Panel Discusses Benefits of Biofuels over Petroleum

by Rachel Clark (Badger Herald) Biofuels used in industry have shown promising signs of advancement in bioproducts --The Wisconsin Energy Institute held a panel to discuss the viability of biofuels and bioproducts as replacements to other, more harmful types of energy this Tuesday.

Proposed biofuels would replace less sustainable forms of energy, like petroleum.

Panel moderator Troy Runge, Chair of Biological Systems Engineering, started off the discussion explaining why petroleum is not the most economically or environmentally sustainable type of fuel.

“The processes to make the chemicals are very energy-intensive,” Runge said. “So obviously very large dents can be made by making bioproducts versus petroleum-based products.”

One key advance in the development of bioproducts came from a key chemical, 1.5-pentanediol, which is corn-based rather than oil-based. The chemical can provide the same properties as oil does for products like paint coatings — sometimes even at a lower cost, according to Runge.

Kevin Barnett co-founded the start-up Pyran LLC, a company that was the first to use this biochemical for paint.

“It’s also a green process and not only is it a renewable chemical, but we have water as a solvent and there are no toxic byproducts,” Barnett said.

There are many ways scientists and engineers can make use of plants to create unique biofuels but not every biofuel is marketable. Raman explained that there are six essential attributes that a bioproduct should have in order to be valuable.

“First is high volume … second is the value of the molecule … third is a diverse [chemical] that can make many products … fourth is feedstock flexibility … fifth is avoiding competition with natural gas … last is a price point,” Raman said. READ MORE