A promising new energy crop has had its genetic map created by Aberystwyth University, in Wales, and US-based Ceres Inc.

According to the online journal PLoS One, the team from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth have created a collection of genetically related plants which were then sequenced and analysed by Ceres. The crop, known as Miscanthus, is a cane-like grass that could be used for advanced biofuels; as well as in other bio-products.

Researchers have discovered 20,000 genetic differences that allow individual plants to be differentiated based on small variations within their DNA. Around 3,500 of these could be used for crop improvement purposes.

According to Richard Flavell, who is the chief scientific officer at Ceres, the improvements in breeding techniques were needed for Miscanthus to be used widely. It has mainly been used previously for electricity generation but was not seen as viable due to its high production costs.

Seeded types should require less time, effort and money to be bred for different environments and now Ceres is evaluating the crop in a number of locations.

Fifteen per cent volume ethanol (E15) has taken a step closer to becoming a mainstream alternative for our vehicles after the Environmental Protection Association (EPA) informed the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) that its mitigation plan would generally be satisfactory to satisfy the waivers’ requirement.

A partial waiver will allow both fuel and fuel additive manufacturers to use petrol-ethanol models of no more than E15 for model year 2001 vehicles and higher. The misfueling mitigation plan must provide provisions that ensure all precautions possible are taken to ensure that E15 is only introduced for models of 2001 onwards.

Among the precautions that must be taken are: clearly labelled E15 fuel pump dispensers; a compliance survey; and information on product transfer documents.

According to RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen, the announcement clears the way for E15 to be used and for the ethanol industry to educate both retailers and consumers to its benefits.

The decision follows on from February 17 when the EPA approved health effects testing for E15.

Primus Green Energy – a company that develops petrol and other fuels from biomass and natural gas – has received a substantial funding boost.

It has picked up $12million from IC Green Energy Ltd, the renewable energy arm of Israel Corporation – bringing its total funds raised over the last five years to $40million. Thanks to the latest round of funding, Primus Green Energy now has enough money for its single-loop demonstration plant which is currently being constructed in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

So what’s so special about the technology?

Primus Green manages to combine industry proven methodologies with processes that can produce chemicals and fuel at a commercial level. It consists of biomass gasification and the conversion of natural gas to syngas; while the back end includes the STG Plus process, which is a version of the ExxonMobil methanol to petrol process.

The petrol that has already been produced has undergone industry testing and is found to have the physical and chemical properties that adhere to the specifications of petrol. According to Primus, the conversion efficiency is 25 per cent – twice that of its closest competitor – and it hopes to increase this to 33 per cent.

The company already has a pilot test plant operating in the town – and wants to break ground on its first commercial plant in 2013. It is working closely with Bechtel Hydrocarbon Technology Solutions in regards to the design, plant construction and operating costs.

The global market for clean energy technologies continued a rapid expansion in 2011, against a tough economic and politic climate, according to new research from leading analyst company, Clean Edge Inc.

Combined global revenue for solar, wind power and biofuels rose 31 per cent over the previous year, from $188.1 billion in 2010 to $246.1 billion last year, according to the firm’s Clean Energy Trends 2012 report released this week. The bulk of the expansion is accredited to a double-digit growth in both wind and solar deployment around the world.

However the clean energy sector is not getting the recognition it deserves for its successes, Clean Edge analysts say, with a global success story being overshadowed by a handful of business failures.  In the US, the failure of Solyndra solar PV business became infamous, despite the wide success of the solar industry as a whole. The global market for solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) increased from $71.2 billion in 2010 to $91.6 billion in 2011.

“Last year saw many in the clean-tech community caught off guard, as the industry became a modern-day whipping boy,” said Ron Pernick, Clean Edge co-founder and managing director. “The attacks, offered up in sound bite-sized nuggets delivered more for impact than accuracy, overlooked the fact that many clean-energy technologies are becoming increasingly cost-competitive, central to the expansion of energy markets in places like China, Japan, and Germany, and a critical hedge against more volatile forms of traditional energy.” 

In the solar-sector, total market revenues grew 29 per cent, installations climbed more than 69 per cent from 15.6 gigawatts in 2010 to more than 26 GW worldwide last year.

