Sunday, June 28, 2009

Pre-conference Workshop: How to Accelerate the Commercialization of Biofuels

Monday, June 29 - Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Main conference: Biofuels: Science & Innovation for Sustainable Development

Pre-conference Workshop: How to Accelerate the Commercialization of Biofuels 

Sunday, June 28, 2009

1:00

Workshop and Pre-Conference Registration

1:30

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Jim Lane, Editor, Biofuels Digest

[OPENING PRESENTATION]

1:35

Harrison Dillon
CTO, President and Co-Founder
Solazyme

2:05

3:05

Refreshment Break and Networking

3:35

4:30

5:40

Dinner On Your Own

Main conference: Biofuels: Science & Innovation for Sustainable Development

Monday, June 29 - Tuesday, June 30, 2009

                                Day 1                                            Day 2

Day 1 - Monday, June 29, 2009

7:00

Registration & Breakfast

7:55

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Todd Taylor, Lead Biofuels Attorney, Fredrikson & Byron

[KEYNOTE PRESENTATION]

8:00

The Future is Green: A California Perspective on Biofuels

Mr. Kelly Birkinshaw
Advisor to Vice Chair Boyd
The California Energy Commission
 

Four major policy drivers have historically influenced the selection of transportation fuels in California: the need to improve our state’s air quality, fuel diversity to achieve price stability, national energy security especially in the wake of 911, and now global climate change—the biggest policy driver of all. Global climate change has presented us the most important economic and environmental challenge of the century.

California as a state however, continues to be over 95 percent dependent on petroleum fuels, consuming over sixteen billion gallons of gasoline and over 4 billion gallons of diesel fuels each year. California is the third largest gasoline consumer in the world, second only to the
U. S. as a whole, and China.

The future for bio-fuels as a bright one, especially when waste streams can be effectively used to produce these fuels domestically. The State of California has an established policy framework and remains committed to sustainable bio-fuels development. Achieving our state’s energy and alternative fuel goals, while addressing climate change, will require a combination of government mandates, market-based investments, and substantial public and private sector investment. The goals are clear but more is needed to overcome the economic, technical, environmental and regulatory barriers to sustainable development.

Session I - Environmental Sustainability

8:30

Oil Seed Engineering for Renewable Fuels, Lubricants And Polymers

Jack Grushcow, President, Linnaeus Plant Sciences Inc.

Recent advances in molecular biology, Genomics and Proteonomics are delivering new oil seed profiles for industrial applications. Ultra high oleic, eurcic and blends including hydroxy fatty acids are now or will shortly be available in a variety of oil seed crops. These new oils are particularly well suited to replace petroleum in a variety of applications including diesel fuel, lubricants and polymers.

A brief literature review will discuss advances in oil seed molecular biology. A description of new research into the development of an alternative source of Hydroxy oils such as Castor Oil will be presented. There will also be a look forward to new enzymes that are expected to result from directed mutagenesis as well as direct modification of enzymes. Finally there will be a discussion of bio-refining as part of the production of bio-diesel directed towards purification of valuable co-products.

Benefits:
1) Offers an overview of the state of oil seed modification
2) Presents types of oils that will be available in transgenic oil seed crops
3) Explains how feed stocks can be optimized for bio-diesel production
4) Describes how to increase profitability in bio-fuel production
5) Discusses leading non-food oil seed crops for industrial use
 

8:55

Environmental and Regulatory Sustainability of Genetically Engineered Bioenergy Feedstocks

