perennial switch grass for cellulosic ethanol also bodes well for the environment and efficiency. This grass has a deep root system which helps prevents soil erosion and contributes toward soil fertility.

Problems with Cellulosic Ethanol:

The only disadvantage of cellulosic ethanol lies in the difficulty with which it is presently extracted from the feedstock. The cellulosic feedstock in process consists mainly of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and the idea is to extract fermentable sugars in order to synthesize into ethanol. But these sugars in cellulose and hemicellulose are bound in complex carbohydrates called polysaccharides, and separating these complex structures into simple sugars is not easy.

This leads to

a. Longer process time.

b. Low yield per unit of feedstock, making cellulosic ethanol somewhat less economical.

c. Common problems faced by both cellulosic ethanol and conventional ethanol is as follows:
Cellulosic ethanol and conventional ethanol have some challenges in common:

Development and availability of fuel-efficient cars using ethanol and an efficient infrastructure of raw material collection, processing and delivery. But in the long term given adequate research into developing efficiency and infrastructure, cellulosic ethanol appears to have the better potential for economy, environment-friendliness and waste management.

Therefore, what is required here is to increase the efficiency and quantity of production. Among all countries, Brazil has the most extensive domestic cellulosic ethanol industry based on sugarcane, and almost all its cars can run on ethanol.

Countries like Pakistan, India, China, Colombia, Australia, Thailand and Japan have also stepped into ethanol production to offset gasoline demands, though they still do not have significant production and delivery infrastructure.

See more

Labels: Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Will Cellulosic Ethanol be a reality?

posted by Sumukee @ 2:44 AM | 0 Comments

Things are working out well for corn- based ethanol industries in the US with the aid of top British companies such as TMO renewable. But will this somehow help the cellulosic ethanol industry to rise?

TMO renewable, a world leader in Ethanol industry in the UK has brought in the use of compost bacterium found in compost heaps which would help the U. S ethanol industry to a very great extent; it is retro-fitted to the US corn ethanol plant. This microorganism helps a great deal in greening the cellulosic ethanol industry as well as make America’ s ethanol industry profitable.

The preceding paragraph will tell you how!

This British company provides a plug-in which can be attached to a biofuel plant. This will increase output by recycling a by-product of the initial fuel run. This plug–in further reduces the carbon- dioxide emissions and saves about 50 percent green house gas emissions.

Interestingly, the TMO technology uses the by-product from the US ethanol industry and further converts it into ethanol by further increasing its yield by about 15 percent. This saves energy to a considerable extent, thereby increasing profits by about 50- 60%.

The problem faced here is that many firms want to develop so-called second generation fuels which use non-edible products such as corn stover, the stalks and leaves of the corn plant, or even municipal waste and the issue here is, it is challenging to find ways to transport sufficient volumes of these products to make commercial quantities of fuel.

Moving millions of tons of cellulosic biomass from the filed to the factory remains as a big obstacle. If this problem is overcome then Cellulosic Ethanol will be a reality. It is quite a lengthy process and experts believe that it will take about 12 and 18 months to make CE a reality.

TMO is trying to collaborate with countries like China and they have planned to convert waste products such as rice straw or wood waste to biofuel.

See more

Labels: bioenergy, cellulosic ethanol, energy, Ethanol

Why not Poplar Pulp to produce Ethanol?

posted by Sumukee @ 12:52 AM | 0 Comments

As discussed in my earlier post, poplar pulp is an excellent source of cellulosic biomass. The poplar trees grow to a height of about 10 feet a year. When they grow they completely change a desert into a forest.

Earlier, this was used to produce paper, but energy entrepreneurs now believe that the poplar pulp can be used to produce ethanol and they are ready to begin investments to ascend the biofuel industry.

To date there are not many commercial-scale cellulose-to-ethanol plants operating in North America. Most of the plants are in a pilot or demonstration stage, and, like the ZeaChem project near Boardman mentioned below which are still under development.
Mentioned below are some efforts by some cellulosic biomass to ethanol companies.

1. ZeaChem, formed in 2002 near Boardman, is using a technology that harnesses the same bacteria used by termites as they feast on wood. They plan to invest about $34 million to build a biomass plant. This was planned even earlier, however, the regions farms and economies but the first three biofuel industries which was started few years back crashed.

They employ a technology wherein, the bacteria break down the cellulose into acetic acid and then eventually into ethanol and ethyl acetate. This ethyl acetate is used as a solvent in varnishes and lacquers.

ZeaChem researchers say that this process allows a more complete conversion of cellulose to ethanol, offering a fuel yield more than fivefold greater than an acre of corn and considerably more than other cellulosic technologies.

