|
Thursday, June 21, 2007 Biofuels: Beyond CornGene sequencing could help make more energy-efficient biofuels practical. By Emily Singer
In an attempt to find cheaper and more efficient routes to biofuels, researchers are turning to genomics. Scientists at the Department of Energy (DOE) have just selected the button mushroom as one of their latest picks for DNA sequencing, hoping to co-opt fungi's plant-degrading power to produce ethanol more cheaply. Efforts are also planned to sequence the genomes of the eucalyptus tree and foxtail millet, a grass closely related to switchgrass. Most ethanol in the United States is derived from corn kernels, hence it consumes a valuable food and agricultural product. What's more, growing corn is itself an energy-intensive process. Grasses, agricultural waste such as cornstalks, and even trees could potentially provide a better feedstock: they produce much more biomass per acre than corn with less energy expenditure. However, these plant sources of ethanol require extensive preprocessing to release sugars from the cellulose in them, making the procedure too expensive to compete with traditional gasoline or corn-based ethanol. With current methods to make cellulosic ethanol, the plant matter is broken down with chemicals and a costly mixture of synthetic enzymes. In an attempt to find a cheaper method, the DOE's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), based in Walnut Creek, CA, is sequencing the genomes of approximately 20 "biomass degraders," such as the button mushroom, which feed off decaying plants by degrading the cell walls and then using the resulting sugars for energy. "By sequencing organisms involved in natural biomass breakdown, you can hopefully identify superior enzymes and reactions that could be incorporated into fermentation organisms to improve the process," says Jonathan Mielenz, director of the Bioconversion Laboratory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Oak Ridge, TN. Scientists are also sequencing the genomes of various crops to spur efforts to engineer faster-growing and hardier plants for biofuel production. "The key to making [cellulosic ethanol] workable is getting the most biomass you can per acre of land," says Jim Bristow, head of the community sequencing program at the JGI. "Understanding the traits that lead to rapid growth or growth in particular climates will be important as we improve all these biomass feedstocks." |
Part III: The Price of Biofuels
12/20/2007



Comments
rajnz on 06/21/2007 at 2:01 AM
23
oconnmic on 06/21/2007 at 10:13 AM
21
Does anyone really think it's wise to consume your food supply to fuel your car and air condition your home? Especially since it takes about the same amount of fossil fuel to create the biofuel as it does to make the gasoline, at least for now. And coal and other carbon based sources of energy are abundant on the planet as is nuclear fuel. Clean it up, yes, but don't make food supplies your source of power. That's just crazy and intuitively obvious. We can live without cars and air conditioning but not food.
phoffman on 06/21/2007 at 1:08 PM
1
Continue to sit & freeze in the dark, instead of lighting a candle.
theblight on 06/24/2007 at 6:58 PM
4
theblight
mkogrady on 06/21/2007 at 2:04 PM
92
UCLA has some decent info: See link
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/lifeforms/parasiticplants/index.html
nekote on 06/22/2007 at 11:39 PM
115
Alternatively, a method to store sunlight in some mode of electricity.
It would seem simpler and very much more likely to be of greater value to work on certain simple algae. As opposed to expending much time, money and effort on very much more complicated, if familiar, "crops" that are comparatively much less efficient at storing solar energy.
barryleon on 07/04/2007 at 1:15 PM
2
One answer is the permanent imposition of a “conditional” tax on oil based fuel. With the cost of oil over a particular threshold (maybe $40 a barrel) there would be no tax imposed. However, if the price fell under the threshold, a tax on the fuel at the pump would go into effect and would make it equivalent to the base price. Industry could then safely invest the billions of dollars necessary to develop bio-fuels, tar sands, coal gasoline or any other rational possibility that works over a certain price.
It wouldn’t hurt either if Congress would give such energy independence providing ideas, some extra tax relief.
mlmccarty on 07/09/2007 at 10:00 PM
1