Feature Article				August 2006

Recent literature discusses advances in bioenergy and biobased products. Gaurav Bisht BCS, Incorporated The Biomass R&D Initiative was established with the objective of developing technologies and processes necessary for abundant commercial production of biobased fuels and products at prices competitive with fossil fuels. With increasing demand and price of fossil fuels, there has been a growing interest in the topic and an increasing number of reports and articles published regarding biomass. These publications address policy, future expansion, R&D, bioproducts feasibility, and feedstock availability. These analyses add to the body of knowledge on biobased-related opportunities and challenges from several perspectives. They also help us gauge how far biomass has come and what still needs to be done. At the same time, these analyses provide a means to evaluate the success of the Biomass R&D Initiative. Below are three pertinent examples of recently published reports. (To see complete text, click on the title.) A High Growth Strategy for Ethanol Agriculture Based Renewable Energy Production Enzyme Catalysis: Tool to Make and Break Amygdalin Hydrogelators from Renewable Resources: A Delivery Model for Hydrophobic Drugs* *Need JACS subscription to access A High Growth Strategy for Ethanol The Aspen Institute's "A High Growth Strategy for Ethanol" report was based on a discussion amongst leaders from government, agriculture, environmental, energy, security, and academic sectors. The discussion was to develop a consensus on appropriate policy steps to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable and secure fuels for transportation. The report highlights the rising price of oil and the potential of ethanol, both cellulosic and corn based, to replace most of the oil consumed for transportation. It recommends that the U.S. adopt a very ambitious goal of producing 100 billion gallons per year of ethanol by 2025, the equivalent of half of today's U.S. gasoline consumption or nearly 25 percent of today's overall U.S. oil use. To reach this goal the report emphasizes the need to accomplish the following: Expand the total supply of feedstock available for ethanol by improving yield per acre and using some Conservation Reserve Program land for energy crops. Introduce more flex fuel vehicles and service stations. Assure investor and developers in the ethanol, auto manufacturing, and service station industries that there will be sustained effort to expand ethanol use even when oil prices slump. Increase public awareness. Agriculture-Based Renewable Energy Production The Congressional Research Service's (CRS) report for Congress, "Agriculture-Based Renewable Energy Production," looks at agriculture's role in producing energy and biobased products. It discusses the viability of corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel as transport fuels and the capability of the U.S. agricultural industry to supply demands for feedstock. Currently corn ethanol is the major form of biofuels used in the U.S. today, with corn accounting for 95 percent of the feedstocks used in ethanol production. Although government subsidies have made ethanol more competitive with gasoline, the report notes that any disruption or shortage in corn will dramatically increase the price of corn ethanol, because feedstock price is the single largest expense of corn ethanol production. Finally, although corn prices are more stable compared with gas prices, the increasing demand for ethanol could put pressure on corn demand and thereby increase prices. The CRS report notes corn ethanol has an estimated net energy balance of 34 percent gain compared to higher gains for other biofuels, yet it is much better than gasoline's 19 percent net loss. According to the report, cellulosic ethanol is the best biofuel option with a potential net energy balance of 100% gain, but this requires major improvement in cellulose hydrolysis. Cellulosic ethanol is made from cellulose-based feedstocks like switchgrass and native grasses which can grow on marginal land and are not used for feed. The only problem is that the cellulose needs to be hydrolyzed to simple sugars before conversion to ethanol and current methods are very expensive. However, recent experiments with enzymatic hydrolysis have proven very successful in reducing costs of producing ethanol. If enzymatic hydrolysis becomes commercial, it would dramatically reduce ethanol price and increase ethanol yield. Currently, only one commercial cellulosic ethanol plant exists in Canada and none in the U.S. except for pilot plants. The CRS report also discusses biodiesel which is derived from animal fat or vegetable oil, but 90 percent of U.S. biodiesel is derived from soybeans. Biodiesel has many benefits over its petroleum counterpart by being nontoxic, biodegradable, and sulfur and aromatics free, while providing similar fuel economy and better lubricity. It can run in conventional diesel engines with little or no changes. Biodiesel production and use has increased considerably due to major motor liners adapting it and through government tax incentives and subsidies. Biodiesel is also cost beneficial to produce due to the fact that there are many commercial byproducts that can be produced from soybeans. However, biodiesel production could quickly strain available feedstock supplies and push vegetable prices significantly higher due to the low elasticity in demand for vegetable oils in food consumption. This may also simultaneously disrupt the feed markets. The acreage available to grow soy for energy, without encroaching on land used for food crops, is also limited as in the case for corn. Enzyme Catalysis: Tool to Make and Break Amygdalin Hydrogelators from Renewable Resources: A Delivery Model for Hydrophobic Drugs The last article mentioned, "Enzyme Catalysis: Tool to Make and Break Amygdalin Hydrogelators from Renewable Resources: A Delivery Model for Hydrophobic Drugs" published recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes industrial or "white" biotechnology as making an increasingly important contribution to the development of a sustainable, biobased economy by an environmentally benign approach. This approach could have applications in developing cost-effective controlled drug delivery vehicles from renewable resources, with a potential impact on pharmaceutical research and molecular design and delivery strategies. The use of renewable resources for production of valuable chemical commodities is becoming a topic of great interest and fueling the promotion of the industrial biorefinery concept in which integrated processing of grains, oil seeds, and other biomass materials using enzymes and microorganisms yield a vast array of products in sectors such as chemical, food and feed, paper, textiles, and medicine. The above reports help in evaluating from various perspectives the many opportunities and challenges remaining to be met regarding biobased fuel and products industry. More importantly, they highlight the growing interest in biofuels and biobased products and the growing biomass awareness.

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