The June 9th Biofuels and Bioenergy Informational Workshop brought together a diverse group of people interested in different aspects of biofuel production. Hosted by the BioTechnology Institute in collaboration with the University's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE), the workshop was designed to assist business leaders and public policy decision-makers in developing Minnesota's bioenergy resources.
"Being bold now reduces problems in the future," claimed former state senator Steve Kelley, who directs the University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy. He urged support for research into efficient energy
production from renewable sources, adding, "if we can develop processes that don't waste anything, we can avoid policy problems."
Previous work to address global problems like nuclear fallout, pollution, acid rain, and ozone depletion in the atmosphere has proven that we have the capacity to address big environmental issues. University ecologist Clarence
Lehman said that stabilization of carbon emissions is the current issue that has a bearing on how resources are managed and utilized in developing biofuels. He emphasized that it is imperative to move forward in developing biofuels as one means of generating renewable energy because different aspects of growing, harvesting and processing biofuel feedstock can simultaneously aid in cooling the earth, cleansing its waters and restoring degraded farmland and natural wildlife habitat.
Both Marc von Keitz of the BioTechnology Institute and IREE’s John Sheehan went into technical details of available methods being utilized to convert various biomass resources to energy. Von Keitz, who supervises the Biotechnology Resource Center, described the fermentation of alcohols from starches and the thermo-chemical breakdown and recombination of lignocellulosic biomass
(grasses and woody plant materials) into fuel. Sheehan focused on making oil from algae grown in aquacultures such as wastewater. Both outlined the opportunities and the challenges faced by researchers working on efficient ways to produce energy from these resources.
Glen Thuringer, a workshop attendee from the Worthington Regional Economic Development Corporation, found the presentation about algae particularly interesting. "So much information is floating around out there," he said,
"that it was good to have someone put it into the context of research that is actually going on in the field."
The most promising and environmentally stable means of producing biofuels in Minnesota may be the harvesting and processing of lignocellulosic biomass described by BTI Associate Director Ken Valentas. Valentas outlined the process of making ethanol by gasifying or pretreating and fermenting lignocellulosic biomass and compared it with the economics of fermenting corn to ethanol. He also talked about converting cellulosic biomass to “green” gasoline. In both cases, the capital cost is currently prohibitive unless subsidized by tax credits – and the cost of growing and harvesting feedstock as presented by economist Steven Taff is variable at best and likely to be higher than current prices. But the value of environmentally producing renewable energy from regional biomass will eventually outweigh the cost.
Minnesota stands ready to assist in the development process, according to Ken Brown, Bioenergy Commercialization and Deployment manager with the state Office of Energy Security. He described the stage-gate method of developing projects from a preliminary investigation of the idea through scale-up to prototype and successful commercialization. The state's development process and industry resources like the BioBusiness Alliance described by Gregg Mast are tools available to potential biofuel producers.
Most in attendance agreed that the workshop was a good source of information about the status of biofuels research and development.
"It was a good collection of speakers in a variety of fields," summarized workshop attendee Sarah Walbert of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. "To get some of the conceptual framework was very helpful."
-Tim Montgomery