The wind power sectors revenues totalled a record $71.5 billion in 2011, up 18 per cent from $60.5 billion the prior year, and is projected to reach $116.3 billion in 2021. Last year’s global wind power installations equalled 41.6 GW, the largest year for global installations on record.

Biofuels revenues reached a record $83 billion in 2011, up from $56.4 billion the prior year. However this increase was mostly due to a rise in ethanol and biodiesel prices, the result of higher costs for feedstock commodities – mainly sugar for ethanol and rapeseed and other vegetable oils for biodiesel.

There has been considerable debate about the environmental value of biofuels when it takes such an extensive crop yield to be converted into fuel that can be used in our cars. However, now a start-up company has developed technology that could address this issue.

Cool Planet Biofuels claims it has achieved a conversion yield of 4,000 gallons of petrol/acre biomass during pilot testing thanks to the use of giant miscanthus, an advanced bio-energy crop. It is believed that is around 12 times greater than current corn ethanol production levels.

Developed at the University of Mississippi, the giant miscanthus is one of several advanced bio-energy crops that could be used – including sorghum and switch grass. Agricultural waste from food crops could also be used to create around 1,000gallons of petrol/acre.

Mike Cheiky, the founder and CEO of Cool Planet Biofuels, commented that the results were achieved in optimal crop growth conditions – but even under more routine conditions, yields could be achieved of around 3,000 gallons/acre.

To achieve these yields, Cool Planet uses mild process conditions with input biomass ground from in field air-dried bio-energy crops with moisture content in the 10-20 per cent range. The total process time is less than an hour and total energy and biomass feedstock cost is under 60 cents/gallon.

The widespread availability of E15 has taken a step forward after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved health effects testing.

The health effects testing by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy is a significant step towards the approval of a new fuel; and suppliers of ethanol and E15 are now able to register with EPA to offer the fuel.

Completing health effects testing now means that the path is almost clear for E15 to be registered as a fuel – and for it to be offered in the wider marketplace. Now the RFA expects fuel companies to register with the EPA immediately.

Another remaining step for its emergence however, is the formulation of a misfuelling mitigation plan. The E15 waiver applies to model year 2001 and newer vehicles and doesn’t include non-road, marine and vehicle engines – so helping to ensure that consumers are using E15 legally will be vital. As such the RFA has offered a misfuelling mitigation plan that should serve as a model for fuel retailers to comply with EPA regulations. Once completed, E15 can be sold to approved-vehicles in states and at stations prepared to do so.

The RFA is expected to continue to lead efforts to ensure state fuel regulations allow for E15 to be sold and that both retailers and consumers are well informed about how to use it.

We may be on the cusp of an era of vehicle electrification, but according to Pike Research, biofuels still have a huge role to play in the future of the automobile.

It predicts that the global market for biofuels will more than double during the next decade – when it is set to increase from $82.7billion in 2011 to around $185.3billion by 2021. Its report is partly based on movements by at least 38 national governments with blending mandates or targets to increase the expansion of biofuel production and consumption.

However, despite this growth, Pike expects the industry to fall short of overall demand – which is set to reach 71.8 BGPY (billion gallons per year). At the moment, doubling the current level of biofuels production would represent just seven per cent of the global transportation fuels market in 2021. This is because Pike expects the global petrol market to reach 375 BGPY in 2021, while demand for diesel will reach at least 427 BGPY.

According to the report, entitled Biofuels Markets and Technologies, despite huge demand for biofuels from the transportation market, the financial hurdles and access to inexpensive feedstocks are continuing to scupper the industry.

Growth is expected to climb steadily until 2016 – but then it will expand at a more robust rate due in part to higher oil prices, emerging mandate obligations and the availability of new feedstocks. Ethanol production is likely to be dominant in the sector and reach 49.5 BGPY by 2021 – compared to biodiesel at 16.2 BGPY. Meanwhile, the Americas will account for 71 per cent of global biofuels production.

Bacteria found in the Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs could one day help produce cheaper ethanol fuel.

Scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have found that the C. obsidiansis bacteria first found in Yellowstone could be the ideal micro-organism for breaking down complex, woody plants such as switchgrass; simplifying the production of ethanol and making it lower cost.

Currently, the production of ethanol relies on expensive enzymes to break down the crop and yield the plant’s sugars to ferment into ethanol. One alternative is consolidated bioprocessing, a streamlined process that uses micro-organisms to break down the resistant biomass.

"Consolidated bioprocessing is like a one-pot mix," said Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Richard Giannone, co-author on a BESC (BESC is one of three research centres funded by the US Department for Energy) proteomics study that looked at the Yellowstone microorganism as a candidate. "You want to throw plant material into a pot with the microorganism and allow it to degrade the material and produce ethanol at the same time."

The C. obsidiansis is a naturally occurring bacterium discovered first by BESC scientists in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring. The microorganism, which thrives at extremely high temperatures, breaks down organic material such as sticks and leaves in its natural environment-qualities the scientists hope to transfer to biofuel production tanks.

In a paper featured on the cover of the Journal of Proteome Research, the BESC team conducted a comparative analysis of proteins from C. obsidiansis grown on four different carbon sources, ranging from a simple sugar to more complex substrates such as pure cellulose and finally to switchgrass. The succession of carbon substrates allowed researchers to compare how the organism processes increasingly complex materials.

The researchers found that growth on switchgrass prompted the organism to express an expanded set of proteins to deal specifically with the hemicellulose content of the plant, including hemicellulose-targeted glycosidases and extracellular solute-binding proteins. Acting together, these two sub-systems work to break down the plant material and import the resulting sugars into the cell. The scientists went on to show that once inside the cell, the organism "switches on" certain enzymes to process the sugars inside the plant into usable energy.

"By comparing how C. obsidiansis reacted to switchgrass, relative to pure cellulose, we were able to pinpoint the specific proteins and enzymes that are important to plant cell wall deconstruction—a major roadblock to the production of advanced biofuels," Giannone said.

It appears that algal biofuels could be a legitimate solution in the efforts to combat lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s the verdict of a study by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, MIT and Synthetic Genomics in the paper Environmental Science and Technology.

Its study looked into how various technology options could affect greenhouse gas emissions and on-site freshwater consumption and it found that when produced in large volumes algae has the potential to produce huge amounts of fuel per unit area of production. Therefore, it could potentially expand transportation energy supplies without needing a significant displacement of land and water resources. However, the researchers do point out that algal production remains at an early stage of its research and development and that there may be many possible technology configurations.

It’s not the first time that the companies have looked into algal biofuel production. In 2009, ExxonMobil launched a new programme to research and develop advanced biofuels from photosynthetic algae that would be compatible with today’s fuels. Then in 2011, at the Algae Biomass Summit in Minneapolis, it provided a summary of its efforts to tackle the challenges of large scale production, including: achieving high bio-oil yields at lower costs; the best product systems for growing strains; establishing a bio-oil upgrading process compatible with existing refinery infrastructures; and determining the best product systems for growing strains.

For the latest study they looked at a small-scale open pond facility with three distinct oil recovery options: dry extraction, secretion and wet extraction.

Among its findings were that with wet extraction there is potential for more than 50 per cent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the energy balance can also be favourable. It also found that algal biofuels in saline systems using brackish makeup water can have freshwater consumption that compares to petrol fuels.

Tuesday 7 February, 2012. The Green Piece Column.

Last week was a bad week for the biofuel industry with leaked data from the European Commission (see story) seeming to support the stance of charities Friends of the Earth (FOE) and ActionAid in suggesting that some of our current biofuel sources are inexcusably unsustainable (see story).

And it is not just here in Europe that biofuels seem to be falling foul of environmental regulations. Over in the US, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that biofuel made from palm oil fails to meet its new greenhouse gas (GHG) assessments as part of its Renewable Fuel Standard (see story).

While much of the industry will point out that one source of biofuel is not the same as another, and that the manner of production bears a great deal on the end GHG assessments, there is no denying, that both the US and Europe have been quick to bring in policies that support the use of biofuel in transport, ahead of measures and safeguards to ensure these fuels actually offered an environmental advantage. The European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED), first introduced in 2008, brought in a 10 per cent target for renewable fuels in transport fuel by 2020. Green groups at the time warned that member states would likely depend on biofuels to meet the target, and that such a policy would cause widespread environmental and social problems.

