Better biofuels: UC drives the research

Always a leader in advancing scientific discovery, the University of California is applying its research muscle to the quest for alternative fuels. Interdisciplinary teams of researchers across the UC system are at work with the goal of reducing U.S. petroleum dependence and the harmful impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Producing the next generation of biofuels – a cost-effective vehicle fuel replacement derived from plant biomass – is only one part of UC's climate change-related research push. But it is a research area already attracting support from private entrepreneurs and public agencies alike. Global energy firm BP, for example, is funding the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, also the host of the Department of Energy-funded Joint BioEnergy Institute. That support demonstrates the potential for technology transfer to private industry and green job creation.

A host of biofuel research projects are underway at UC exploring promising biomass feedstocks – from table scraps to algae. Here is just a sample of UC's visionary research into the transportation fuels of the future.

Ruihong Zhang

Garbage powers vehicles

Ruihong Zhang, professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, UC Davis

The Biogas Energy Project launched at UC Davis in fall 2006 with a demonstration facility to process 8 tons of organic waste a day. Food scraps from Bay Area restaurants and the UC Davis campus fed the pilot project's "digester," which converts organic waste into natural gas for heating, electricity and clean vehicle fuels.

Now Onsite Power Systems, which licenses the biogas technology from the university, is creating for the City of Industry's garbage hauler a commercial digester that can process 250 tons of waste a day.

The fuel produced will power the company's garbage trucks, said UC Davis professor Ruihong Zhang, who developed the anaerobic phased solid digester technology. The City of Industry plant will process food waste and green clippings. The residue left from the biofuel process will be used as compost since the digester destroys any pathogens in the organic materials being processed.

Zhang says her waste-conversion technology not only produces cost-effective biofuels but also reduces waste pollution and produces public health benefits.

"The waste is now going to landfills or is put on agricultural land without treatment," says Zhang. "We can quickly convert the wastes to products that are used for energy and compost."

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 44 million tons of food wastes are buried in landfills each year. Diverting a portion of that waste into energy helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and odors from the dumpsites and saves hauling costs.

"Biogas fuel is very cost-effective compared to natural gas because we have savings on waste disposal," Zhang says.

Unlike existing biodigesters, her innovative technology can process both solid and liquid waste with minimal pretreatment in half the time as other digesters. Working with UC Davis students in the lab, Zhang has determined the best process conditions and microorganisms to convert the waste into gas. Unlike digesters used in wastewater treatment plants that produce only methane gas, Zhang's digester produces both methane and hydrogen. Those improvements to the digester technology make Zhang's technology a promising method for efficiently producing alternative energy.

The digester technology has many possible uses in both rural and urban communities. This month the digester housed on the UC Davis campus is gearing up with new equipment to test the processing of food manufacturing and dairy farm wastes.

Critical biomass growing for green industry

Jay Keasling, professor of chemical and bioengineering, UC Berkeley, CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute

http://jbei.org

The Joint BioEnergy Institute is one of three new U.S. Department of Energy research centers pursuing the next generation of biofuels. It brings together scientists from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford University and the Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories.

This research hub focuses on three transportation fuel challenges: producing better feedstock plants to use as biomass; perfecting deconstruction methods for breaking down lignocellulose into fermentable sugars; and processing the biomass into usable ethanol and other fuels. The goal is rapid commercialization of cost-competitive transportation fuels.

"This is a tremendous economic opportunity for California just by having the Joint BioEnergy Institute in the East Bay," says institute CEO Jay Keasling. "The Bay Area is really going to be a hot bed for green technology. I think we'll be known as much for green technology as for the computer and biotech industries."

The research also has the potential to revolutionize the U.S. agriculture industry along with the energy industry, says Keasling. The biomass plants used can vary for each U.S. region: switch grass for the Midwest, poplar trees for the Northwest and sugar for the South.

"This could be a renaissance for agriculture," Keasling says. "If we're serious about this, we can make the Midwest into the Middle East. They're sitting on 'oil fields' of cellulose."

B. Gregory Mitchell

Algae floated as ideal feedstock for fuel

B. Gregory Mitchell, research biologist, senior lecturer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

http://spg.ucsd.edu

In the quest for the perfect biofuel feedstock, Greg Mitchell believes the lowly algae have a lot to recommend them.

This diverse and plentiful organism grows in both fresh and salt water and can double in size in a day, making it an ideal source of biomass to produce fuel, Mitchell says. Its yields are 10 times greater than terrestrial plants, so less land is needed for growing.

He envisions cultivating microalgae in open ponds in the desert, using land and water not suitable for agriculture. Critics say growing food crops such as soybeans and corn for ethanol production will soak up too much valuable agriculture land, driving up the cost of food. So it makes sense, Mitchell says, to cultivate a nonfood crop like algae. That would put producers in dry western states in a better position to get a piece of the biofuel industry.

"In California we're not going to be growing the massive amounts of corn for ethanol," Mitchell says, but arid parts of the state could be ideal for algae farms.

He estimates that 20 million acres devoted to algae farming could supply all U.S. transportation fuel.

"I consider this potentially transformative on the order of the industrial revolution, sailing ships and jet flight, " Mitchell says.

The idea of using algae as a biofuel feedstock isn't new. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the principal research lab for the Department of Energy, studied algae-derived biofuel from 1978 to the project's closure in 1996. At the time, algal biofuel just couldn't compete in cost with petroleum. A lot has changed since then. The price of a barrel of oil has rolled over the $100 mark, and bioscience has advanced. Researchers can genetically modifying the algae to create feedstock with higher oil content to make production more cost-effective. 

A handful of entrepreneurial startups are experimenting with algae biofuel, and Chevron Corp. last year announced a collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to produce new strains of algae for biofuel. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the R&D organization for the Department of Defense, is soliciting proposals for developing algae as a biomass for jet fuel production.

There is no one right or wrong biofuel process or feedstock, Mitchell says, and the United State should be looking at all possibilities if it ever wants to achieve energy independence.

"I do believe this is a really important opportunity," Mitchell says. "We really need to be careful to invest in a balanced way."