Contact: Ron Raines, (608) 262-8588, rtraines@wisc.edu

MADISON – A University of Wiscosnin-Madison research team has developed a promising new chemical method to liberate the sugar molecules trapped inside inedible plant biomass, a key step in the creation of cellulosic biofuels.

The approach, which is described in the March 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can convert three-quarters of the sugars locked up in raw corn stover into simple, fermentable sugars, making it an attractive alternative to the enzyme-based approaches currently favored by biofuels researchers.

“Our chemical process is extremely efficient,” says Ron Raines, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry and chemistry. “It also has marked advantages over the existing processes-both chemical or enzymatic-for producing sugars from biomass.”

Working under a strong federal mandate, scientists across the nation are developing next-generation biofuels from inedible plant materials such as corn stover, switchgrass and wood chips. Unlike most ethanol on the market today, these so-called cellulosic biofuels would not be derived from food sources, potentially reducing the stress on food systems. But the complex structure of plant material keeps cellulose’s energy-rich sugars locked up in tangled webs, making the process of converting it to fuel difficult. In recent years, scientists have been trying to find and engineer enzymes that can break down the sugars more efficiently, potentially opening the door to the commercial production of fuel from cellulose.

Raines’ chemical approach, which he developed with graduate student Joe Binder, a doctoral candidate in the chemistry department, on the other hand, relies on a mixture of an ionic liquid and dilute acid-both of which can slip past lignin-to dissolve the long chains of sugars in biomass and break them up into individual molecules of glucose and xylose.

Over the course of the reaction, they added water to the mixture to prevent unwanted byproducts from forming. After two rounds of such treatment, a sample of corn stover gave up about 70 percent of its glucose and 79 percent of its xylose, a 75 percent sugar yield overall. From there, the researchers used ion-exclusion chromatography to separate the sugars from the reaction mixture, as well as the ionic liquid, for reuse.

The sugar yields obtained using this method, says Raines, approach those achieved using enzymes to break down raw biomass. And chemicals, he notes, are more robust and less expensive than enzymes-and require no pretreatment of the biomass sample. “In the biofuels race,” says Raines, “I feel this sort of chemical approach has a good shot at winning.”

Raines and Binder subsequently used microbes to ferment the sugars they collected into ethanol. All told, says Raines, using this integrated process, they were able to convert half of the sugars available in plant biomass into liquid fuel.

To make it work at the industrial scale, however, a number of hurdles will need to be overcome, including the near-perfect recovery of the ionic liquid, which is expensive, in order to make the whole process economical. Nevertheless, says Raines, the technology is ready for the right entrepreneur.

“This work could have substantial short-term economic and political impacts,” he says.

Raines’ project was supported by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center located at UW-Madison, as well as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to Binder.
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-Nicole Miller, (608) 262-3636, nemiller2@wisc.edu

Producing ethanol from corn is relatively easy: the corn’s abundant sugars are readily fermented into alcohol. But using what is essentially a food crop to produce fuel has been criticized as a misuse of resources that can harm both agriculture and the environment.

Better, critics say, to make what is called cellulosic ethanol from leaves and stalks or other crop waste or nonfood crops like switchgrass. The process uses lignocellulose, the basic structural material of all plants and the most abundant organic compound on the planet.

But cellulosic ethanol is more difficult to make. The lignocellulose must first be broken down into sugars, which can then be fermented. Current techniques use costly enzymes or highly concentrated acids that are difficult to handle.

Now, Ronald T. Raines and Joseph B. Binder of the University of Wisconsin are proposing a different way. In a paper in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they describe a process that uses an ionic liquid — a salt with a low melting point — in combination with water and acids at lower concentrations to produce fermentable sugars.

The researchers found that water was the key to making the process efficient. Without water, the sugars produced by the action of the ionic liquid and the acid rapidly degraded into other compounds. But water keeps chloride ions in the salt from further reacting with the sugars.

The researchers say their process produces sugar yields approaching those obtained by enzymatic methods. While much work remains, they say the process may prove useful in converting agricultural waste to a useful fuel.

Note: Raines’ project was supported by The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center located at UW-Madison, as well as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to Binder.

3/1/2010

CONTACT: Margaret Broeren, mbroeren@glbrc.wisc.edu, (608) 890-2168, Michael Casler, mdcasler@wisc.edu, (608) 890-0065

MADISON – The March issue of BioEnergy Research exclusively focuses on the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and bioenergy research topics ranging from arthropods to cell walls to hydrogen and enzyme improvement.

