Corn—Switchgrass Biofuel

Biofuels Get Help: Switchgrass Meets Corn

Lignocellulosic Biomass

For many experts, advanced biofuels made from plants, specifically lignocellulosic biomass, are the most promising fuels for our future. As an alternative to petroleum-based liquids, biofuels are clean, green, renewable, and a domestic source of transportation energy. In fact, studies show that fuel could be derived from lignocellulosic biomass and sustainably grown in the United States, replacing the dependence on our foreign petroleum-based transportation fuels. Mother Nature, however, makes the breakdown of these plants and the extraction of the necessary sugars a challenge.

Grains are an exception. Their starch sugars are easily released, unlike the complex polysaccharides that are locked within the lignin, a tough woody material found within the walls of a plant cell. For advanced biofuels to be economically competitive, scientists need to find cheap ways of releasing the polysaccharides from their prisons and reducing them to fermentable sugars that can be synthesized into fuel. And that’s exactly what the corn gene is doing for the first part of the process.

Switchgrass

For years switchgrass has been highly touted by scientists as a source of biofuel. It offers a number of advantages over other plant feedstock. It’s drought resistant and grows year-round. It doesn’t compete with cropland and can be grown in marginal soil. It’s tough and hardy and requires little fertilization. The challenge lies in extracting its sugars.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) coupled with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) introduced the maize (corn) gene to switchgrass in the hopes that it would lessen the amount of lignin in the cell walls of the switchgrass plant. And that’s precisely what happened. The added gene doubled the starch in the cell walls and made it easier for the scientists to extract.

Corn Gene

On a cellular level, the corn gene makes the switchgrass plant believe it’s in a juvenile state. This translates into less lignin being released, as well as prevents the plant from producing flowering. As a result, more sugars are retained within the plant, and seeds aren’t released to contaminate the native plant population.

"We show that Cg1 switchgrass biomass is easier for enzymes to break down and also releases more glucose during saccharification," says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI's Deconstruction Division and was one of the principal investigators for this research. When compared to wild switchgrass, lignin levels were down and glucose levels higher.

An added bonus to switchgrass fuel is that it’s carbon neutral, so it doesn’t contribute to global climate change unlike corn-derived ethanol fuels. This means that the moment your garage doors swing open until you reach your destination, the switchgrass-corn partnership will ensure that your fuel is clean and sustainable with no increase to your carbon footprint. It’s a match made in environmental heaven.

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Chris Keenan is a green and general blog writer. He writes for many sites including Precision Garage Door. Chris also maintains a personal house and garden blog.

MotionPower Speed Bumps

Can Speed Bumps Do More Than Just Slow You Down?

Inefficient Energy

The dream of collecting energy from forward moving cars is one that has persisted despite the failures that inevitably follow. When it comes to energy, there is no such thing as something for nothing. Projects that clumsily convert energy from gasoline, then convert it to forward motion and then inefficiently convert it back to energy do nothing but prove themselves incompetent and taxing on drivers. New Energy Technologies, Inc. has plans to change that dream and make it a successful reality.

MotionPower™ Speed Bumps

In 2009, New Energy installed MotionPower™ speed bumps at a Burger King in North Carolina. The theory being that with all the traffic entering and leaving the restaurant and drive-thru their revolutionary speed bumps could collect a large amount of kinetic energy. However, motorists were already driving slowly through the parking lot and drive-thru lane. Chances were that they’d brake long before hitting a speed bump. Add to that the average carbon footprint of a fast food restaurant, the benefit of the possible energy collected was negligible. It wasn’t the best choice of testing to prove the MotionPower™ system’s usefulness.

Energy Success

In November 2011, New Energy partnered with Roanoke, Virginia, to install the MotionPower system speed bumps at the local civic center. There was a circus and gun show that weekend, and approximately 600 vehicles traveled over the speed bumps during a six-hour period. Obviously the civic center wouldn’t see that much traffic on a daily basis, but installed in a busy city, the speed bumps might prove useful.

On their website, New Energy claims, “Once fully optimized and installed, engineers anticipate that MotionPower™ devices may be used to augment or replace conventional electrical supplies for powering roadway signs, street and building lights, storage systems for back-up and emergency power, and other electronics, appliances, and even devices used in homes and businesses.”

Although still perfecting the speed bumps, the Roanoke demonstration collected enough energy to power an American home for a day. A residential application isn’t practical, however. MotionPower™ speed bumps installed on the other side of your garage doors won’t collect enough energy. You’re already slowly coasting down the driveway. Installed outside a commercial property, like an arena for example, makes much more sense energy-wise.

Placed across a ramp to an arena that gets high traffic for sporting events and concerts, the venue could possibly receive enough collected energy to power the electronic marquee already in use. This also makes sense for busy entrances and exits along a city grid.

Hopefully one day soon, a city will be able to replace its dependency on conventional electricity for signs and lights and use its motorists instead, one speed bump at a time.

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Chris Keenan is a green and general blog writer. He writes for many sites including Precision Garage Door. Chris also maintains a personal house and garden blog.

Charging Stations

Electric Car Charging Vs. Trees: Controversy on a University Campus

Charging Stations

Cities across the globe have started installing charging stations for electric cars. Given President Obama’s ambitious goal of placing 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, charging stations will be a necessity on American roads.

Most electric car owners will charge their vehicles behind closed garage doors, but during long trips, public charging stations will be in demand. The future of transportation is looking decidedly electric, but one university found out that not all environmentalists are enthusiastic about it.

Environmental Concern of Stations

At Western Michigan University, Ursula Zerilli reported that nine locust trees were removed from campus so that an electric vehicle charging station could be installed. The 15 charging stalls were powered by solar panels. WMU was the first college in the state to purchase a fleet of electric vehicles, and the project was funded by a $700,000 Clean Energy Coalition grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Joseph Szuszwalak and Nicholas Wikar, leaders of the group Students for a Sustainable Earth (SSE), protested the removal of the trees. Szuszwalak claimed that removing the trees to make the campus more sustainable was counterproductive.

"The students could be working together to ensure we do have a sustainable campus, but now we have to pick and choose. When you look at the carbon being sequestered, it actually is better than what the trees can do on their own, but if you wanted to be sustainable, you would have kept the trees and supplemented them with panels."

The two students claimed that the charging stations were another example of WMU “green-washing,” meaning that the university claimed it was a step forward in green sustainability without actually taking action.

In a letter to the Kalamazoo Gazette, Katherine Binder, a graduate student, refuted the allegations of the SSE. She noted that different locations for the solar panels had been researched and rooftops considered. However, because of snow accumulation in the winter, the solar panels would have to be positioned vertically and thus becoming a hazard in high winds. She also pointed out that the trees in question were Honey Locusts, an invasive species not native to Michigan.

“More importantly, WMU has a long-standing policy that requires two trees to be planted for every one taken. Meaning that eighteen trees will be planted in the spring and this project results in a net gain of nine healthy, well-located, non-invasive campus trees.The planned solar panels will help provide electric car owners with substantially cleaner energy than what they would use at home. The panels will also be part of the campus electrical grid, normally powered by WMU's natural gas plant.”

Resolution

Keeping both sides of the issue in mind, WMU administration worked diligently to address the protests of the environmentally concerned as well as the voices of its students. The charging stations and solar panels were installed and new trees have been scheduled to be planted in the spring.

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Chris Keenan is a green and general blog writer. He writes for many sites including Precision Garage Door. Chris also maintains a personal house and garden blog.