Ethanol More Efficient Than Previously Thought

via OWH, a new UNL study of the energy efficiency of ethanol shows a substantial increase in the net benefit of the alternative fuel. Previous studies based on older technologies showed less substantial benefits. The research showed that 13 gallons of ethanol were produced for every gallon of fossil fuels used in production.

"The Nebraska Corn Board reports that Ken Cassman, director of the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research, said earlier studies that examined ethanol's energy balance sheet were based on "backward-looking data."

These studies looked at older technologies with regard to energy use in corn production, the biorefinery and co-product use," Cassman said. He said recent research conducted at the University of Nebraska shows that estimates for the energy balance of corn-based ethanol are much more favorable — in fact, two to three times more favorable — than previous estimates.

Cassman, a Heuermann professor of agronomy at the university, said ethanol has a substantial net positive direct energy balance — 1.5 to 1.6 more units of energy are derived from ethanol than are used to produce it. "Using dated information simply doesn't work in a world where the technology and efficiency of corn and ethanol production are rapidly improving over the years," he said."

In just the last five years, ethanol plants increased production 15% from each bushel of corn, while using about 20% less energy in the process. In addition, many earlier studies ignored the positive effects of by-products such as distillers grain used as an alternative livestock feed. More recent research also shows that the use of ethanol reduces the emmission of greenhouse gasses more than previous estimates.

While this won't end complaints about the subsidies that ethanol enjoys, (I am all for opening the market to sugar based producers) it may go a ways towards refuting those that claim the fuel is a net energy loser. The last two studies I saw were from Michigan State and U of Minnnesota, both of which showed about a 1.3 unit of energy benefit, so we've made quite a bit of progress since that time. Like any maturing technology, ethanol will liekly make further gains in energy efficiency and productivity.

New Biofuel Breakthrough

ScienceDaily has a note regarding a couple of exciting new breakthrough in the production of biofuels. University of Massachussets-Amherst engineer George Huber announced the first ever direct conversion of plant cellulose to gasoline components, while University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher James Dumesic announced an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. The Dumesic group had done previous work on jet fuel but their new work showed that their entire process can be integrated and run sequentially without any intervening separation or purification processes neeeded.

"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."

For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend."

We may be around 5 to 10 years away from widespread commercial applications of such fuel sources, which have the advantages of being used in conventional engines and not suffering the 30% energy/mileage penalty suffered by conventional ethanol. Additionally, cellulosic sources of energy such as switchgrass or wood chips would not require the high direct energy inputs required by other alternatives. These breakthroughs are the first in a series of steps in which we may eventually grow a significant percentage of our energy resources. Outstanding.

GM Volt Concept Car

LiveScience reports on the futuristic GM concpet car called the Volt. The interesting feature of the car is its throwback engine design - it runs on rechargable electric batteries and uses its engine to recharge them, much like old WWI and WWII submarines did before the advent of nuclear power.

"They have taken the way that the automobile industry thinks about hybrid cars, and turned it on its ear," said Michelle Krebs, editor at Edmunds AutoObserver.com. "If you don't drive far, you may never need gasoline. No other major car maker had done this." Most hybrid cars, she noted, retain a connection between the engine and the wheels, and use the electric motor to supplement the gasoline engine."

The Volt owns lithium ion batteries holding 16 kw hours of energy, powering a 120 kw motor enabling a zero to 60 time of 8.5 seconds, and allowing a driving range of over 40 miles, more than enough for most commutes, on just half the battery power. The car could be recharged in around 8 hours with a 110 volt outlet, which would you around 88 cents at the average electrical price today. With a 12 gallon tank of gasloline and a charged battery, you would have a theoretical range of 640 miles - or 53 miles per gallon. One technical hurdle yet to overcome, however, is how to disperse heat generated by the batteries, but GM is hoping to be able to have the car in its production lineup by 2010.

Another Hydrogen Article

Another interesting tidbit on a hydrogen economy also at SD - researchers at Penn State have developed a new method of extracting hydrogen from cellulose and other organic materials.