This is the second of three special issues featuring work from the energy department’s Bioenergy Research Centers.

“This issue provides a snapshot of the diverse range of cutting-edge research within Great Lakes Bioenergy,” says Tim Donohue, GLBRC director and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of bacteriology. “Readers curious about the latest advances in cellulosic biofuels research will certainly find something that piques their interest.”

The 11 journal articles showcase scientific collaborations at UW-Madison and Michigan State University in four broad research themes: improved biofuels feedstocks, improved conversion into advanced biofuels, sustainable biofuels landscapes, and improved cellulosic biomass processing. Open access to the March issue is available at http://ow.ly/1apjA.

Improved biofuels feedstocks: Committed to improving plant biomass for conversion to liquid fuels, Great Lakes Bioenergy researchers are working to increase energy-rich hydrocarbons in plant tissues and to create plant cell walls that are more easily broken down into their component sugars. Papers contributed by UW-Madison researchers Natalia de Leon, Michael Casler and Chris Schwartz provide a glimpse into the center’s attempts to capitalize on natural genetic mutations to create more suitable feedstocks and methods for deconstructing plant hydrocarbons into liquid fuels.

Improved conversion into advanced biofuels: Scientists are using a variety of natural genetic and genomic approaches to identify organisms and biological systems with unique properties that could increase the efficiency of converting biomass into biofuels. A research group led by UW-Madison engineer Dan Noguera is using a genetic mutant of Rhodobacter sphaeroides to study electron partitioning from nutrients into hydrogen gas.

Sustainable biofuels landscapes: One of the center’s core research areas focuses on the ensuring biological diversity across the agricultural landscape used for bioenergy feedstock production. MSU entomologist Doug Landis’ research group examines abundance and diversity of beneficial insects, including bees, beetles, and flies, in relation to species-richness of cellulosic biofuel crops, while a paper led by MSU microbial ecologist Ederson Jesus examines the mix of bacterial life that lies within the soil.

Improved cellulosic biomass processing: Developing efficient and economical biomass processing technologies will require significant improvements in the properties and combinations of enzymes used to convert plant biomass into liquid fuels. In a review, MSU researcher Goutami Banerjee and his team describe many of the current impediments to bioconversion and the Center’s approaches that include bioprospecting for superior key enzymes, protein engineering and high-level expression in plants. MSU scientist Dahai Gao reports research results of the combination of different enzymes, or enzyme cocktails, and their effect on bioconversion of maize stover.

Finally, the issue highlights high-throughput technology made possible by the center’s enabling technologies group. MSU researcher Nick Santoro describes a robotic platform that provides key measurements that allow researchers to rapidly characterize thousands of plant samples for important traits and bioconversion efficiencies.

About Great Lakes Bioenergy:

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) is one of three U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Centers funded to make transformational breakthroughs that will form the foundation of new cellulosic biofuels technology. The Center is led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with Michigan State University as the major partner.  Additional scientific partners are DOE National Laboratories, other universities and a biotechnology company. For more information, visit http://www.glbrc.org.

About BioEnergy Research:

BioEnergy Research fills a void in the rapidly growing area of feedstock biology research related to biomass, biofuels, and bioenergy. The journal publishes a wide range of articles, including peer-reviewed scientific research, reviews, perspectives and commentary, industry news, and government policy updates. Its coverage brings together a uniquely broad combination of disciplines with a common focus on feedstock biology and science, related to biomass, biofeedstock, and bioenergy production. Open access to this issue is available at: http://ow.ly/1apjA

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Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Thursday announced a discovery that advances the renewable-energy research aimed at converting corn stalks or switchgrass into jet fuel.

The research was published in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

One of the researchers involved in the project has a track record in development of renewable green transportation fuels, thanks to his involvement with earlier research that led to the formation of the Madison biofuels firm Virent Energy Systems Inc.

The engineers say this is one step toward making jet fuel from biomass feedstock such as corn stalks or switchgrass.

Work is now under way to develop the most efficient source for the compound, known as gamma-valerolactone, or GVL. GVL is currently used as an herbal food and perfume additive.

A chemical conversion process developed by engineer James Dumesic, professor of chemical and biological engineering, as well as postdoctoral researchers and graduate students at UW-Madison.

