Alternate Fuel Testers

Biofuels are coming, really

What I have ti say bout Ethanol and BioButanol by Rudy Stefenel, 2/9/2009:

You probably know that gasoline that you buy at the gas pump has some ethanol in it, and flex fuel cars will run on pure gasoline or E85. E85 is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Two problems have been pitched in the news about biofuels, especially ethanol. One problem is that food crops, mainly corn, has been used to make most of the ethanol produced in the USA, and that corn could have been used for food. The other problem is that there are not many E85 pumps available to the public, especially in California.

Please look over excerpts that I have copies and pasted below from Internet news articles about ethanol and biobutanol below. You will see that there is an enormous amount of work and money being spent on making biofuels from non food vegetation and left overs from food production.

Also, you will see that there is one E85 station in the Bay Area now.

In my opinion, we will be using biofuels in the future and not made from from food. It is a matter of time. Also we will have vehicles that can use these biofuels.

Biobutanol is especially good because it will run in any gasoline engine without modifications, and produce significantly less pollution that gasoline does. It took enormous investments to make petroleum products economical, and it will take enormous investments to make biofuels economical too.

A big problem with petroleum products is that they are producing a lot of pollution, greenhouse gases, and acid rain. The cost of countering these problems has not been included in their cost. With the right leadership and cooperation, these costs will be introduced into the cost of petroleum products, which make biofuels more competitive.

It makes sense that there is no one solution to over population, global warming, and pollution. Biofuels are only one part of it. Surely Hybrids and Electric Cars will have an impact. Energy Efficiency, Solar, Wind, Geo-Thermal, Car Pooling and lots of other things will contribute to the solution.

As biofuels go, I call biobutanol that humanity biofuel because it will run in any existing gasoline engine without modifications. You don't have to go out an buy a new car or spend a dime on modifying your engine. Not only that, you will produce a whole lot less pollution when burning pure biobutanol in your automobile. We just need to get this stuff in to gas stations. The trick will be to make it economically and from non-food products or leftovers from food production. Surely making biobutanol and other biofuels from algae is in the cards too.

See the excerpts from Internet news articles below:

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SkiHeaven.com:
Oct 13, 2008 11:17 pm US/Pacific
Ethanol Station Opens Up In East Bay If you own a flex-fuel vehicle, you now have a choice for filling up. The first public station to sell E85 Ethanol in the Bay Area has opened in Concord.
Ethanol, made from corn and other plant products, is clean burning and renewable. While other states have hundreds of ethanol pumps, California only has five stations, including the new one at Highway 4 and Willow Pass Road.




Yahoo News on the web: Saturday, August 2, 2008
Bioprospecting for Improved Methods of Biofuel Production
UMBI has received a $575,000, three-year subcontract award from the University of California at Berkeley to develop more efficient ways to convert lignocellulose to biofuels such as ethanol and butanol.




Earth Times: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:46:28 GMT Author : CA-SRI-CONSULTING
MENLO PARK, Calif. - (Business Wire) Two things are apparent concerning the biofuels industry. First, they are entering a new era. Second, their future as well as the future of many chemicals is linked together. Today, SRI Consulting (SRIC) published its new report: 2008 Biofuels and the Impact on Chemicals, providing its most comprehensive study on phase II biofuels, bioethanol, biodiesel, biobutanol, and many other products.




Energy Dept. biofuels grants available
Moldova.org Mon, 22 Dec 2008 3:42 PM PST
Up to $200 million for pilot and demonstration-scale biorefineries is available to develop cost-efficient advanced biofuels, the U.S. Energy Department says. The money is to support development of programs that include using feedstocks such as algae and production of advanced biofuels such as bio-butanol, green gasoline and other innovative biofuels, the department said Monday in a news ...




SeedQuest News section, Wilmington, Delaware, October 7, 2008
The DuPont BioFuels business strategy is developing and commercializing an upstream biofuel technology to produce cellulosic ethanol that will use non-food energy feedstocks such as corn cob and switchgrass, and a downstream biofuel technology to produce biobutanol, a high-performance biofuel that can be delivered through existing gasoline distribution channels.

In May, DuPont announced a joint venture with Danisco to deliver low cost, sustainable cellulosic ethanol technology. In July, the DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC joint venture announced a partnership with the University of Tennessee to build a pilot and demonstration facility for the cellulosic ethanol technology, groundbreaking scheduled later this month. Pilot production utilizing corn cob and switchgrass is expected to begin in 2009 with commercially viable economics by 2010.




Ethenol Producer Magazine: From the February 2009 Issue By Khalila Hammond
Funding still remains available for both first-generation and second-generation technologies. “Many people thought that with all the bad press, there was no money available for first-generation technologies, but that is not the case,” said Vicky Sharpe, president and chief executive officer of Sustainable Development Technology Canada. According to SDTC, $1.2 billion in public funding has been invested in next-generation technology in the areas of enzymatic hydrolysis, gasification, algae and biobutanol. “More than $200 million in venture capital has been invested in 16 Canadian companies [so far],” she said.





BIOMASS magazine: February 3, 2009
Syntec Biofuel Inc. launched a research program to develop catalysts and processes to produce biobutanol and biopropanol from biomass. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Syntec boasts a yield of 110 gallons per ton from its proprietary catalysts that convert municipal solid waste and biomass into ethanol, methanol and propanol. The company is seeking partners to help finance the estimated $2.5 million, three-year research and development program that will adapt the technology for biobutanol and biopropanol production.