C. Neal Stewart, Jr., Professor and Ivan Racheff Chair, University of Tennessee

Next generation biofuels will likely come from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks that are stress-tolerant, high-yielding, and widely-adapted perennial plants. Each of these traits are shared with many weedy and invasive plants. This fact, coupled with the high likelihood of using genetically engineer feedstocks for decreased cell-wall recalcitrance to hydrolysis spells a potential regulatory nightmare because of real and perceived environmental risks. The agricultural biotechnology regulatory landscape has had many canyons and chasms caused by public and governmental reactions to risks in commercial or near-commercial products. Furthermore, there was a lack of anticipation of problems, possibly because the new game had ambiguous rules. The new bioeconomy based on technological innovations including genetically engineered perennial grasses, will be ushered into a more cautious regulatory landscape than did that of agbiotech in the early-to-mid- 1990s. But, the rules of the game are clear with regards to regulatory expectations. For example, low-to-no transgene flow will be tolerated into non-transgenic populations. Therefore, biocontainment strategies are crucial to implement now, before bioenergy innovations arrive to enable easy digestion of switchgass in biorefineries. These innovations are imminent. Switchgrass is becoming increasingly easy to genetically engineer. In addition, the DOE bioenergy centers and other researchers are now making crucial discoveries about cell wall biosynthesis and deconstruction. I will review developments and make recommendations about sustainable use of biotechnology in biomass feedstocks.

Benefits:
1. Regulatory landscape will be introduced
2. Past issues of agbiotech will be reviewed.
3. Genetic engineering and genomics of switchgrass is moving quickly—latest innovations noted.
4. Biocontainment strategies to comply with regulations and to insure sustainability will be proposed.

9:20

Enhancing the Value of Energy Crops through Co-Products

Plastics production, directly from industrial crops, presents a unique opportunity to enhance the economics of plant-derived fuels. In addition to providing substantially more revenue, the costs of growing, harvesting, transporting, and processing the plant feedstock are allocated across multiple end-products. Metabolix is developing several crop platforms amenable for large scale production of plastics and energy, including switchgrass, sugarcane, and industrial oilseed crops. Each crop platform has its own distinct advantages in terms of climate suitability and accessible co-product (i.e., lignocellulosic biomass, sugar, or oil). The core technology that enables the expression of these multiple genetic traits in plants is being continually improved. Highlights of these efforts, and a description of how they can enable the creation of a large scale integrated biorefinery, will be discussed.

Benefits:
1. Value proposition of biobased co-products in an integrated biorefinery.
2. PHA bioplastics are a scalable, high value co-product
3. Overview of Metabolix’s progress towards engineering plant feedstocks for co-production of bioplastics and biofuels
 

9:45

Mano Misra, Echo-Logic Professor, Director, Center for Materials Reliability
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada

10:10

10:35

Refreshment Break and Networking

Session II - Economic Sustainability

11:05

Monsanto’s Oilseed Program: Meeting the Needs of a Changing Market

Kathy Lardizabal, Biochemistry & Biophysics Platform Lead, Monsanto Company

Oilseeds are the main source of lipids used in both food and bio-fuels. The growing demand for vegetable oil has focused research toward increasing the amount of this valuable component in oilseed crops. Globally, soybean is one of the most important oilseed crops grown contributing about 30% of the vegetable oil used for food, feed and industrial applications (Oil World, 2007). Monsanto’s strategy for addressing the needs of soybean markets includes the production of value-added oils for food applications as well as increasing the total amount of oil in order to meet the growing demands for renewable carbon sources. The presentation will highlight these programs.

11:30

Affordable, Low-Carbon Fuel from Domestic Coal and Biomass

John G. Wimer, Director, Systems Division, National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Department of Energy

The construction of plants that convert blends of coal and biomass to diesel fuel is a near-term option for our nation to simultaneously improve energy security, stimulate the economy, and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Unlike many other low-carbon alternative fuels, the diesel fuel produced by a Coal and Biomass to Liquids (CBTL) plant would be compatible with our existing fuel distribution infrastructure and vehicle fleet, offering a near-term pathway to reduce GHG emissions from the transportation sector. A CBTL plant that is fueled with 15 wt% biomass – when coupled with carbon capture and sequestration – could produce a diesel fuel that has 33% less life cycle GHG emissions than petroleum-derived diesel. Under a standard that requires alternative fuels to have life-cycle GHG emission levels that are 20% below the petroleum baseline, the synergistic conversion of coal and biomass in a CBTL plant would enable biomass to be used in an economically feasible manner and would result in much lower GHG emissions compared to an approach that converted coal and biomass in separate plants. Moreover, the CBTL approach would have a much greater energy security benefit, enabling the economic production of 20 times more low-carbon diesel fuel from secure, domestic energy resources. NETL is conducting research to identify and address the technical challenges associated with co-feeding and converting different types of coal and biomass at varying feed mixture percentages.