"The researchers used naturally occurring bacteria in a microbial electrolysis cell with acetic acid -- the acid found in vinegar. Acetic acid is also the predominant acid produced by fermentation of glucose or cellulose. The anode was granulated graphite, the cathode was carbon with a platinum catalyst, and they used an off-the-shelf anion exchange membrane. The bacteria consume the acetic acid and release electrons and protons creating up to 0.3 volts. When more than 0.2 volts are added from an outside source, hydrogen gas bubbles up from the liquid."

Water hydrolysis, the most common method of hydrogen production, is only 50 to 70 percent efficient, but this new process is being rated at 144%! The researchers suggest that hydrogen produced from their new method could be added to existing natural gas (methane) supplies to produce a cleaner and more efficient fuel burning energy resource. Couple this breakthrough with the one below, and we could actually see a hydrogen based energy industry finally making an appearance, with all the attendant positive political, environmental and security implications you could hope for the world.

Carbon Dioxide Conversion Idea

via ScienceDaily. I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but decided to close out the day with something a bit more positive.

Two researchers at the U of Cal-San Diego have developed a solar powered device that splits carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. CO is used in several industrial processes and could be an alternative energy source itself, being capable of being converted into a liquid fuel source. While the device currently needs additional energy inputs to complete the process, the technique show a great deal of promise.

"The device designed by Kubiak and Sathrum to split carbon dioxide utilizes a semiconductor and two thin layers of catalysts. It splits carbon dioxide to generate carbon monoxide and oxygen in a three-step process. The first step is the capture of solar energy photons by the semiconductor. The second step is the conversion of optical energy into electrical energy by the semiconductor. The third step is the deployment of electrical energy to the catalysts. The catalysts convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide on one side of the device and to oxygen on the other side. Because electrons are passed around in these reactions, a special type of catalyst that can convert electrical energy to chemical energy is required Researchers in Kubiak’s laboratory have created a large molecule with three nickel atoms at its heart that has proven to be an effective catalyst for this process. "

The crimp in the current process researched is the use of silicon as the semiconductive material. Silicon, which absorbs infrared light, has been used in the past experiments due to the substance's properties being well understood, but the energy provided by the electrons jumping to higher energy bands in the second step of the process isn't enough right now to complete the molecule splitting process, but only around half that needed. It is thought that the use of another semiconductive material, gallium-phosphide, might turn the trick. It has twice the electron band energy potential of silicon and is able to absorb light from the more energetic visible light spectrum, which the researchers believe could solve the dilemna.

What will they think of next?

Natural Gas for Your Car?

via Livescience.

New technological breakthrough allows a smaller tank to be used for methane powered vehicles. Current use is usually confined to large mass transit vehicles that have sufficent space for a large fuel tank. Growing up, a friend of mine's Dad had a large methane powered cargo van. The tank on it took up an area equivalent to a row of seats. Methane molecules don't compress well, so methane storage tanks are usually under pretty high pressure. The new technology utilizes an interesting resource to allow a storage method under lower pressures.

"The goal of Pfeiffer’s research was to develop a way to hold the natural gas at lower pressures, which would shrink tank sizes. To do this, Pfeiffer developed a way to transform corncob waste into carbon briquettes that act like a sponge to suck up and store natural gas at higher densities.
Tiny pores in the corncobs store the natural gas “in a way which makes the methane molecules very happy to be close to each other,” said Pfeifer. To transform the corncobs into briquettes, they are heated in the absence of air, essentially turning them into charcoal. Meanwhile, a chemical process “drills” extremely tiny holes and tunnels in the briquettes that can exert strong forces to hold the methane in place."

Obviously, corncobs are a pretty common resource, particularly in the Midewestern US. Other attempts to create such briquettes have focused on other agricultural products like coconuts and olive pits, but none have created the storage capacity that the corncobs have. The new tank stores methane at one-seventh the pressure and it is far smaller than a conventional natural gas tank, one which could easily fit inside a passenger vehicle. It should be noted that while methane burns more cleanly that gasoline, it has a far larger greenhouse effect when released into the atmosphere.