The findings will add to research that’s taking place in Madison and elsewhere to investigate renewable sources for transportation fuels. Read the full story

If you missed the event, you can review the presentations on agronomy, economics, grassland ecology, and wildlife ecology here.

If you missed the event, you can review the presentations on agronomy, economics, grassland ecology, and wildlife ecology here.

The recently sequenced soybean genome opens new opportunities to grow human and animal food more sustainably, improve energy production, and bring environmental balance to agriculture worldwide.

Soybean is an interesting plant. It provides a valuable protein source for human and animal consumption, it is an important feedstock for biodiesel production, and it interacts with soil-borne bacteria (Rhizobia) that capture atmospheric nitrogen and store it in the soil, a beneficial side-effect utilized during crop rotation. In an effort to unlock the full power of this plant, scientists have sequenced the soybean genome.

“Most people are familiar with sequencing of the human genome,” begins Jeremy Schmutz, faculty scientist at Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, a partner laboratory with the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI). “The soybean genome was sequenced to provide scientists a better understanding of plant productivity, complex biochemical pathways, such as oil production, and pest and pathogen resistance just like the human genome is helping scientists to understand human diseases.”

The scientific team, led by Schmutz, used a process called “whole genome shotgun” to sequence the entire genome as a single effort. “With this technique, we were able to sequence and order the genome at one time so the scientific community could go directly from the genome sequence to breeding new varieties of soybean” said Schmutz.

At first glance, the soybean genome is an impressive size – 1,115 mega -base pairs (Mbp) (1,115,000 base pairs) – about 1/3 the size of the human genome, which contains approximately 3,000 Mbp. But by plant standards, the soybean genome is relatively small and tractable for genomics research.

The soybean genome, like other plant genomes,   displays a feature called polyploidy. Schmutz explains, “During seed generation, whole regions of the genome can be duplicated. These duplications can infer a competitive advantage to the plant allowing it to thrive.”

	Dried soybean. Photo Credit – Holly McClain

Important traits, like oil production, require complex pathways. A duplication of a section of the genome can allow normal pathways to function, but a mutation may occur along a pathway in a duplicated portion of the genome. This mutation may be the key to giving the plant an added boost to survive and thrive.

The team determined that soybean underwent two large-scale genome duplication events approximately 59 and 13 million years ago.

The implications of the soybean genome sequence for energy and agriculture are enormous. The soybean genome will allow rapid identification of the underlying genetic basis of many soybean traits that are favored in traditional breeding programs. “The soybean genome sequence will help breeders and geneticists understand how they have tweaked the soybean genome during traditional breeding to impart higher oil production and disease resistance” said Schmutz.

The sequence is available in the public domain, which Schmutz hopes will promote scientific collaboration to improve soybean varieties and bring benefits to market faster. “Mining the soybean genome for pathways involved in triacylglycerol [oil] biosynthesis, for example, could prove beneficial in efforts to modify soybean oil composition or content” said Schmutz.

	The soybean. Photo Credit – Roy Kaltschmidt, LBNL

This research is already having an impact. Expressed plant traits have been associated with particular causal genes to develop soybean lines that improve an animal’s ability to digest soybean, reduce the concentration of phosphorus-rich compounds in animal excretion that are responsible for contamination of freshwater systems from agricultural runoff, and assist in the identification of resistance genes for devastating diseases, like Asian Soybean Rust, which will benefit the soybean production worldwide.

Finally, the draft genome sequence offers new opportunities to identify genes associated with increased biodiesel production, which may one day make the product a competitive alternative to gasoline.  The sequence may also provide opportunities to manipulate the plant’s ability to fix nitrogen to ensure soil fertility, especially for bioenergy crop sustainability.

Funding for the draft soybean genome sequence and analysis was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the United Soybean Board.  The project included collaborators from the University of Missouri, Purdue University, and a dozen other institutions.

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MADISON – Wide-ranging efforts to nurture a Wisconsin biomass market supplying fuel to the soon-to-be-renovated Charter Street Heating Plant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are under way, as officials begin identifying potential suppliers for the cutting-edge facility.

State and UW-Madison officials are asking interested Wisconsin farmers, businesses and landowners to respond to a simple “request for information” that will help pinpoint likely suppliers of the 250,000 tons of biomass that the plant will consume each year.

“We want to build reliable partnerships, help foster an emerging industry and meet the environmental goals of powering a cleaner, coal-free facility,” says Troy Runge, director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative, a UW-Madison-based coalition that helps Wisconsin create, commercialize and promote bioenergy solutions.

