Alcohol fuel: Celunol, based in Cambridge, MA, tests its cellulosic-ethanol process in this pilot-scale plant, which converts biomass such as switchgrass into ethanol. Biomass is stored and handled in the building to the right. From there it’s fed into the four black tanks in the center, which contain enzymes for breaking down cellulose and other complex carbohydrates to form simple sugars that can be fermented in the “beer” tank below. There, the liquid produced has the same alcohol concentration as beer. Next, the beer is distilled in the tall column left of center before being stored in ethanol tanks at left. Celunol started construction on a much larger cellulosic-ethanol plant this month.
Courtesy of Celunol Corp.
Multimedia
Fuel from grass and wood chips could be big in the next 10 years--if the government helps.
Cellulosic ethanol, a fuel produced from the stalks and stems of plants (rather than only from sugars and starches, as with corn ethanol), is starting to take root in the United States. This month, Celunol, based in Cambridge, MA, broke ground on an ethanol plant in Louisiana that will be able to produce 1.4 million gallons of the fuel each year starting in 2008. Other companies are moving forward as well with plans to build plants.
But experts from industry and environmental groups say that without loan guarantees and other incentives, the nascent industry will fail to emerge from the current demonstration phase to produce commercial-scale quantities of ethanol. And without that, it may be impossible to meet President Bush's ambitious goal of producing 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels a year by 2017.
Cellulosic ethanol is attractive because the feedstock, which includes wheat straw, corn stover, grass, and wood chips, is cheap and abundant. Converting it into ethanol requires less fossil fuel, so it can have a bigger effect than corn ethanol on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Also, an acre of grasses or other crops grown specifically to make ethanol could produce more than two times the number of gallons of ethanol as an acre of corn, in part because the whole plant can be used instead of just the grain. That's good news because many experts estimate that corn-ethanol producers will run out of land, in part because of competing demand for corn-based food, limiting the total production to about 15 billion gallons of fuel. (Already, corn-ethanol plants--existing and planned, combined--have a capacity of about 11 billion gallons.) The greater productivity of cellulosic sources should eventually allow them to produce as much as 150 billion gallons of ethanol by 2050, according to a report by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). That's the equivalent of more than two-thirds of the current gasoline consumption in the United States.
But it will take some time to reach these levels of production. Even producing enough cellulosic ethanol to meet the president's 35-billion-gallon goal will be difficult. That will require that roughly 15 billion gallons would come from non-corn-grain sources such as cellulosic ethanol (about 5 billion gallons might come from biodiesel culled from oils in crops such as soybeans). And reaching 15 billion gallons by 2017 will be a challenge. Currently, according to the ethanol industry's list of producers in the United States, none of the ethanol comes from cellulosic biomass.
Cellulosic-ethanol companies are hopeful that they can meet this goal. Colin South, the president of Mascoma Corporation, also based in Cambridge, says that if all goes well, cellulosic ethanol could supply half of the 35-billion-gallon goal by 2017. But so far Mascoma has only announced plans to build a demonstration facility with a capacity of about half a million gallons of fuel per year. That facility should be ready in 18 months, South says. But as is the case with the new Celunol plant, the facility's primary purpose would be to demonstrate that the company's technology can work at a large scale; it will not always operate at full capacity, as the system is used to test new cost-saving technologies.
ZeaChem starts construction in Oregon, but plans elsewhere have stalled or been scaled back.
Mascoma has announced several advances that may lead to a cheaper, more efficient process to turn biomass into ethanol.
Could this affect the soil fertility
Since all straw, chips, and stems will be collected to be used in ethanol generation process, I think soil will loose a lot of its elements which will cause continuous decrements in the soil fertility to the level that it can't produce goods anymore.
Guest (concerned1)
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
I agree. This could definitely affect soil fertility. One way to sequester carbon and replenish lost soil nutrients could occur with the addition of biochar. Johannes Lehmann at Cornell has quite a bit on his website about "terra preta". There is also a company called EPRIDA that I think my have a worthy technology to combat soil depletion.
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
Soil fertility is an issue with corn production. If woody biomass is the dominant feedstock for Ethanol, then it's likely to be less of an issue. But the idea of removing even some of the corn stover from the field as woody biomass for cellulosic Ethanol is, IMHO, a mistake. Carbon is as important for maintaining fertility as any other component. There's a worse problem brewing. With corn futures at $4/bu, many farmers may simply stop rotating crops, keeping the same ground in corn year after year, applying more anhydrous NH3 to maintain "fertility." Not a good idea; it probably takes corn-to-Ethanol energy-negative aw well.
