DailyDirt: Better Biofuels To Save The Day

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Sep 5th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Weaning ourselves off of a hydrocarbon-powered economy is not going to be easy. The infrastructure to distribute and use petroleum distillates is ubiquitous, so biofuels that can easily use the same equipment could be a convenient way to start replacing fossil fuels. Using more and more biofuels sounds like an easy solution, but the real trick is scaling up the processes in an economical way. Here are just a few biofuel projects that might be worth keeping an eye on.

Companies making biofuels from plant waste -- avoiding corn as a feedstock -- are starting to ramp up production, with capacities to make millions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol in a year. A few million gallons of alcohol isn't that much compared to the hundred of billions (with a b) of gallons of petroleum distillates that the US uses as fuel, but these biofuel technologies could become price competitive with corn-based ethanol in a few years. [url]
Enzymes from the wood-eating gribble could help turn cellulosic waste into biofuels. Not to be confused with the furry creatures hated by Klingons, the gribble produces this robust catalyst that breaks down a variety of polysaccharides into simple sugars -- potentially creating a key step in a process that would make sustainable liquid biofuels. [url]
A genetically modified strain of Pyrococcus furiosus might be useful for converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels. This microorganism usually lives near geothermal vents in ocean water, but an engineered colony of P furiosus could live in less extreme conditions and be fed a diet of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in order to skip the somewhat inefficient use of plant biomass to produce biofuels. [url]

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Filed Under: biofuel, biomass, carbon dioxide, carbon fixation, cellulose, energy, enzymes, ethanol, fuel, gribble, oil, petroleum, pyrococcus furiosus, sugar

5 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 5 Sep 2013 @ 5:27pm

We need more diesel engines...
And fewer hybrid cars. The popularity of diesel (or lack thereof) shows that the gasoline infrastructure is pretty important for passenger cars.
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artp (profile), 5 Sep 2013 @ 7:06pm

It isn't plant WASTE
It is organic matter that needs to go back into the soil to keep the organic content of the soil up, to preserve the soil fertility and to increase the soil's water-carrying capacity. Water-carrying capacity is important to help plants be more drought-resistant, and to provide more moisture holding capacity in the soil in order to reduce and slow down runoff from heavy rains.

Even better, the "plant waste" should lay on the top of the soil over winter to protect it from erosion, and then be plowed under in the spring. This has not been done because large modern farms are "more efficient", thus requiring them to plow in the fall, plant so early in the spring that fungus-preventing coatings are required for the seeds, and use equipment so huge that the basic conservation practice of contour plowing is now impractical.

Engineering 101 taught me to check my assumptions. Modern farming needs to have its assumptions checked. Do not accept everything you hear on face value. You will destroy the planet.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Sep 2013 @ 9:29pm

Make alcohol from plant waste aren't new
I remember back in school (that's 15+ years ago) I read that Brazil had used remain of sugar cane from sugar factory to make alcohol and add that to gasoline, that's where gasohol comes.
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artp (profile), 6 Sep 2013 @ 9:09am

Re: Make alcohol from plant waste aren't new
In the USA, gasohol is made from corn. The kernels, not the stalks. The leftover protein is sold to feed cattle to market weight. Sort of like cereal makers selling waste sweetened cereals to fatten cattle. It isn't healthy, but they can make a buck doing it.
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Andrew D. Todd, 6 Sep 2013 @ 9:29am

Re: We need more diesel engines...-- With Hybrid
Actually, what you want is a diesel-hybrid. Diesels have a comparatively narrow "power band." An electric intermediary drive, with, say, a hundred pounds of batteries, allows the diesel to operate in its most efficient mode.
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