Runge, who chairs a multiagency panel charged with creating a biomass market to serve the plant, says the request was designed to be simple to encourage broad participation. It will be followed in coming months by a request for more detailed information and proposals from potential biomass fuel suppliers and aggregators.

“We want to cast the broadest possible net to eventually develop a network of suppliers who are capable of providing long-term, sustainable and environmentally responsible fuel supplies,” says Runge.

The request seeks information on the type of fuel being offered, location, pricing, capacity, storage and transportation. It can be found at http://www.wbi.wisc.edu/charter-street-biomass-heating-plant/.

“We are trying to understand the market from top to bottom and make sure that we haven’t left any possible suppliers out of the process,” Runge says. “We’re considering a range of sources, from rural and urban forest products to corn stover to grasses and construction waste.”

Runge says that the panel hopes to reach both biomass producers and aggregators, those who collect the fuel from various sources.

Gov. Jim Doyle has committed to stop burning coal at state-owned heating plants on Madison’s isthmus. The $251 million renovation of the campus’s Charter Street Heating plant will transform it into a natural gas- and biomass-burning plant.

A contractor will be chosen this year to build a biomass boiler, which should go online in 2013 – about two years after construction starts. In the meantime, a pair of natural gas boilers will be built at the Charter Street facility to stand in when the coal plant is decommissioned.

For more information about the Charter Street project, visit http://www.news.wisc.edu/17593

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama today announced a series of steps his Administration is taking as part of its comprehensive strategy to enhance American energy independence while building a foundation for a new clean energy economy, and its promise of new industries and millions of jobs.

At a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors from around the country, the President laid out three measures that will work in concert to boost biofuels production and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule to implement the long-term renewable fuels standard of 36 billion gallons by 2022 established by Congress. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a rule on the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) that would provide financing to increase the conversion of biomass to bioenergy. The President’s Biofuels Interagency Working Group released its first report – Growing America’s Fuel. The report, authored by group co-chairs, Secretaries Vilsack and Chu, and Administrator Jackson, lays out a strategy to advance the development and commercialization of a sustainable biofuels industry to meet or exceed the nation’s biofuels targets.

In addition, President Obama announced a Presidential Memorandum (linked below) creating an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage to develop a comprehensive and coordinated federal strategy to speed the development and deployment of clean coal technologies. Our nation’s economy will continue to rely on the availability and affordability of domestic coal for decades to meet its energy needs, and these advances are necessary to reduce pollution in the meantime. The President calls for five to ten commercial demonstration projects to be up and running by 2016.

President Obama said, “Now, I happen to believe that we should pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill. It will make clean energy the profitable kind of energy, and the decision by other nations to do this is already giving their businesses a leg up on developing clean energy jobs and technologies. But even if you disagree on the threat posed by climate change, investing in clean energy jobs and businesses is still the right thing to do for our economy. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is still the right thing to do for our security. We can’t afford to spin our wheels while the rest of the world speeds ahead.”

“Advancing biomass and biofuel production holds the potential to create green jobs, which is one of the many ways the Obama Administration is working to rebuild and revitalize rural America,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Facilities that produce renewable fuel from biomass have to be designed, built and operated. Additionally, BCAP will stimulate biomass production and that will benefit producers and provide the materials necessary to generate clean energy and reduce carbon pollution.”

“President Obama and this Administration are strongly committed to the development of carbon capture and storage technology as a key part of the clean energy economy. We can and should lead the world in this technology and the jobs it can create,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

“The actions President Obama has taken today will create jobs, slash greenhouse gas emissions and increase our energy security while helping to put America at the leading edge of the new energy economy,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “The renewable fuel standards will help bring new economic opportunity to millions of Americans, particularly in rural America. EPA is proud to be a part of the President’s effort to combat climate change and put Americans back to work – both through the new renewable fuel standards and through our co-chairmanship with the Department of Energy of the Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage.”

Background on today’s announcements:

Renewable Fuels Standard. EPA has finalized a rule implementing the long-term renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022 established by Congress. The Renewable Fuels Standard requires biofuels production to grow from last year’s 11.1 billion gallons to 36 billion gallons in 2022, with 21 billion gallons to come from advanced biofuels. Increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence on oil by more than 328 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than 138 million metric tons a year when fully phased in by 2022. For the first time, some renewable fuels must achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions – compared to the gasoline and diesel fuels they displace – in order to be counted towards compliance with volume standards. To read the full rule, please click HERE.

