2015 Sun Grant Conference: Academia Jumps One Step Forward and Shows What Will Be the Future of Lignocellulosic Biomass Production and Utilization in the Southeastern USA

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February 25, 2015

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: Author, Dan Quadros, in Auburn, Alabama.

by Danilo Gusmão de Quadros* (Advanced Biofuels USA) After two days (February 2-3, 2015) in “Sweet Home Alabama” at Auburn University, we got overwhelmed with the most recent discoveries of cutting-edge research that were presented there. But which novelties will be applicable to the biomass industry?

To show that, I divided this article into two segments: advances in feedstock production systems and new technologies for biomass conversion into biofuels and chemicals.

Feedstock production systems

Herbaceous plants should be the key feedstock supplies to fill the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) goals for the next years, considering projections for corn ethanol, residues and wood. In this context, the Southeast seems to be the land of milk and honey to grow dedicated crops for bioenergy and biofuels.

Plant breeding and selection have an important role in the development of new cultivars specific to this region.

Presentation, part of the feedstock track at

New varieties of sweet sorghum, which are more productive, sweeter, tolerant to water stress or flooding, and resistant to diseases have been researched to supply easily convertible sugar.

Switchgrass, the native grass most studied for biomass, is a reliable source of biomass which brings direct environmental benefits and has social acceptance, despite only medium economic performance.

Thinking of diversity, giant miscanthus should be considered in the system. Many tests have been conducted to evaluate establishment, yield, harvest, storage, and transportation. The costs are currently acceptable.

New ways to manage biofuel crops are important to a sustainable biomass system. Elephantgrass and energy cane are prominents to be explored in low productivity lands (previously called “marginal lands”). In these areas, low input and high yield can be achieved by the use of legumes intercropped, like winter clovers, keeping the production more constant over the years and bringing environmental benefits, considering soil organic carbon (SOC) and greenhouse gases (GHG).

Genera Energy's Kelley Tiller presents on feedstock logistics.

Brassica catarinata has special non-edible oil composition favorable to producing jetfuel, increasing selling prices and arousing the interest of aviation companies committed to reducing the carbon footprint of each mile flown.

Not too much was talked about harvesting. But some insights from Genera Energy showed biomass sorghum's high yield varieties being dried down and baled with new machines, improving the logistics and storage. Pile storage of chopped material also has been tested and, after 150 days, the results are impressive.

A lot of attention was given to woody biomass at the conference. First, in the Southeast, 60% of the land area is woody biomass, half being planted and half naturally regenerated. It means a lot of residue. This fostered an established paper mill industry and new pellet companies. The next focus will be in short-rotational wood, like hybrid poplar, black willow, eucalyptus, and populus. Furthermore, new management and practices can enhance the profitability of loblolly pine.

Intercropping trees and grasses with techniques to mitigate competition might capitalize the area.

To be part of the supply system, the biomass source should be reliable, with low cost and high quality. Diversification is a relevant point that is favorable in the Southeast.

A Billion Ton Update, which will be release in June of 2016, is going to bring additional information about feedstock supply, prices, costs of transportation, and impacts regarding sustainability and carbon implications (climate change impacts, SOC, water quantity and quality, air quality, and biodiversity). For the first time, algae will be included.

One point that really got my attention was the development of models. According to Dr. George E.P. Box (1919-2013), “essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.” These tools are very important in the biomass supply chain scenario. More and more complete models have been used for, among others: cost evaluation, transportation and logistics aspects analysis, integrating biomass with spatial distribution (http://www.biosat.net), life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluation, and calculating sustainable indexes. Put all the factors together, the models are extremely helpful to decision making.

The University of Tennessee, along with multiple academic and industrial partners, presented IBSS – The Southeastern Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems (http://www.se-ibss.org). IBSS demonstrates real-world solutions towards economically and environmentally sustainable production and conversion of biomass-to-biofuel in the Southeast. This Partnership is helping to meet the USDA goal of producing almost 50% of the next generation of biofuels in the Southeast, while supporting robust and innovative research, education and extension activities. Learn more about IBSS in the Dr. Timothy Rials’ exclusive interview below.

Attendees learn about the latest research during the poster session.

Biofuels and chemicals

Thermochemical platforms show flexibility to convert more easily large kinds of feedstocks though pyrolysis and gasification. Catalytic processes have been studied to get the best conversion rates. Bio-oils have become an increasingly popular conversion technique to produce fuel and chemicals from biomass. In addition, using syngas through Fischer-Tropsch processes produces liquid fuels.