Benefits
• Description of a near-term, economic approach for utilizing biomass to mitigate GHG emissions from the transportation sector.
• Description of NETL’s R&D program for the co-conversion of coal and biomass to liquids.
 

11:55

Panel Discussion: Public Policy Trends & Needs in the Biofuels Industry

- RFS II, CARB and carbon calculations on fuels
- Biofuels funding incentives, grants, guaranteed loans and other policies
  incentivizing biofuels       
- Regulations of biofuels and biotechnology
- Case studies and examples

Panelists:
Neal Stewart, Professor and Ivan Racheff Chair, University of Tennessee
Todd Taylor, Lead Biofuels Attorney, Fredrikson & Byron
Stefan Unnasch, President, Life Cycle Associates
Rahul Iyer, Chief Strategy Officer, Primafuel, Inc.      

12:40

Lunch

Session III - Biomass Feedstocks & The Sustainability of New Biofuels Production

[FEATURED PRESENTATION]

2:10

U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program:  Integrated Research Targeting Sustainability Challenges to Promote Industry Growth

Alison Goss Eng, Manager, Sustainable Bioenergy Production,
US Department of Energy, Biomass Program
 

This presentation will highlight the broad range of U.S. Department of Energy research focused on the environmental sustainability of biofuel production including land use and soil health, water use, biodiversity, and impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. Projects profiled with focus on large cross-cutting efforts that are developing the resources, technologies, and systems needed for the biofuels industry to grow in a way that protects our environment.

Benefits:
• Education about biofuels and sustainability related issues
• Education of research needs related to biofuels and sustainability
• Knowledge of DOE-funded projects
• Awareness of government role in biofuels and sustainability-related research
• Identify industry’s role in promoting sustainable biofuel production
 

2:55

Biorefinery Strategies to go Beyond Corn-based Ethanol

Bill Orts, Research Leader, U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Regional Research Center, California

USDA research in biofuels has embraced an array of topics including optimizing existing biofuels production, developing energy crops, and moving beyond corn-derived ethanol toward lignocellulosics. This presentation addresses specific research programs toward developing commercially-viable conversion of lignocellulosic materials to biofuels by (1) creating improved enzymes for biomass pretreatment, (2) developing value-added products during biorefinery operation, (3) lowering feedstock costs by utilizing a diverse range of under-utilized biomass sources, and (4) improving separation technologies for biorefinery operation. Special emphasis will be placed on strategies developed for the Western States, specifically dealing with tight controls on water usage, air pollution, and chemical pollution. Biorefining strategies are applied to diverse feedstocks, such as crop residues, energy crops, and paper and packaging waste including municipal solid waste (MSW) with the goal of providing consistent biomass throughout all seasons. The advantages of using sorghum as an energy crop will be discussed as a crop with advantages in the West and Southwest.

3:20

Blue Skies Research in the Biofuels Area

Jennifer Milne, Energy Assessment Analyst, Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), Stanford University

The Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University seeks new solutions to one of the grand challenges of this century: supplying energy to meet the changing needs of a growing world population in a way that protects the environment. Our mission is to conduct fundamental research on technologies that will permit the development of global energy systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. We explore a range of technologies over a spectrum of globally significant energy resources. Our portfolio includes projects on solar, advanced batteries, fuel cells, carbon capture and storage, advanced combustion, and biomass energy conversions. This talk focuses on the biofuels projects within our current portfolio, which include enhancing lignocellulosic biomass for more efficient recovery of sugars for conversion to liquid fuels, identifying novel yeast strains for improved fermentation, biohydrogen production in a cell free system, and production of biodeisel. GCEP researchers are also carrying out an assessment of the potential for deployment of biomass crops and impacts of land-use change on albedo to inform climate protective strategies for deployment.

