ORNL Review Volume 40, Number 1, 2007

V o l . 4 0 , N o . 1 , 2 0 0 7 Jonathan Mielenz, leader of the Bioconversion Science and Technology Group in ORNL’s Biosciences Division, is studying a microbe that could prove more cost effective than current methods in transforming cellulose from sources such as switchgrass and poplar trees into ethanol. c o n t e n t s e d i t o r i a l 1 Editorial f e a t u r e s 2 America Responds 8 The People’s Tree 12 Next-Generation Fermentation on the cover 16 The Business of Biomass Reinhold Mann, Associate Laboratory 20 Enzymes in Motion Director for Biological and Environmental Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is leading ORNL research efforts to produce a c l o s e r v i e w biofuels from poplar trees and switchgrass. 22 Jeremy Smith research horizons 24 Taking the Long View 26 In Memory of Alvin Weinberg a w a r d s 28 And the Winners Are… ATRANSFORMATIONALCHANGE n 1908 Henry Ford constructed an ethanol fermentation plant in Atchison, Kansas, designed to fuel the first generation of his newest car, the Model T. The investment represented Ford’s Ibelief that ethanol would be the primary fuel for the emerging American automobile. In this instance, Ford’s prediction was wrong. By the close of World War II, the discovery of seem- ingly unlimited supplies of oil had greatly reduced the price of gasoline and diesel fuel, to the point that ethanol made from biomass essentially disappeared from the American market. Nearly a century later, a combination of political, financial and environmental factors has rekindled America’s interest in Ford’s original belief that biofuels can be a major component of the fuel needed to run the nation’s transportation system. In a world market now under growing pressure from diminishing reserves and increasing demand, the cost of petroleum is reaching levels unimaginable only a decade ago. Across the continents of Africa and Southern Asia, prolonged political instability threatens fragile oil supply lines. At home, the annual consumption of more than 300 billion gallons of fuel made from petroleum in combustion engines is a major contributor to unprecedented levels of greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere. Led by the Department of Energy, America is moving toward a transformational change that includes the displacement of petroleum with carbon-neutral, renewable sources of transportation fuels. President George W. Bush has established a goal that by the year 2030 the equivalent of 30 percent of the gasoline used on U.S. highways will be replaced with biofuels. With biofuels accounting for only about three percent of current motor fuels consumption, the technological challenge is among the most daunting of the new century. This issue of the ORNL Review is dedicated to the efforts of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to help develop transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass in a manner that is environmentally sustainable and cost competitive with petroleum. The work thus far is prom- ising. ORNL is moving beyond conventional methods of producing ethanol from corn, using cutting-edge research to develop exciting new kinds of biofuels from crops such as switchgrass and poplar trees. Our effort is multi-faceted and cross-disciplinary, addressing the economic, environmental and agronomic issues associated with bioenergy production. Our research employs some of the most advanced analytical tools available, including the world’s most powerful neutron scattering facilities and America’s largest open-science, ultrascale computer. With these unique resources, we are coming closer each day to understanding plants with bioenergy crop potential, as well as microbes and microbial communities to process biomass into fuels and the molecular mechanisms and dynamics of biocatalysis. As we undertake this challenge with the Department of Energy, we are encouraged by a commitment from both the Governor of Tennessee and the University of Tennessee to lend their resources in the common goal of increasing the use of biofuels and decreasing carbon emissions. Working together with these and other university and industry partners, we are increasingly confident that we are on the verge—in perhaps three to five years—of discoveries that will transform American transportation as surely as Henry Ford’s Model T did more than a century ago. Reinhold Mann Associate Laboratory Director Biological and Environmental Sciences www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview Vol. 40, No. 1, 2007 1 AMERICA RESPONDS he multi-lane, rush-hour collec- tion of SUVs, sedans and trucks A renewed interest in Tthat choke the nation’s highways, the incessant road construction projects that tease of faster routes to come, the bioenergy offers a solution suburban residential sprawl radiating from commercial urban centers, the acres of asphalt surrounding grocery to energy security. stores and retail malls—all testify to the inextricable relationship between Americans and their automobiles. Approximately 140 billion gallons of Jerry Tuskan with a poplar gasoline