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
Grow legumes - they fix nitrogen in the soil, and their root structure loosens the soil. Nothing wrong with peas, beans, and alfalfa as Cellulosic feedstocks. ANYTHING is better than Corn - one of the most soil depleating agricultural crops grown in North America.
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
Agreed. I am also worried about the effect that removal of straw and stalks from the fields will have on erosion and soil structure. The chopped straw and stems form a protective covering over the fields shielding them from wind and water erosion, holding moisture and are eventually incorporated into the soil where they aid water retension and add bulk to the soil.
The problem would be much less with perenial plants. Further, if the waste from alchwere to be returned to the fields either
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
I believe you are all generating much ado over nothing.
Farmers have always plowed under the harvest "leftovers" and I see no reason to stop them. (Equipment could be modified to collect the stalks in a seperate truck if we so desire.)
Instead of hauling our suburban yard waste to the nearest landfill, it could be trucked to a city rail line collection point. (I've got eight large 60 lbs. bags out front they could have right now.)_It would then be shipped to the regional ethanol plant for conversion. Switchgrass and other fast growing grasses could be "mined" in the same manner. We could use our plant waste for energy production and never touch our food stocks.
Granted Cellulosic ethanol isn't a reality yet. With research, I believe it will be inside this decade.
Yes, I believe every household in the next decade will have a hybrid plug-in on one side of the garage for short trips and a diesel/biodiesel truck or flex fuel car on the other.
We will obtain our electricty generated by coal, nuclear, wind, fuel cell, and solar sources. Solar photovoltaics is making huge strides these days as are fuel cells.
Ford motor already has fuel cell vehicles that look like a standard compact sedan, and can run over 200 MPH, but it's going to take some refining before we can own one. (Did I mention it cost a kings ransom and weighs 6700 Lbs.?) Yes, solutions are on the way. Some are close. Some will take decades. Cellulosic Ethanol is part, but not all the solution. Giving the Arabs our hard earned dollars is not a practical option for the next decade.
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
Growth of switchgrass in the US was primary in the development of the rich soil we now have, so using it for ethanol production would have a positive soil benefit. I agree with every point you make, but would suggest that medium to large municipalities invest in their own production plants rather than going regional. Citizens yard waste plus the city's waste could supply city needs as well as being a revenue source for the city by selling to the public at a reasonable profit.
Re: Could this affect the soil fertility
Just for the record, we buy more oil from Canada and South American countries than from all the rest of the world combined. We're not just making the Saudis rich.
http://ergosphere.blogspot.com/2006/11/sustainability-energy-independence-and.html
The problem with ethanol is that it is expensive to transport and store, has poor energy density, but most of all it will get burned at 20-25% efficiency in an internal combustion engine. Hence the "field" to wheels efficiency is low.
The above scheme allows biomass to be converted into electricity (some of the syn gas created could be diverted into ethanol production if you wanted to) and charcoal. This could then be burried and thus sequester carbon from the atmosphere, or it could be converted into more electricity. This would displace quite a bit of fossil fuel generation.
Plug in hybrids could utilize this electricity to mitigate much of daily driving. It would be much easier to create and distribute the lower amount of liquid bio fuels that would then be needed under a PHEV paradigm.
This would give a much higher "field" to wheels overall efficiency, streaching that finite resource further.
Burrying some of the charcoal by mixing it into soil greatly enhances the ability of the soil to hold on to nutrients etc:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.terra.preta.ssl.html
Any discussion of cellulosic ethanol should begin with the disticntion of which kind you're talking about. I think the national discussion is to the point where readers are getting the distinction between corn and cellulosic ethanol, but now comes two forms of cellulosic ethanol with vastly different technologies.
Gasification cellulosic ethanol, as your own article dated 1/19/07 entitled "Creating Ethanol from Trash" points out, could provide 25% of US gasoline consumption with ethanol created from gasification of Municipal Solid Waste, all for $.05-.95/gallon.
This technology should be kick-started by DOE. It is such a sweet answer to so many problems from overfull landfills, groundwater contamination, health issues of many sorts and most importantly(for the ethanol debate), gasoline displacement!
Enzyme cellulosic ethanol now has many supporters, not the least of which are the 100's of corn ethanol producers who are currently being squeezed by increasing costs of corn! They will figure it out. And they need help. But I hope they don't suck all the oxygen from the fabulous idea of creating ethanol form Municipal Solid Waste as well as other forms of biomass.
Well managed bio-oil and cellulosic ethanol refineries, green friendly, sulfur free! Time goes on
There was a time when the horse and buggy manufacturers ignored the horseless carriage!
Well the Paper Industries are rapidly declining in Canada and the United States. Technologies like e-ink, (electronic paper), will eventually replace paper as we know it.
There are numerous paper mills being idled that know how to effectively break down trees into fuel stocks that are capable of creating 100 megs. of power a day to power these mills.