Benefits:
1. Introduction to the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), Stanford University, our mission and portfolio
2. Summary of projects in the biofuels area and rationale for areas of focus
3. Possible impacts of GCEP projects
4. This talk will outline the areas where a focus on fundamental research may lead to game-changing technologies that would have significant impact on biofuels production at a global scale

3:45

Carbon Cycling from Biofuel Crop Production Predicted from NASA Satellite Data and Ecosystem Modeling

The NASA-CASA (Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach) simulation model based on satellite observations of monthly vegetation cover from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was used to estimate biomass production from croplands across the states of Iowa and Nebraska over the period 2001-2004. Adjustments for light-use efficiency and water use in biofuels (both corn and perennial grass) crops were carried out across the region, resulting in a new mapping of aboveground and belowground carbon pools based on 500-meter resolution MODIS satellite data. Simulations of plant residue management and soil carbon decomposition were conducted in the NASA-CASA model during and following conversions to biofuel crops to track the fate of carbon pools and the emissions of greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide (N2O). Benefits of this research are to enhance understanding of the effects of biofuel feedstocks on the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and water by bringing NASA satellite data sets to bear on the problems of tracking cropland production trends and shifts.

  4:10

Refreshment Break and Networking

4:40

Biomass-Derived Porous Carbons and Their Applications

Porous carbons have been derived from biomass resources such as cornstalks, rice straws, pine needles and pinecone hulls through a carbonization-activation process. The pore sizes of the obtained porous carbons are mainly distributed in the range of 1–2 nm, whereas the surface areas of the materials vary from 1000 to more than 3000 m2g−1 depending on the raw materials and preparation conditions. The biomass texture and the activation manner play key roles in determination of surface areas of the porous carbons. The obtained porous carbons show good catalytic performance when used as catalyst supporters, whereas the hierarchical porous feature in the cabons derived from rice straw enable the materials to provide the pathways for easy accessibility of electrolytes and fast transportation of lithium ions. These porous carbons which show a particular large reversible capacity are proved to be promising anode materials for high-rate and high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. In addition, the porous carbons we prepared exhibit H2, CH4 and CO2 adsorption capacities. The high adsorption capacities for gases are attributed to the relatively narrow pore size and the high surface area of the porous carbon material.

Benefits:
1. For the audience to know new techniques for biommass conversion;
2. For those who are interested in high-performance porous carbon preparation;
3. For those who are interested in catalysis
4. For those who are interested in battery technology;
5. For those who are interested in energy storage.

5:05

Discovery of Substrate-Targeted Enzymes for Biomass Degradation by Metatranscriptomics

Matthias Hess, Computational Analyst, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, DOE Joint Genome Institute

Highly active and stable cellulolytic enzymes are major bottlenecks for the efficient large-scale production of biofuels from lignocellulose. Several habitats, such as the foregut of ruminants, are known for their complex fibrolytic microbial community and represent promising sources of novel biocatalysts for lignocellulose degradation. We employed high-throughput sequencing technologies to identify novel biocatalysts from the pool of genes that are expressed by the microbial community of the bovine rumen specifically in the presence of switchgrass

Whereas traditional sequencing methods where relatively expensive and extensive sequencing projects required a substantial amount of financial resources, the release of next-generation sequencing platforms made de-novo and resequencing affordable for smaller companies and institutes or even individual research groups.

In this talk we will present the first results of our ongoing effort to employ new sequencing platforms to identify in particular feedstock-targeted glycosyl hydrolases for the conversion lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels. In addition, we will discuss the potential of next generation sequencing technologies for the discovery of novel and target-specific biocatalysts per se.

5:30

Kinkead Reiling, Co-Founder, Amyris

5:55

Networking Reception and Poster Session

Day 2 - Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Workshop/Top of Page                                                Day 1

7:00

Continental Breakfast

7:30

Opening Remarks

 Stephen R. Decker, Senior Scientist II, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Session III - Biomass Feedstocks & The Sustainability of New Biofuels Production (continued)

7:35

Microalgal Biofuels, A Systems Approach

Richard Sayre, Director, ERAC Institute for Renewable Fuels, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