Biomass Crop Assistance Program. USDA has proposed a rule for Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to convert biomass to bioenergy and bio-based products. USDA provides grants and loans and other financial support to help biofuels and renewable energy commercialization. BCAP has already begun to provide matching payments to folks delivering biomass for the collection, harvest, storage, and transportation of biomass to eligible biomass conversion facilities. To read the full rule, please click HERE.

Biofuels Working Group: In May, President Obama established the Biofuels Interagency Working Group – co-chaired by USDA, DOE, and EPA, and with input from many others – to develop a comprehensive approach to accelerating the investment in and production of American biofuels and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Today the Working Group released its first report: Growing America’s Fuel – a new U.S. Government strategy for meeting or beating the country’s biofuel targets. The report is focused on short term solid government solutions supporting the existing biofuels industry, as well as accelerating the commercial establishment of advanced biofuels and a viable long-term market by transforming how the U.S. Government does business across Departments and using strategic public-private partnerships. To read the full report, please click HERE.

Presidential Memorandum for a Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage: Charting the path toward clean coal is essential to achieving the Administration’s clean energy goals, supporting American jobs and reducing emissions of carbon pollution. Rapid development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the U.S. as a leader in the global clean energy race. The President’s memorandum establishes an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage to develop a comprehensive and coordinated federal strategy to speed the development and deployment of clean coal technologies.

The Task Force will be co-chaired by representatives of from DOE and EPA and include participants from at least 9 different agencies and offices. The Task Force shall develop within 180 days a plan to overcome the barriers to the deployment of widespread affordable CCS within 10 years, with a goal of bringing five to ten commercial demonstration projects on line by 2016. The plan should address incentives for CCS adoption and any financial, economic, technological, legal, institutional, or other barriers to deployment. The Task Force should consider how best to coordinate existing federal authorities and programs, as well as identify areas where additional federal authority may be necessary. The Task Force shall report progress periodically to the President, through the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. To read the full memorandum, please click HERE.

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Photo by Hannah Gaines

Entomologists have a long history in agriculture, offering expertise on biological control, insect-plant interactions, and integrated pest management. Now entomologists are being called upon to help design best practices in bioenergy crop systems.

On December 16, GLBRC entomology experts Claudio Gratton and Doug Landis led the Entomology and Bioenergy Symposium. A part of the National meeting of the Entomological Society of America, the session focused on both the general ideas behind bioenergy production as well as how entomology can help shape the biofuel landscape of the 21st century.

GLBRC Entomologist Claudio Gratton gave us some insight into the crossover between entomology and bioenergy.

GLBRC: How would you describe the role of entomology within bioenergy research?
Claudio Gratton: I think entomologists are and will be key partners in helping to develop sustainable biomass cropping systems. Our discipline’s rich history of work on pest management, vector-pathogen interactions, and biological control to mention a few, has the potential to significantly influence how bioenergy agriculture is practiced.

GLBRC: Why is entomology so important to biofuel sustainability?
CG: Anytime you work with crops (and biomass crops are no different), you need to think about how the crop itself is affected by insects and how the cropping system influences insects themselves. Some of the insects we study carry out important and useful functions in the landscape, such as pollination or pest-suppression (think ladybeetles and bees). Others are pests and consume or otherwise damage the crops we are interested in harvesting (herbivores and their pathogens). So insects will figure prominently in how we manage biomass crops in the future.

GLBRC: How does the Center’s approach to sustainability compare to other research in this area?
CG: GLBRC is unique among the biofuel research centers (both privately and federally-funded) in that we have a very diverse, strong and integrated team that is examining the sustainability of biofuel production. Several of us on the team are entomologists or work with insects. Sustainability will in part be determined by the arthropods that help us and hurt us, and entomologists need to play increasingly central roles in ensuring a sustainable bioenergy future.

A number of the speakers at the Entomology and Bioenergy Symposium are Great Lakes Bioenergy experts who are currently working with insects as a part of broader biofuels research. Click on the links below to learn more about research going on in this area:

Faculty Leads
Claudio Gratton
Doug Landis

Project Leaders
Phil Robertson
Carolyn Malmstrom
Cameron Currie
Rufus Isaacs

Postdocs and Graduate Students
Tim Meehan
Ben Werling
Julianna Tuell
Hannah Gaines