These mills, since they already effectively break down wood chips should be utilized for bio-fuels.
Take the State of Maine for instance. Maines forests are an incredible self-renewing resource. In 2000 , Maine was as heavily forested as it was in 1600. The forests were nearly cut in half during the mid-1800's but have steadily returned. Today, with 17.8 million acres acres of forested land (approx. 90% of the state). Maine is the most heavily forested state and has been stable for several decades, (double the timber since 1952). This coverage helps shape Maine's image and it's way of life.
Our forests suffered in the past from mismanagement, but they are now better managed than ever. That's part of the reason why the forests are replenishing so well. We need to steer some of the Oil Industry Subsidies in D.C. to help seed these new potential industries!
Well managed bio-oil and cellulosic ethanol refineries, green friendly, sulfur free! Time goes on.
Cliff Lewis, choicez@tds.net
Will Cellulosic Ethanol Take off?
If I were a farmer planning to provide cellulose
product to industry and the US government,I would consider growing alternative products which could be used for other areas;that is,I would not put all eggs in one basket.
Re: Will Cellulosic Ethanol Take off?
Sigh, as a scientist with a farming family, I see this debate with a jaundiced eye.
The soil depletion from using all stubble and stalk is a potential problem, yet still the sludge from the process would be a potentially good fertilizer, as only the hydrocarbons would be taken as fuel--BUT, it takes time and energy to move the processed sludge back to farmland!
It only takes a minute amount of fixed carbon to create terre verte, but it also takes time.
Yet, as pointed out, ethanol is a less dense fuel than gas, or if not, why did gasoline triumph over all others? And, like it or not, when the whole damned auto industry started, there were NO GOVERNMENT HELPING HANDS! Expecting real help from bankrupt government authorities--who pay for it by taxing everyone, including the new industries--is like waiting for Godot. He never really comes.
Re: Will Cellulosic Ethanol Take off?
Check out Dynamotive.com, they are onto something!
cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
Cellulose is very, very hard to degrade by enzymes to glucose, that is why it evolved as the main material of construction in the plant kingdom. If a bug ever is found that can efficiently and quickly break down cellulose, let's hope that it never escapes the laboratory, because that would be a terrifying disaster.
Then, fermenting glucose to ethanol is done at high dilution (to avoid killing the yeasts doing it) followed by distillation and finally drying the ethanol. This consumes a good bit of energy.
Cellulose can also be converted by heating into a mixture of CO and H2 (carbohydrates have the formula H2CO); with a further addition of H2 you have methanol. The required technologies are already known; no breakthroughs are required.
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
This sounds really interesting. Burning methanol emits less carbon than burning ethanol. I didn't see any mention of cellulosic methanol in Nobel prize winning author George Olah's book, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy. Maybe he could research and promote your idea.
Guest (Allergg)
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
Can ethanol and methanol be used together as a fuel? I heard Richard Branson say that he's exploring the development of buthanol as a jet fuel. He said that it works well at the low tempertures in which airplanes fly. But he didn't offer any insight into whether or not buthanol was related to ethanol or methanol in their manufacure.
I also believe we need to consider alternate fuels as a national emergency imperative. Our independence and sovereignty are being subverted by foreign oil.
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
This bug has already escaped! It is called a termite....and termites make up the largest biomass of any animal species in the rainforest.
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
Unfortunatly, methanol is a poisen that can be absorbed through the skin. Its widspread use will leave many more people suffering. Methanol also degrades and embrittles many plastics used as gaskets and tubing.
Ethanol does neither of these
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
True, methanol is more corrosive than ethanol, and true it is more toxic than ethanol. (Like gasoline is a non-toxic fuel?) Ethanol attacks aluminum and natural rubber products. (The use of Viton easily addresses the gasketing issues.)
Henry Ford ran his Model T on Ethanol. (It is just our propensity to drink ethanol that has halted it's use as a motor fuel. I had an associate who ran a Volkswagon Beetle on Ethanol in the early eightys.) It was just this past year that Indy racing switched over to ethanol as a series fuel.
Probably more is known about methanol as a motor fuel than ethanol. Methanol has been the fuel of choice for Indy car racing since the mid sixtys, and the National Hot Rod Association has allowed and promoted it's use in multithousand horsepower engines since the mid seventies.
Both fuels should be explored as alternatives to gasoline/diesel fuels. Ethanol has an edge as to being less toxic, and a higher energy content per gallon. Methanol, due to its simplier molecular structure, has an edge with producing fewer environmental degrading gasses.
While the general public may have some concerns, the automotive "Hot Rod" community is eagerly looking forward to the abundent availability of E85. With a high octane number(100-105), and preliminary tests in performance vehicles showing a 5% increase in power over expensive racing gasolines, it looks like for once the environmentalists and Hot Rodders are on the same side.