One of the most environmentally sustainable ways to produce energy is the conversion of solar energy into biomass. The first-generation biofuels (alcohol and diesel) were produced from only a few crop systems including, sugar cane (sugar), maize (starch), and soy (oil). These biofuel systems were often not very efficient. Typically, only a fraction of the solar energy captured in biomass was harvested as fuel. Inefficiencies in feedstock processing further reduced the recoverable energy and reduced net carbon capture. Extensive land area was also required to produce fuels from first-generation biofuel crops. Second-generation biofuel systems including cellulosics are now being developed. Conversion of cellulosics to sugars using advanced enzyme catalysts and chemistries promises to increase the available carbon resources for fuel production and reduce the land area required for biofuel production. Second generation biofuel systems including miscanthus and switch grass also do not directly compete with food production, require less agronomic (fertilizer, plowing, pesticide) inputs, and have lower environmental impact than first-generation biofuels. Our lab is exploring the development of the next (3rd) generation of biofuel systems. Biofuels production from oil rich (up to 55% (dw) oil) algae has the potential to produce 5-30 times more fuel per acre than any terrestrial crop system with reduced environmental impact. The Sayre lab is using advanced molecular and engineering strategies to enhance biofuel production from algae. Strategies will be discussed for enhancing photosynthetic efficiencies using algae with decreased light-harvesting antennae. We also have developed a non-destructive process for continuous oil extraction from live algae that does not require concentrating algae before extraction. This system substantially reduces residence time in ponds and increases oil productivity.

8:00

Why Now? Why Algae?

Alex Aravanis, Senior Director of Bio Engineering, Sapphire Energy

8:25

Algae As An Enabling Technology For Carbon Recycling

David Haberman, President, IF, LLC

Algae has been cultivated and harvested by man since recorded history. Its uses as a food or for fertilizer are well documented. Over the last ten years it has re-emerged as candidate feedstock for production of biomass derived fuels. There are serious challenges to the proposition that algae will compete with the existing portfolio of energy crops. Further, the current national algae roadmap process is dramatically flawed because it does not consider the full inventory of risks which the algae value chain must confront. Algae’s carbon uptake efficiency can be mechanized into a system that recycles the CO2 from fossil fuel combustion. Today, carbon recycling is driving significant innovation and engineering progress because carbon regulations are viewed as inevitable. Within sustainability perspective it is algae’s versatility to serve multiple applications that is essential to a functional value proposition.

8:50

Development of Environmentally Benign and Consolidated Process for Efficient Production of Cellulosic Ethanol

Akihiko Kondo,  Professor, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University

 Under the NEDO project in Japan, a consortium of universities Kobe University, Kyoto University and Osaka University etc and companies Toyota Central R&D Labs, Suntory Ltd and Kajima Corp. etc is trying to develop a consolidated bioprocess CBP for highly efficient ethanol production from cellulosic biomass. The process is consisting of 1 biomass preprocessing process that consists of partial decomposition and enzyme treatment after hydrothermal treatment, 2 simultaneous saccharification and ethanol fermentation process by using super microbial cells, 3 an energy-saving ethanol-concentration /dehydration process by using advanced HIDiC Heat Integrated Distillation Column. For the reduction of the cost of bioethanol production, the development of super- microbial cells for CBP is very important. Among ethanol-producing microbial strains, yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has several advantages owing to its high ethanol production from hexoses and high tolerance to ethanol and other inhibitory compounds in the hydrolysates of lignocellulosic biomass. The cell surface engineering is one of the key technologies for the development of yeast strain for CBP. We have developed CBP yeast strains that display both cellulase and hemicellulase on the surface of the cells in which the metabolic pathway is modified for ethanol production from both C5 and C6 sugars. The displayed enzymes are regarded as a kind of self-immobilized enzyme on the cell surfaces. Due to the display of these enzymes, cellulosic materials were sequentially hydrolyzed to C5 and C6 sugars on the yeast cell surface, immediately utilized and converted to ethanol by intracellular enzymes. In this CBP yeast strain, the yield in terms of grams of ethanol produced per grams of carbohydrate utilized was found to be high. I would like to show present status of the development and future direction of CBP for cellulosic ethanol production.

