By Nicholas Chambers

There comes a time in every planet’s civilization when they realize their very existence is due to that nearby, incandescent sphere of burning hydrogen some 90 million miles away. The atmosphere we are accustomed to breathing, the silent organisms we derive our food from, and even the dwindling vestiges of fossilized biomass (petroleum) were brought about by the cosmic phenomena of photosynthesis. No corporation or government can or will ever own this resource. Its omnipotent splendor is available for all regions and societies of the Earth to have access to clean and enduring energy. Whether it is passive solar design, photovoltaic modules creating electricity directly, tidal or hydropower, or the utilization of plants for their storage of solar energy, we are indeed a solar civilization. In this final article on the various renewable energy technologies brought up through the landmark Renewable Energy Symposium last December, we will look at this last aspect of solar energy: those technologies associated with bioenergy.
The future of transportation fuels “will include a symphony of renewable options,” says Jon Meuser, a graduate student in Environmental Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. “Someone will be driving around on biodiesel, another on ethanol, and yet another on butanol,”
Meuser has been working on research teams at the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), both in Golden. His work is concerned with the propagation of algae for biodiesel production as well as that for hydrogen. The algae for oil work takes off where NREL left off after an 18 year study first began in 1978 called the Aquatic Species Program.
Algae are the most abundant producers of oil on the planet, in fact much of the world’s petroleum reserves are from petrified diatom algae. They double their biomass everyday and can have a 30-50 percent oil content while being a carbon sink for a warming globe. NREL has claimed algae yields to be up to 10,000 gallons per acre in aquaculture systems (more than nine times that of SLV canola), but much work has yet to be done to develop suitable strains for oil as well as keeping those strains isolated from contaminants. Researchers like Meuser are looking for the ideal 16 carbon chain oil, as well as efficient methods to extract the oil from the rest of the biomass. “The challenge is not growing the algae, it is getting the right kind of oil out of them,” says Meuser.
Combining all these parameters into a cost effective propagation system is the next step to bringing algae oil into the biodiesel market. There are a few companies working on this right now. Close to home, Solix Biofuels out of Ft. Collins hope to have their commercial-ready technology on the market within a few years. Out of Massachusetts, Green Fuel Technologies has a bioreactor licensed from NASA. They are coupling it with the exhaust from coal-fired power plants to utilize the abundant CO2 for photosynthesis. Living Arts, LLC is also working on a small-scale pilot project out in the valley utilizing the exhaust from vegetable-oil powered center pivots.
The other interesting aspect of algae that Meuser is working on is their ability to produce hydrogen. He has proven about a 10 percent efficiency in forcing the algae into an anaerobic state in the absence of sulfur, whereby a photosynthetic conversion of water creates hydrogen and oxygen. The algae culture does not die off through this process, but can be returned to their normal metabolism to grow more biomass and then the hydrogen-producing process can be repeated. He has tested several hundred strains out of some 5000 for their ability to make significant hydrogen. This research is very noteworthy for the future of the hydrogen economy because no other process results in pure hydrogen in such a simple biological way. This hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to create electricity directly, or in modified internal combustion engines, with the only by-products being distilled water and heat.
Other bioenergy technologies that are of importance to the coming diversity of the renewable energy economy include some tried and tested methods as well as some that are still on the bench. Methane production from anerobic digestion is the most globally tested energy production scheme from feedstocks such as manure, landfill gas, or waste-water treatment plants. The gas can be burnt directly in stove-top burners, combusted in a generator-engine sets, or reformed to make other liquid hydrocarbons.
Cellulostic ethanol is another one that is getting a lot of attention right now because it can use any kind of cellulose for feedstock, waste or otherwise, at efficiencies up to 45 percent. Traditionally fermented ethanol is different because its feedstock needs to contain high amounts of fermentable sugar, or startches than can be easily turned into sugar, such as sugar beets, corn, or potatoes. Cellulostic ethanol has an extra step where special enzymes break down the cellulose, hemi-cellulose, and even ligin into fermentable sugars. “The energy analysis of cellulostic ethanol looks very good,” says NREL Senoir Scientist Eric Jarvis, who also worked in the Aquatic Species Program over a decade ago, but now is exclusively working on cellulostic ethanol. The nation should see its first commercial plant running soon.
The other gasoline equivalent fuel that is waiting for enough capitol to surface in the marketplace is the higher mixed alcohols. These are created through the gasification of any carbonaceous feedstock or biomass, such as forest by-products, municipal solid waste, old tires, carbon dioxide, and/or fossil fuel by-products. The resulting “syngas,” namely carbon monoxide and hydrogen, are sent to a gas-to-liquids (GTL) methanization reactor where it is reformed into methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol on up to a decanol in a mixed higher alcohol blend. This blend has a higher BTU value and octane rating than ethanol alone, is highly biodegradable, and can theoretically be produced extremely economically. Standard Alcohol Company of America from Durango, CO is working on getting their trademarked Envirolene higher mixed alcohol fuel on the market soon.
A key element to understanding these bioenergy technologies as a lasting solution for a growing world, is in determining if their biomass is currently a waste product, or if farmers have to grow it for the energy industry. The waste biomass/feedstocks will be cheaper and create new industries, jobs, and life cycles while producing cheaper energy out of materials that we previously didn’t know what to do with. Conversely, agricultural commodities, such as corn for ethanol, will have to compete in that market place and displace food crops, while also sending ripples throughout the rest of the food industry and global ecology. In the end, we may find ourselves maybe not importing fossil fuels from politically unstable regions in the world, but ravenously mining our own domestic water and soils to keep up with our growing rates of fuel use. As the caveat goes, the coming renewable energy economy cannot be a continuation of an impersonal rock concert in a stadium, but rather will be a delicate symphony within our backyards.

For information about how individuals and/or entities can contribute to bringing some of these technologies to the SLV contact: chokecherry@fairpoint.net