Biochemical platforms have advanced in many ways for pretreatment practices and new strains for co-culture for bath and continuous fermentation.

Lignin, obtained in the process of separation of plant cell-wall components, has been burned in all important lignocellullosic based biofuel operations. However, there are many other uses such as a base for chemicals to supply polymers. The value of these products may be high enough to stimulate the evaluation of conversion techniques to obtain not just fuel yield from plant cell walls, but also to encourage recovery of reasonable percentages and purity of lignin.

Also, chemical products facing volatile oil prices are integral to increasing profits. First, this market is increasing following a consistent sustainability trend. Second, compared with bioethanol from corn, renewable chemicals have not been demonized in “food vs. fuel” debates. Finally, biobased components add value to brands and therefore are desired by companies responding to consumers’ behavior and buying power.

An example of this is the successful hybrid methodology chemical/biochemical, which is used to generate new platform chemicals from biorefinery sugars, and subsequently transform them into new biobased polymers and material.

Novel uses

Genetic treatment of patients can be made using lignin nanotubes, substituting for very expansive cellulosic material. Recent studies showed the body and the cells accepted the component, depositing DNA, for example, to regenerate liver tissue. Moreover, strategies that integrate lignin with conventional polymers could offer new materials for generating smart polymers designed to have advanced functionality such as healing, external stimuli response and shape-memory function.

Utilizing extractives portion of switchgrass (chemical compounds that during biomass pretreatment inhibit enzymes and yeasts involved in saccharification and fermentation) as antimicrobials, biopesticides, and anti-inflammatory agents would add value to this biomass.

More information about the Sun Grant Initiative

http://www.sungrant.org - The Sun Grant Initiative is a national network of land-grant universities and federally funded laboratories working together to further establish a biobased economy. Congress authorized the Sun Grant Initiative in the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills. Sun Grant efforts are supported with funds from the U.S. Departments of Energy, Agriculture and Transportation.

http://bioweb.sungrant.org - The Sun Grant BioWeb is a non-commercial, educational website that provides current information about using biomass resources for bioenergy and bioproducts.

Interview

To get valuable information about biofuels research, how to advance in feedstock supply systems, and much more, listen to the exclusive interview of Dr. Timothy Rials, conducted by Dan Quadros. Don’t miss the opportunity to know about IBSS – Southeastern Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems.

Dr. Timothy Rials was a Professor at the University of California-Berkeley, conducting research on renewable materials; also a research scientist in USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station in Pineville, LA, experimenting around wood-polymer interfacial properties and adhesion. Currently, Tim is a Professor at The University of Tennessee, developing research in vibrational spectroscopy of wood and related materials. Since 2005, he has been a director for the Southeast Sun Grant Center, effectively broadening the research effort to consider bioenergy and bio-based products. A fellow in the International Academy of Wood Science and member of the American Chemical Society, Tim continues working to advance the efficient use of wood and biomass to strengthen the bioeconomy in Tennessee and the Southeast.

1 – What is the role of Universities in bioenergy and biofuels research in the US?

2 – How to advance in energy crop supply systems?

3 – Is the Southeast the best region for herbaceous dedicated crops?

4 – Could you make a comparison among different technologies to convert biomass in biofuels?

5 – How to reduce the risk in feedstock supply?

6 – Considering the impact of oil prices on the biofuels industry, in the long-term what will be the consolidation of this industry facing so fluctuating crude oil market?

7 – How to deal with heterogeneity in feedstock composition?

8 – How do you evaluate logistic challenges on biorefinary functionality and profitability?

9 – Could you tell us about IBSS? How this project is relating to deploy biomass industry in the Southeast?

10- There are a lot of small landowners in the Southeast. Considering the biomass industry, how to get these people involved in the process and get real benefits?

* Research Scholar at University of Florida and Volunteer at Advanced Biofuels U.S.A

Photos by Dan Quadros

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Aviation Fuel/Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Agricultural waste/residue Alabama algae biochemical conversion BioChemicals/Renewable Chemicals BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production carinata/brassica carinata cellulosic feedstock corn ethanol cover crops Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of Energy (DOE) Department of Transportation (DOT) drought tolerant Elephant grass/Napier grass energy cane eucalyptus Feedstocks Fischer-Tropsch/FT food vs fuel Jetfuel (Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)) life cycle analysis (LCA) lignin loblolly pine miscanthus poplar Pretreatment pyrolysis Sustainability Sweet sorghum Switchgrass Tennessee thermochemical conversion willow woody biomass