9:05

Genome Sequencing and Analysis of the Mesophilic Cellulosome-Producing Clostridium Cellulovorans

Yutaka Tamaru, Department of Life Sciences, Mie University

 Clostridium cellulovorans, an anaerobic bacterium, degrades native substrates in plant cell wall efficiently by producing an extracellular enzyme complex called the cellulosome. We assembled 30 scaffolds sets of ordered and oriented contigs to generate approximately 5.1 Mbp of nearly contiguous C. cellulovorans genome sequence comprising 4,220 predicted gene models. Interestingly, the C. cellulovorans genome was about 1Mbp larger than any other sequenced cellulosomal Clostridia able to hydrolyze plant cell wall polysaccharides. Furthermore, many cellulosomal genes encoding not only carbohydrate-active enzymes but also lipase and peptidases in the C. cellulovorans genome are distributed nonrandomly in clusters that lie between regions of synteny with other Clostridia. Numerous genes encoding biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites may promote survival of C. cellulovorans in its competitive soil habitat, but genome analysis provided little mechanistic insight into its extraordinary capacity for protein secretion. Our analysis, coupled with the genome sequence data, provides a roadmap for constructing enhanced Clostridium strains for industrial applications such as biofuel production.

9:20

Utilizing Waste for Energy Production: Opportunities for Significant Carbon Footprint Reductions at Corn Ethanol Facilities

Alina Cole, Stanley Consultants, Inc.

 Stanley Consultants has patented a process to convert whole or thin stillage byproduct from a corn-based fuel ethanol plant to biogas e.g., mixture of methane and carbon dioxide using anaerobic digestion. Biogas can be combusted directly to generate steam or electricity on site or purified e.g., carbon dioxide removed and injected into a natural gas pipeline for distribution and sale. Anaerobic digestion of thin stillage can off-set 100% of the natural gas used at the facility with an excess of as much as 50%. Anaerobic digestion of whole stillage can achieve 100% off-set of natural gas with an excess of as much as 200%. The anaerobic digestion process also produces a concentrated ammonium salt solution that can be sold as fertilizer and a composted solid material that can be sold as a topsoil supplement. Since ammonia fertilizer is commonly produced from natural gas, the ammonia recovery provides additional reduction in the life-cycle carbon emissions from ethanol. Water, following ammonia recovery, can be reused within the ethanol facility. The Stanley Consultants anaerobic digestion process effects carbon emissions from the corn ethanol facility in several ways: it eliminates the use of fossil fuels to provide heat for the ethanol production process and, it recovers ammonia that can be used as fertilizer for corn. Stanley Consultants has estimated the reduction in the carbon intensity for a corn-based ethanol facility at an average of 55% in the direct emissions of carbon dioxide.

9:35

Refreshment Break and Networking

Session IV - Innovative Techniques and Technology for Biomass Conversion

[FEATURED PRESENTATIONS]

10:05

The BioEnergy Science Center – An Integrated Strategy to Understand and Overcome Biomass Recalcitrance

The challenge of converting cellulosic biomass to sugars is the dominant obstacle to cost-effective production of biofuels in sustained quantities capable of impacting U.S. consumption of fossil transportation fuels. The BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) research program will address this challenge with an unprecedented interdisciplinary effort focused on overcoming the recalcitrance of biomass. In addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the BESC core team consists of the Dartmouth College, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, and industrial partners ArborGen, Verenium, and Mascoma. Other individual PIs complete the team.
By combining engineered plant cell walls to reduce recalcitrance with new biocatalysts to improve deconstruction, BESC within five years will revolutionize the processing of biomass. These breakthroughs will be achieved with a systems biology approach and new high-throughput analytical and computational technologies to achieve (1) targeted modification of plant cell walls to reduce their recalcitrance (using Populus and switchgrass as high-impact bioenergy feedstocks), thereby decreasing or eliminating the need for costly chemical pretreatment; and (2) consolidated bioprocessing, which involves the use of a single microorganism or microbial consortium to overcome biomass recalcitrance through single-step conversion of biomass to biofuels.

This talk will provide an overview of ongoing research within BESC.

10:35

Cellulosic Biofuels as a Potential Sustainable Energy Source

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) is an emerging leader in using interdisciplinary, genomics-based methods to build a biofuels economy. The GLBRC is housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; working with university, national laboratory and corporate partners. The GLBRC goals are to:

• Improve biomass plants.  GLBRC research programs will improve the energy density of crops by increasing the amount of easily degraded plant polymers and boosting levels of hydrocarbons. 
• Improve plant biomass processing. The GLBRC will develop new physical and biological treatments to economically process the plant biomass needed for a bioenergy pipeline.
• Improved conversion of plant biomass into fuels.  The GLBRC will improve chemical and biological methods for converting biomass into ethanol, H₂, electricity, or chemical feedstocks that can replace fossil fuels.
• Improve sustainability of the biomass to biofuel pipeline. The GLBRC will monitor agricultural, industrial, and behavioral systems and develop economically and environmentally responsive practices for a biomass-to-bioenergy pipeline.