New Kerela.Com: Washington, Jan 11 - 2009
A University of Illinois researcher has determined that butanol made from plant material could displace butanol made from petroleum, and that too just not at the fuel pump. Blaschek has been studying microorganisms that are used in fermentation processes for over 25 years. About 10 years ago, his lab at Illinois had a breakthrough with the development of a mutant strain of a soil bacterium called Clostridium beijerinckii that produces higher concentrations of butanol when added to a vat of plant byproduct.

"One of the beauties of Clostridium, is that unlike yeast that can only use six carbon sugars, this organism can use five or six carbon sugars, so you're not limited. You can use distiller's grains, biomass, pretty much anything that can be deconstructed to sugars and can be fermented," Blaschek explained.

"Clostridium eats both and it does it naturally. You don't have to engineer the organism like people have been doing for the last 20 years with yeast trying to get it to use five carbon sugars," he added.

Because the mutant strain produces higher concentrations of butanol, it's the basis for Tetravitae BioSciences, a local company that licensed the patented strain from the University of Illinois and is scaling up to use the over-productive strain on a large scale - the size of an ethanol plant.




Chemical Online: November 27, 2008
Syntec to Develop Catalysts To Produce Butanol And Propanol From Biomass And MSW
Vancouver, BC - Syntec Biofuel Inc. announced recently it is launching a research program to develop catalysts and processes to produce Bio-butanol and Bio-propanol from biomass. This new R&D initiative is projected to be a 3 year program and will run in parallel with Syntec's catalyst development. The company will be seeking strategic financial partners to support the estimated costs of US $2,500,000.

Syntec has, since 2001, successfully developed catalysts to convert biomass and MSW into ethanol, methanol and higher order alcohols; currently, boasting one of the highest yields in the world (110 gpt). Syntec is one of a small handful of companies around the world specializing in thermo-chemical biofuel technology.




Auto Spies: 11/15/2008
Butanol Could be a Much Better Gas Replacement Than Ethanol
The technology to make biobutanol, a non-food based biofuel, cost-competitive with gasoline isn’t here yet, but companies in the know say that it could be by 2010.




ScienceDaily: (Nov. 15, 2008)
Retooled Approach May Make Bio-based Butanol More Competitive With Ethanol
A modified method of producing biobutanol could make the fuel more competitive with ethanol as a clean-burning alternative to gasoline.

According to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemical engineer Nasib Qureshi, biobutanol offers several advantages. It can be transported in existing pipelines, it's less corrosive, it can be mixed with gasoline or used alone in internal combustion engines, and it packs more energy per gallon than ethanol.




Yahoo News: By Julie GordonMon Jun 2, 9:34 AM ET
Plant waste biofuels benefit from food debate
In the search for renewable energy, turning low-value materials like switchgrass and corn husks into ethanol to fuel cars is something of a Holy Grail.

In a greenhouse on the top floor of the science complex at the University of Guelph in southwestern Ontario, microbiologist Anthony Clarke stands next to rows of corn plants sprouting out of black plastic pots. In them, he sees the future of renewable fuel -- but he's not looking at the corn kernel.

"We have all that other green matter: the leaves, the stalk, the husks even," he said. "So the idea would be to use that material for the biofuel and the grain itself as a food."

With the current technology, cellulose delivers less energy than corn. But if the scientists can make their dream technology work, cellulosic ethanol could be three to eight times more energy efficient than corn ethanol.

The goal is to create an inexpensive and natural way to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale. (Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Eddie Evans)
California NanoSystems Institute
MIT Technology Review Features Nanotechnology Research by CNSI Member James Liao on Biofuels

Genes inserted into E. coli bacteria encode proteins (ribbon- and string-shaped structures) that convert an amino acid precursor (green and red molecule) into alcohols that could be used as biofuels. (Credit: James Liao, UCLA)

December 09, 2008 - Modified E. coli produce long-chain alcohol fuels that have advantages over ethanol and butanol.

By engineering the metabolic process of the common E. coli bacteria, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have coaxed the microorganism into churning out useful long-chain alcohols that have potential as new biofuels. The bacteria-produced biofuels have between five and eight carbon atoms, compared with ethanol, which has two carbons.

The higher number of carbon atoms gives the biofuels as much energy per gallon as gasoline; by comparison, ethanol has 30 percent less energy than gasoline. And unlike ethanol, the new biofuels are compatible with today's gasoline infrastructure, says James Liao, a UCLA chemical- and biomolecular-engineering professor, who headed the research. Since the long-chain alcohols do not absorb water as easily as ethanol, they could be transported around the country in existing petroleum pipelines.






Ethanol firms clear deals for non-food feedstocks (CNET) Posted on Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:23PM EST
Two companies trying to lay claim to having the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. have secured financing to get closer to that goal. Range Fuels on Monday said that it expects to receive an $80 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build an ethanol plant in Soperton, Ga.

The plant, which will use wood chips from neighborhood pine forests as feedstock, is on track to begin producing next year.

Another firm, Verenium, said last week that it plans to break ground on a facility in Florida later this year which will produce ethanol fuel from grasses.

The plant, which is expected to be operating in 2011, will make 36 million gallons of ethanol a year from grasses grown nearby. Verenium has a process that uses specially designed enzymes to convert biomass into ethanol. The project received a $7 million grant as part of Florida's "Farm to Fuels" initiative.

There are several companies trying to find commercially viable methods for making ethanol from non-food feedstocks but there are still only a handful of cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants in the U.S.

The economic situation, which has made borrowing more difficult and lowered commodity prices, has made it harder for these firms to test their technologies at commercial scale. Some corn ethanol plants have been idled, while some new construction has been

posted by Rudy Stefenel @ 2/09/2009 04:47:00 PM