Ag at Forefront of Energy Remake

By Jane Fyksen, Crops Editor
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 6:12 PM CDT

Ethanol and biodiesel are "just the start" in agriculture's energy revolution, said Floyd Barwig, director of the Iowa Energy Center at Ames, Iowa.

Created in 1990 by the Iowa General Assembly, the Center is a research showcase of alternate energy systems based on renewable resources. Barwig addressed the Agricultural Bankers Conference last week in Wisconsin Dells, providing Wisconsin's ag bankers with a peek at the future in terms of farming for fuel.

He said biomass feedstocks being explored run the gamut from crop residue (like corn stover) to food processing waste, manure, switchgrass, municipal solid waste, wood waste, even obsolete seed corn.

The concept isn't really new, he admitted. Back in the early 1900s, up until the '30s, most chemicals and many materials were made from biomass. But with World War II came cheap petroleum at $1 to $1.50 a barrel, and the rest is history. Exxon Mobile recently made the biggest profit in the history of the world, he mentioned.

However, Barwig stressed that "virtually anything made from petroleum can be made from biomass." However, he also noted that if all the biomass in the U.S. were turned into fuel, it couldn't completely displace the fuel used in U.S. vehicles. The energy efficiency of the vehicles Americans are driving needs to be tripled, he reminded of the other wheel of the U.S. energy self-sufficiency bandwagon.

Barwig thinks corn stover can compete, at a cost of two cents a pound ($40 a ton). He compared that to the cost of petroleum, which varies considerably depending on the price of oil, from: 7 cents a pound ($24 a barrel) on up to 21 cents a pound ($72 a barrel).

He said the future for biomass isn't just fuel. It's in everything that's presently made from petroleum, such as industrial products like corrosion inhibitor, dust control, boiler water treatment, gas purification, emission abatement, specialty lubricants, hoses, seals and more. Biomass can be turned into anti-freeze, wiper fluids, molded car parts, belts, hoses and a myriad of textiles from carpet to spandex. Other end-use products include food packaging, fertilizer, pesticides, beverage bottles, cleaners and detergents, liquid crystal displays, pains, resins, siding, insulation, adhesives, camping gear, bike parts, plastic eyeglasses, suntan lotion, medical and dental products, disinfectants, you name it.

At the Energy Center's BECON (Biomass Energy Conversion) facility at Nevada, Iowa, they're trying to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications for developing products from biomass. They're looking at feedstock processing to biological conversion (with bacteria, yeast or fungus) or thermochemical conversion (heat and pressure or chemical conversions at varying temperatures).

"We're not doing anything with (corn-based) ethanol," he noted. "It's subsidized. It's viable."

In comparison, Barwig noted that oil also has a "subsidy" of sorts. It's a military budget for the Middle East.

Barwig said the center is also keying in on anaerobic digestion and composting, however, they're not just interested in producing methane. That's only a "first step," or lowest-value product from the process, he noted. Anaerobic digestion will eventually result in a mix of more valuable products like organic acids, such as acetic acid, which, in turn, could be converted into high-value products, with methane possibly still being produced.

Of anaerobic digestion, Barwig said it doesn't just address energy but environmental and social problems in Iowa resulting from hog manure, smell and neighbor complaints. "When you capture methane, you've captured the odor," he said of manure.

He envisions plants of the future mixing corn stover with manure, both coming in from within a 40 to 50-mile radius. The first step in the alcohol production process will be "local" and "rural," he assured.

"We're thinking ethanol may not be the best vehicle fuel," he said of the alternative fuels for the future. Butanol would be better. It has a higher energy content and doesn't absorb water, so it can be put through a pipeline, while ethanol can't.

Ten years from now, Barwig noted that instead of many ethanol-powered vehicles on the road, the cars we'll drive may actually be running on butanol.

Can ethanol plants convert to butanol? Barwig said they can. Can they also shift from corn coming in the front door to cornstalks and woodchips? The front end of the plant would need to be replaced, but the backside processes of fermentation would be the same. "Ten years from now, all plants will be doing something a bit differently than they are today," he predicted of the ethanol industry.

Similarly, Barwig challenged Wisconsin's ag bankers to think beyond corn - even corn stalks - as feedstocks, too. While an acre of corn stalks might only result in six dry tons of fuel/chemical feedstock, sweet sorghum, a "cousin" of sugarcane, produces 15 tons to the acre. It can be grown as far north as Iowa, too, and it's a crop that doesn't demand as much fertilizer (i.e. energy input) either, he compared.

He noted the Center is also looking at gasification, which is a thermochemical process. An example is heating wood chips. Think "smoldering fire," he said of combusting substances in a small amount of oxygen. The product is a gas. It could be used like natural gas or propane. They're researching gasification as a way to provide power to ethanol plants, which are already using 20 percent of the natural gas used in Iowa. Distillers could potentially be put through a gasifier to provide process heat for the plant.

Barwig said a project has been done with Pioneer to get rid of obsolete seed corn this way, which is a "hazardous waste" because it's treated. Switchgrass is also a possibility for gasification.

Another process under the microscope is pyrolysis, which involves changing pressure, lowering temperature but not introducing any oxygen to the system, to get a condensable vapor. Think "liquid smoke," he notes of pyrolyzed hickory chips. Condensed vapors can be collected and depending on how many loops are in the system, you may end up getting different types of liquids out of single pyrolysis run. Liquids contain sugars and other materials that can be converted to alcohols and other substances.