Zeachem has planned to develop two of its biomass plants

- One of the first investments in this region will be near Boardman, where construction is scheduled to begin later this year on a demonstration plant that will produce about 1.2 million gallons a year of ethanol from poplar.
- A second corn-ethanol plant near Boardman still operates. But the plant is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as its parent company, Pacific Ethanol, struggles to pay off debts.

2. Imperium, a company which has its biomass plant in Scotland is idle. It was actually constructed to use Canadian Canola.

Efforts ar underway to bring in the involvement of federal government’s involvement as it will help a great deal in the expansion of the biofuels industry . Federal governments support is expected to make poplar ethanol conversion to ethanol a dream come true. A federal mandate requires the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol and other biofuels by 2022. The law calls for some 15 billion gallons of that fuel to come from wood, wheat straw, corncobs or other cellulosic materials rather than foods such as corn or sugar cane.

However, producing cellulosic ethanol are still facing a lot of hurdles and is still a costly undertaking when compared to converting starch or sugar to ethanol.

See more

Labels: bioenergy, Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, Ethanol, poplar pulp

Cellulosic Ethanol - The only hope

posted by Sumukee @ 10:32 PM | Monday, August 24, 2009 0 Comments

Here is an article where in the Ethanol producers have started keeping an eye on the algal blooms as these feedstock turn out to be way to cheaper than corn stover and other similar feedstock.

These algae based feedstock, unlike the corn based feedstock don't use much water, do not occupy land and are definetely less expensive to cultivate.

Experts in this domain claim that the biomass derived hydrocarbons produced from these feedstock such as cornstalks, algae and others are identical to petroleum- derived hydrocarbon are similar or identical to petroleum-derived hydrocarbons and might be used in existing energy infrastructure.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, feels that Ethanol is the only alternative to petroleum.He strongly believes none of the technology developments would have been possible without the strides from the ethanol industry that we have today.And while none of the parties want to be shut out of the future biofuels sector, all imagine a future that includes both biomass-derived hydrocarbons and cellulosic ethanol.

To read the full article

Labels: algae, biofuel, energy, Ethanol, fuel, sustainable

Miscanthus is Better than Corn

posted by Sumukee @ 6:41 AM | Wednesday, July 15, 2009 0 Comments

This article caught my eye when I was looking for the ethanol yield of Miscanthus. Sounds interesting !!

In Khosla's simple arithmetic, with irrigation and other inputs, it would be possible to grow 20 tonnes of crops per acre and each ton of crop would yield 100 gallons of ethanol
Thus 50 million acres would generate as much as 100 billion gallons. He recommended switching over to a tall grass called miscanthus in the US, which would yield a higher profit.

However, this – when also related to land use is where Khosla's vision may not apply to developing countries, while it may make good sense in the US and Europe.

The fact is that any conversion of land to produce ethanol, particularly if it is with crops like miscanthus that require fertile soil, could only be at the cost of food and fuelwood.

Full article

Labels: Ethanol, Miscanthus

Miscanthus - Highly cellulosic !!

posted by Sumukee @ 1:30 AM | Tuesday, July 7, 2009 0 Comments

I was just wondering where I could gather information about the composition of Miscanthus for my research studies till my eyes landed upon this article. I have only focused only the composition of a specific species of Miscanthus. Apparently, this article also produces many other interesting details of this emerging energy crop.

Interestingly, studies reveal that 0.4 kg of oil can be extracted from 1 kg of Miscanthus dry matter. A species of interest here is the Miscanthus.sinensisis is known to consist of a large quantities of Cellulose, which shows that it can be considered a great bio ethanol producer. Additionally it also contains negligible amounts of hemicellulose, lignin and ash which is clearly illustrated in the pie-chart below:



For those interested : Full article.

Labels: energy, Ethanol, Miscanthus

Bio Ethanol Yield of Arundo donax

posted by Mak @ 8:47 PM | Monday, July 6, 2009 1 Comments

Here is an interesting article on "Use of poor quality water to produce high biomass yields of giant reed (Arundo donax L.) on marginal lands for biofuel or pulp/paper".

According to this paper the comparative bio ethanol yield (L/ha) of biomass are:

• Arundo donax - 11,000 L/ha
• Corn - 4,400 L/ha
• Sugarcane - 8,800 L/ha
• Switchgrass - 4,600 L/ha

They have also given the profit and benefit-cost analyses (BCA) for two potential Adx enterprises in South Australia.

see more

Labels: Arundo donax, Cost, Ethanol

Camelina Bio-Diesel for District's School Buses ?

posted by Mak @ 10:31 PM | Tuesday, May 19, 2009 0 Comments

Labels: Biodiesel, camelina, Ethanol