To function as a center of excellence, the GLBRC will develop programs to bring bioenergy breakthroughs to members of the agricultural and private sector; stakeholders in the scientific, business, or academic community; and the public.
 

11:05

Beyond Ethanol: The Joint BioEnergy Institute

Currently, biofuels such as ethanol are produced largely from grains, but there is a large, untapped resource (estimated at more than a billion tons per year) of plant biomass that could be utilized as a renewable, domestic source of liquid fuels. Well-established processes convert the starch content of the grain into sugars that can be fermented to ethanol. Plant-derived biomass contains cellulose and hemicellulose, which are more difficult to convert to sugars. The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient processes to transform the polysaccharides in biomass into biofuels is hampered by significant roadblocks, including the lack of specifically developed energy crops, the difficulty in separating biomass components, low activity of enzymes used to deconstruct biomass, and the inhibitory effect of fuels and processing byproducts on organisms responsible for producing fuels from biomass monomers.

The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is one of three US Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers that will address these roadblocks in biofuels production. JBEI draws on the expertise and capabilities of three national laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)), two leading US universities (University of California campuses at Berkeley (UCB) and Davis (UCD)), and a foundation (Carnegie Institute of Washington at Stanford University) to develop the scientific and technological base needed to convert the energy stored in cellulose into transportation fuels, specifically those that are chemically equivalent to gasoline and diesel, and commodity chemicals.

Benefits:
1. Introduction to the Joint BioEnergy Institute
2. Description of advanced biomass pretreatments
3. Description of advanced biofuel production targets
4. Research directions and enabling technologies
5. Role of industry and commercial partnerships

11:35

3 Science Center Collaborative Q&A Session

Lunch

12:50

High-Throughput Screening in Biomass Research: Barriers, Solutions, Future Challenges

For over 60 years, research into conversion of non-starch plant polysaccharides to usable sugars has been carried out at baseline levels. The lack of a large industrial application precluded heavy commercial investment and most work was governmental or academic, focusing on new degradative microbe discovery and characterization of their native enzymatic and metabolic systems. Research into the fundamental mechanisms of these systems has been limited. Of course now all of this has changed. Skyrocketing energy costs, increased national security concerns, and a grass-roots drive for energy independence has fueled a rapid expansion of biofuels research in areas from discovery to commercialization. New advances in laboratory automation, directed evolution, gene shuffling, metagenomic screening, and other cutting-edge screening techniques all hold the promise of leap-forward advances. While other industries have taken advantage of these techniques to develop many new products, biomass conversion has presented challenges much different than those found in other biotechnology research including:
• Highly recalcitrant, heterogenous substrates (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin)
• Complex, synergistic enzyme systems (cellulases, hemicellulases, accessory enzymes)
• Non HTP-compatible expression hosts (can’t use bacterial systems for key enzymes)
• Long reaction times (days, not minutes)
• Elevated reaction temperatures (50-200oC)
• Slow production detection (sugars by HPLC)

As part of the Biomass Energy Science Center, the NREL has designed, built, and implemented a high-throughput biomass pretreatment, enzyme digestion, and sugar quantitation system. This system is being used to screen thousands of biomass variants for genetic links to variations in pretreatability, enzyme digestibility, and overall conversion efficiency.

1:15

The ABC’s of I. Global Warming; II. Bioenergy; III. Biochar

Gerry Kutney, Chief Operating Officer, Alterna Energy Inc.

Biomass has been the energy staple of mankind through the ages. Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, have only superseded biomass for but a brief period. For example, the world did not burn more coal than wood until the beginning of the 20th century. Oil only came into its own later in the century. We are entering an era, where biomass is beginning to resume its traditional position. In the use of biomass as a source of bioenergy, the critical factor is energy density. Wood-based bioenergy was revolutionized through the development of wood pellets. Whereas green wood chips have an energy density of ~9.5 GJ/te, a wood pellet has nearly double this amount. Coal, though, is the standard solid fuel in regard to power production, which has an energy density of ~30 GJ/te. Biocarbon, while produced from the same type of biomass as wood pellets, has an energy density equivalent to that of coal, or over 60% higher than a wood pellet. Biocarbon, also called char or charcoal, is manufactured from any biomass through carbonization. There are many markets for the product including terra preta (agricultural applications), activated biocarbon, and energy pellets. There is especially much interest in the latter application as a renewable energy replacement for fossil fuels, such as coal.