The soybean industry also needs to think beyond biodiesel to more sophisticated end products. There's not much of a market at present for glycerin, which is presently a byproduct. "They're looking at feeding it," he remarked, noting that the other alternative is making glycol (antifreeze).

Glycerin is used in limited quantities and the right purities for soaps and cosmetics. At present, there's a glut of glycerin on the market. Alternative uses need to be developed, too.

Another step along the way might be a biodiesel-fueled generator might turn out heat and electricity, he pointed out.

The aim is to use as much of the feedstock or waste streams as possible at the Center.

They're also looking at some technology that's even more "over the horizon," said Barwig of super critical gasification. The concept is that fluids taken to high pressure and temperature will take on unique characteristics. "We don't know why this happens," said Barwig.

Supercritical fluids processing of biomass represents a very versatile and diverse path to the production of chemicals. Supercritical water can be used under a variety of conditions to quickly convert cellulose to sugar or to convert biomass into a mixture of oils, organic acids, alcohols and methane. Using supercritical water to convert biomass to chemicals is analogous to the "deep hole" (i.e. high pressure, high temperature) geological conditions originally thought to have, long ago, produced existing petroleum and natural gas deposits from ancient biomass.

Carbon dioxide can be used as a supercritical fluid, which has solvent characteristics. It is currently used in its supercritical state to extract caffeine from coffee beans, brought back to a stable state and reused again and again. At supercritical conditions, the characteristics of carbon dioxide radically change and it exhibits the characteristics of a solvent similar to hexane. The main advantages of using carbon dioxide are its low-cost and the fact it's environmentally benign. Supercritical carbon dioxide can also be used to extract oil from plant seeds and enhances esterification and polymerization reactions.

Barwig said the potential for using supercritical fluids for reactions and separations is just starting to be realized and offers promise for huge breakthroughs in the cost-effective conversion of chemicals from biomass. Fluids such as propane, alcohols, ketones and others (not to mention combinations of supercritical fluids) have not been fully explored regarding their potential to convert biomass to chemicals. A concentrated effort in the supercritical fluids processing area could potentially yield significant breakthroughs in the cost-effective conversion of biomass to chemicals.

As noted, he said a thorough understanding of the scientific principles behind the chemistry of supercritical fluids does not exist. The Iowa Energy Center hopes to not only develop new paths for the conversion of biomass to chemicals but also to enhance the understanding of the science behind the nature of supercritical fluids. He noted that a project is underway to take pure cellulose and turn it into fermentable sugar for ethanol in under 30 seconds with a much high yield than is possible today.

So "where is it all going?" Barwig queried. It's heading down the road to biorefineries and combined systems.

Right now, plants producing ethanol can hope the market holds for distillers grains (byproduct). At present, the system isn't particularly energy efficient, he alluded, noting that almost half the energy consumed by plants goes for drying distillers grains.

The idea is to follow the example of the petroleum industry, which has been "very good at making money," said Barwig. Biomass needed solely result in fuel but products that make their way into multiple industries. Plants would be highly diversified and "hedged," he remarked.

In the "Iowa Biorefinery Concept," there'd be no waste in the system. You'd have a fermentation unit, dairy facility, anerobic digestion unit, greenhouse, and a fuel cell unit all hooked together. These self-contained energy systems would be located throughout the countryside.

Barwig indicated that corn stover alone hold the key to completely transforming Iowa's rural economy, and Wisconsin's, too. Iowa's gross state product in 2004 was $111 billion. Total exports from Iowa outside the U.S. amounted to $12.9 billion in 2002. Iowa ag and food exports outside the U.S. that year were $4.69 billion. By comparison, 24 million tons of corn stover produced on Iowa farms and priced at 2 cents a pound, would equate to $1 billion. But 24 million tons of corn stover at $1.50 a pound would come to $72 billion. With more sophisticated processes like those noted above, the value of the corn stover feedstock would sore as higher-value and more diverse end products came out the other end.

Biomass to ethanol is the "end of the value chain," he noted. But moving up the ladder into other products would make feedstocks far more valuable.

As far as the vehicles we're driving, those will change, too, he predicted. Research is driving the industry to cars that are more lightweight, so it's more energy efficient. It doesn't make sense to move a 195-pound man in a 3,000-pound vehicle. Carbon bodies or molded plastic and aerodynamics would increase efficiency. Molded plastic isn't as energy consuming as molded steel is, he noted.

Henry Ford, ironically, back in 1941 made a car with soy plastic body panels. He thought he'd be better known for soy plastics than cars. "Cheap petroleum surprised him," Barwig remarked.

There are also plug-in hybrid vehicles and long-term fuel cell vehicles, which would be like their own power plant. In most situations, they'd look at gasoline or ammonia and an on-board reformer that strips hydrogen out for use in a fuel cell. This technology is a long way off, though.

All of this is adding up to a "revolution" for agriculture. "We have productive capacity" in agriculture and plenty of "biomass." It's a question of entrepreneurial spirit and business prowess in rural areas as to "how far we can take this."

"The opportunities are enormous and absolutely fascinating," he told the bankers. "People will be approaching you with some very interesting business opportunities."

How far bio-based alcohols go will be a question of economics and public policy. It's in the latter arena whether the U.S. wants to continue funding (through oil purchases) countries that are advocating advancing "unkind" acts on the U.S.

Rest assured, though, that the oil companies will part of agriculture's energy remake. BP is "Beyond Petroleum," he remarked, noting that petroleum companies are "very interested" in investing in alternative fuels and a more sophisticated mix of end products.

Farmers can learn more about the Iowa Energy Center's project at http://www.energy.iastate.edu.

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