Four years later, and the problems are only now beginning to be addressed, after much protest and bad press in the intervening period. With the EC now desperately trying to clean up the mess by introducing new Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) assessments into its policies, it is becoming clearer just how much of a mess has been created by the rush for biofuels.

Repent at leisure

This week’s leaked data from the EC’s ILUC assessments suggests that some sources of biofuel are not just more polluting than conventional petrol and diesel but are even close to being as filthy as that dirtiest of fossil fuels; tar sand oils, which attract a rating of 107g CO2 equivalent per megajoule of fuel (CO2/mj). Biodiesel derived from palm oil is rated at 105g according to the leaked assessments with conventional fossil fuel sources given a 87.5g rating, which means that that soybean (103g), rapeseed (95g), and sunflower (86g) sources, also exceed ordinary fossil fuel once ILUC is factored in.

Another problem biofuel policies have been linked to is a rise in food prices and land grabbing deals; driving hunger among the world’s most vulnerable, poor people. These claims have been supported by some very high and mighty authorities including the International Food Policy Research Institute, International Land Coalition (see story) , the World Bank (see story),the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (see story) and the Nuffield Council of Bioethics (see story) among others.

And even in wealthy, western countries, biofuels are expected to cause trouble. According to new research released last week by Friends of the Earth and ActionAid, Europe’s 10 per cent target could cost UK motorists up to £2bn more a year at the fuel pumps by 2020 (see story) making current biofuel policies hard to justify from just about any perspective.

Of course, there are many different sources of biofuel and many different ways of producing biofuel, some of which are still in the process of development, so it is important that we don’t throw baby out with the bath water. After all, the leaked EC data also shows some encouraging results, especially for second generation fuels. For example second generation, non-land using ethanol and biodiesel are rated with a tiny footprint of 9g CO2/mj.  The ‘non land-using’ term could sound a bit confusing, it can mean that the biofuel is a by-product of food production, say wheat straw, and although it is therefore a product of the land, it does not require land of its own to produce.

Second-generation fuels definitely seem more promising, with waste biomass or non-food crops the sources of choice. However there are concerns that even these fuels could cause problems, if they are not properly managed and handled. For example, one second generation fuel, a non-food crop, known for its ability to grown on marginalized scrub-land is Jatropha (pictured above). However just because it is hardy enough to grow where food crops can’t, doesn’t mean it won’t be grown on traditional farmland, especially if the price for the fuel is right. After all it will grow even better on nutritious soil, so there is still concern that poor people will be priced off their farmland to make way to grown crops to stick in rich people’s tanks. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) entitled ‘Sustainable Production of Second-Generation Biofuels’ and published in 2010, much concurred with these concerns and while it recognized that second generation fuels have strong potential, it recommended that more research be conducted to ensure that these fuels have real economic, social and environmental benefits.

Our verdict: Clean up and proceed with caution

There is undoubtedly a big difference between the production of first generation fuels, grown where rainforests once flourished or where farmers once grew crops to feed local people and the sensible recycling of waste products born from food production. But GHG social impact assessments need to be thorough, safeguards put in place to ensure that corrupt producers don’t attempt to dodge or undermine those assessments and research into more efficient, cheaper and better sources of fuel need to continue.

The venture into biofuels need not stop at second-generation fuels either, there are third generation fuels such as algae and fourth generation (loosely defined as genetic modified fuel sources, often using genomically synthesized microbes to produce a carbon-negative end product) to consider too, and though these might be a way off yet, these could yet yield interesting results. In the meantime however, biofuels need to clean up their act and Europe needs to publish the official GHG assessments as soon as possible-any attempt to hide the mess will only make the publicity for biofuels worse. It would be more of a disaster if research into new fuels is undermined by the storm of controversy caused by the use of first generation fuels. We’ve one message for Europe and the US; go back to the lab and rethink your approach.

Faye Sunderland.