Benefits
1. Overview of importance of biomass to control climate change
2. Introduction of an alternative renewable energy source
3. Utility of biocarbon
4. Biomass densification technologies

Outline
• Biomass and Global Warming
• Biomass and Bioenergy
• Biocarbon

1:40

Intermediate Biobased Products for Future Energy and Fertilizer Security

Peter Fransham, VP Technology, ABRI Tech Inc

One does not have to retreat far back into recent history to find a time when many organic chemicals had their origin in biomass. With escalating oil prices and the environmental concern, there is renewed enthusiasm and opportunity for biobased products. This talk covers the production of two bioproducts, biooil and biochar, from a process commonly referred to as fast pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is defined as chemical change brought on by heat. The core process has gone by other names in the past, such as, thermolysis, thermochemical conversion, dry distillation, destructive distillation, etc. Biooil is a comoposed of over 300 chemicals and is a viscous, low pH, somewhat corrosive liquid that finds little direct use other than a replacement for coal or bunker C fuel. Biochar can be a direct substitute for coal or more recently a soil additive.

The end use of the biooil and char still advancing quickly. If biooil is to find diverse markets, especially as a transportation fuel, then it must be converted to a more widely usable form. The concept of a central biorefinery supplied by satellite pyrolysis systems is presented. The biorefinery would convert the biooil and char to single product streams such as methanol, ethanol, natural gas or syndiesel via the gasification route.

Biochar has application as a soil amendment. The enthusiasm for this concept comes from studies of carbon rich soils in South America. Crop yields are significantly improved through the addition of charcoal and since the charcoal is stable, a single treatment of about 10 tons per acre should provide years of increased yield and a reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers. Data will be presented on the pyrolysis of chicken manure and the resulting fertilizer value.

Benefits:
1. Transportation advantage of biooil
2. Value of transportable systems
3. Conversion of biomass to higher value and more usable products
4. Pyrolysis has arrived as a commercial technology.

Biochar has application as a soil amendment. The enthusiasm for this concept comes from studies of carbon

2:05

Microbial Fermentation of Glycerol: A New Path to Biofuels and Biochemicals

Ramon Gonzalez, Assistant Professor, Rice University

Glycerol has become an inexpensive and abundant carbon source due to its generation as inevitable by-product of biofuels production. Given the high degree of reduction of carbon in glycerol, fuels and reduced chemicals could be produced from glycerol at yields higher than those obtained from common sugars. Fully realizing this potential, however, requires the metabolism of glycerol in the absence of external electron acceptors (i.e., fermentative metabolism). Unfortunately, only a small group of microorganisms, most of which are not amenable to industrial applications, was known to be capable of fermentative utilization of glycerol prior to our work. In these organisms, the ability to synthesize 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) has long been considered the metabolic property that enables to ferment glycerol. For example, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, workhorses of modern biotechnology, do not have the capacity to synthesize 1,3-PDO and therefore have been deemed unable to conduct glycerol fermentation. Following our recent discovery that the previous view was incorrect and that although E. coli cannot synthesize 1,3-PDO it can indeed ferment glycerol in the absence of external electron acceptors, we have engineered this organism for the conversion of glycerol to fuels and chemicals. Several biocatalysts have been developed for the production of ethanol, hydrogen, formate, succinate, lactate, and 3- and 4-carbon diols from glycerol-rich streams generated during biofuels production. This talk will discuss our latest work related to the harnessing of microbial fermentation of glycerol for the production of fuels and chemicals.

2:30

Future Energetics: Direct Conversion of Biofuel into Electricity by Biofuel Cells

Arunas Ramanavicius, Professor, Center of Nanotechnology and Material Science, Faculty of Chemistry

  2:55

Conference Concludes

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