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
except for the fact that e85 runs so hot that vital engine parts, like valves, gaskets, etc, wear out so fact. Also, it gunks up engines. It's bette off, in the long run, to stick to hi-octane petroleum fuels.
Re: cellulosic METHANOL is a better bet
As I understand it, enzymes and bacteria to break down cellulose currently exist in the stomachs of cows, buffalo, and other herbivores. They convert cellulose in grass and shrubs to starches and sugars most efficiently, and without endangering plant life through their excretions; which I'm sure contain these enzymes and bacteria.
What if we are negatively affecting our planets ability to regenerate fertile soil this way?
What if we are negatively affecting our planets ability to regenerate fertile soil this way?
Can you be sure that we are not?
D~W
Cellulosic Feedstock - Alfalfa
Most of the feedstock mentioned is fertilizer intensive. Fertilizer comes from natural gas. One quarter of our natural gas comes from the volatile Middle East. What we have here is a Catch-22. We have solved nothing. May I suggest that the cellulosic feedstock be a legume? Legumes fix their own nitrogen. Alfalfa would be a better bet than
any other crop. After processing, the remains can be used for animal fodder and paper making.
Re: Cellulosic Feedstock - Alfalfa
Check out switchgrass, a native American plant. Doesn't require fertilizer or excessive water and can be converted into as much as 1500 gallons of ethanol per acre.
Re: Cellulosic Feedstock - Alfalfa
Alfalfa, like corn, is an annual, (requiring annual planting) won't produce well on marginal land, has tons of insect and disease problems, and is difficult (at best) to harvest. Switchgrass is perennial, native, highly disease and insect resistant, drought tolerant, will produce high yields with minimal fertility...........
If cellthanol one day flys and it helps protect mother earth, I might have to dust off the 78 New Yorker, and put it back out on the road.
I think a major breakthrough for the initial processing of the biomass for the breakdown of cellulose has been made using a Carabao rumen at the Philippine Carabao Center. As you all know the major challenge in producing cellulosic ethanol that sometimes makes it impractical to mass produce is the difficulty in breaking down the cellulose to simple sugar for fermentation. Previously, researchers has been using cow's rumen to break it down with some success, but still unable to process the lignin part. The Philippines reseachers was able to use the Carabao rumen to break it down with a resounding success of epic proportion. Read more at: http://fiorelloabenes.com/PCIERD.aspx
Ceetol is the future no doubt about it
Several countries are working on enzyme technology in a race to be the leader in Ceetol (cellulosic ethanol) production. New technologies are popping up on a global scale. Remember America is not the only country suffering from an oil crisis. New enzyme technology methods are exploding world wide in Ireland, England, Denmark, Germany, France, Australia, Phillippines, Japan, China, to name but a few. From all the U.S. based articles I have read Novozymes seems to be leading the enzyme technology here, but on a global stage they are not alone by any means. Energy policy is at the forefront of every debate in almost every country right now. This is truely a 'race to the moon' but with a lot more countries involved.
The best thing about this ceethol is we can drink it too. Can we? Toast!
it would be awesome if you could drink it. well you can, but in school we're making apple ethanol, and when finished, the alcohol yielded will be about 198 proof. This alcohol content is too high to drink. As it is possible to drink small amounts of this, if mixed wrong, you may have headaches, go blind, or, in some cases, even die.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:
On Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Feed
m_albertson
4 Comments
Yes...It will take off. Fasten your seatbelts.
In 1995 someone asked me if I thought the Internet would take off. A year later, the columnist from Dear Abby said that the Interet was only for young men who have too much time and can't get girlfriends.
I find it interesting that the folks who helped build the Internet, like Vinod Kholsa (and even Al Gore) are very bullish about Cellulosic Ethanol. Other respected minds like Richard Branson and Alan Greenspan are also touting Cellulosic Ethanol. If you look at where the technology and industry was a couple years ago, you might say that Cellulosic Ethanol has already taken off. It's moving so fast, it is very hard to keep track of it. Sites like <a href="http://www.InvestInCellulosicEthanol.com"> www.InvestInCellulosicEthanol.com </a> and the Energy Blog are the only ways I've been able to keep up.
Reply
infidel2
2 Comments
Re: Yes...It will take off. Fasten your seatbelts.
The planet is packed with humans and still growing expotentially. Ethanol as a fuel component will, I agree, start to grow rapidly. The total infrastructure will begin blossoming from fuel plant production, transportation, and finally the fueling station. Indy 500 racers use methanol, which would no doubt, be a small percentage of ethanol. It is a brave new world.
Reply