per year power this dependency, seedling. He led an international and the consequences of this addiction to consortium of researchers to sequence the genome of black America’s economy and foreign policy are cottonwood, or Populus tricho- profound. While Americans consume 25 carpa, a hybrid poplar that shows percent of the global oil supply, our nation www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview promise as a bioenergy crop. 2 OAK RIDGE NATIonAL LABorATorY REVIEW claims just 3 percent of the world’s known with varying levels of political stability, researchers and policymakers believe is the reserves. This simple fact reveals the uncom- poses what many regard as the greatest critical impetus needed to at last develop fortable truth that 60 percent of U.S. trans- threat to America’s national security since energy sources capable of providing afford- portation fuel flows from foreign sources. World War II. able and sustainable supplies of fuel to Buried deep inside the earth, the The threat of global climate change, power the convertibles and minivans of energy storehouses bequeathed by the influenced in part by emissions from generations to come. living things of previous millennia U.S. cars and trucks, has intensified the The promise of providing Americans threaten to become increasingly costly need for fossil fuel alternatives. In 2004, a practical source of affordable fuel at under modern society’s ever more vora- American vehicles pumped 1.9 billion the corner quick-stop may not lie under- cious appetite for fossil fuel. The debate metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, ground. According to a growing number over the exhaustibility of these reserves a number that is expected to grow to of scientists and government policy is no longer over “if” but “when,” as 2.7 billion tons by 2030. In China, emis- makers, the solution grows above it. burgeoning Asian economies demand an sions from factories and homes have Already, ethanol distilleries have tapped increasing share of the world’s finite petro- produced the world’s worst concentration the nation’s largest crop, corn, to displace leum supply. The uncertainty of access of urban smog. Similar trends worldwide, 3 percent of the current gasoline supply. to remaining fossil resources, divided coupled with historic increases in the But even as corn-based ethanol plants unevenly among a handful of countries price of petroleum, create what many spring up across the country, experts recog- www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview Vol. 40, No. 1, 2007 3 nize that corn, like petroleum, has limita- with accompanying gasoline shortages “Addressing the energy issue is tions as a source of fuel. and price spikes, motivated Washington critical to sustaining our society and our The untapped potential of biofuels— to fund a number of alternative energy freedom,” Keller says. “We need to bring that is, gas or liquid fuels derived from research programs in an attempt to the energy deficit under control so our kids plant material—grows in cellulosic biomass, harness the power of plant life. However, can enjoy the freedom we have now.” the fibrous, woody matter that gives a plant as gas prices retreated and availability was resilience and shape and is generally found restored, attention and research funding A molecular quest distasteful to animals and people. switched to other priorities. The possibilities contained in stalks, What may provide the current push for The trees and grasses that hold great trunks and leaves of some plants—notably bioenergy with staying power to survive promise as future sources of fuel also switchgrass and poplar trees, which offer fluctuations in world oil prices, is that the present the greatest resistance. The lattice the quickest path to market because much more transient concerns of economics and of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin of their genetic make-up and production the environment are no longer the domi- render plant cell walls resistant to breakage potential is already known—have caught the attention of government, scientists and industry at the highest levels. “We need to bring the energy Governors and state legislatures in New York, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, California deficit under control so our and Tennessee (see sidebar p.18) have committed millions of dollars into biofuel initiatives. Established companies such kids can enjoy the freedom as Archer Daniels Midland and start-ups such as Iogen of Canada are exploring we have now.” Martin Keller new ways to generate cellulose-based ethanol and building pilot plants. Virgin nant considerations of energy policy, says and the ravages of weather, insects and Airlines’ owner Sir Richard Branson is ORNL’s Martin Keller. Keller recently left disease. They also serve as a barrier to investing substantial sums dedicated to Diversa, a publicly traded enzyme devel- transforming the plants into simpler sugars groundbreaking research in renewable opment company, to become director of that can be processed into ethanol or other fuels.

Load more