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.
###
-Nicole Miller, (608) 262-3636, nemiller2@wisc.edu

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

###

Washington, D.C – U.S. Department of Enery Secretary Steven Chu announced today that Dr. Karina Edmonds will join the Department of Energy as its new Technology Transfer Coordinator.  Dr. Edmonds will be responsible for working with the Department’s National Laboratories to accelerate the process of moving discoveries from the laboratory to the private sector, ensuring that America’s scientific leadership translates into new, high-paying jobs for America’s families. Dr. Edmonds is scheduled to join the Department starting in April 2010.

“I am pleased to have Karina join our team at the Department of Energy,” said Secretary Chu.  “Having Karina oversee a coordinated, strategic effort on behalf of the Department will help increase the rate of successful technology transfers, creating clean energy jobs and providing more solutions to our energy challenges.”

Created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, this is the first time that the Department has appointed a full-time person to fill this role.  An aeronautical engineer, Dr. Edmonds is presently the Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technology Transfer at the California Institute of Technology.  In that position, she is responsible for licensing technologies developed at both JPL and Caltech to industry and start-ups, managing the JPL patent portfolio, assisting Caltech Start-ups and managing Caltech’s current patent filings. Dr. Edmonds will also be a featured guest speaker at the inaguaral ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in to take place March 1-3, 2010 in Washington D.C.  The ARPA-E Summit will bring together leading members of the business and scientific communities to discuss their game-changing ideas for transforming the way we use and produce energy.

Dr. Edmonds is also a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

-DOE-

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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

###

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.

-DOE-

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The University of Tennessee Office of Bioenergy Programs today announced creation of a database of industrial and selected community-scale users of wood to energy facilities across North America. The site — www.wood2energy.org — is a searchable database open to anyone with interest in the state of wood to energy conversion at a national, state/provincial or local operating level.

According to Oregon State University College of Forestry, a staggering 55% of all wood harvested in the world, is consumed as fuel. For almost half of the world’s population, wood is the principal energy source for cooking and heating. In contrast, wood accounts for about 3% of total energy usage in North America with the greatest concentration of use being by the forest industry which leads all sectors in supplying a significant portion of its own energy needs.

“The Wood2Energy database provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date information base of its type,” said Dr. Sam Jackson, project leader. “Such information is vital to making sound planning and business decisions to expand uses of wood for energy while protecting the long-term sustainability of North America’s rich forested estate.”

Data accessible in the Wood2Energy system includes “green energy” developed and used on-site as a byproduct of a primary manufacturing process such as that produced by sawmills or pulp and paper mills, the largest single producers of energy from woody biomass. It also includes the growing number of facilities dedicated to conversion of wood to energy.

Wood2Energy was developed by the University of Tennessee Office of Bioenergy Programs with funding from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities; American Forest and Paper Association; Forest Products Association of Canada; as well as the respective federal natural resources agencies from the U.S. and Canada, the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Canada. Additional assistance was provided by the Sun Grant Initiative.

The system is being continuously updated to ensure that it is as comprehensive as is practical. It presents information in tabular as well as map form. The system includes a means for individual facilities to update their information to ensure the most up-to-date data is available.

The Wood2Energy system will soon be supported by a companion report on the current state of wood-to-energy science and technology.

———————————————–

Carlton Owen, President & CEO, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities
864-233-7646, carlton@usendowment.org

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities www.usendowment.org .

Samuel W. Jackson, Research Assistant Professor, Univ. of Tennessee Office of Bioenergy Programs
865-974-1124, samjackson@utk.edu

The Office of Bioenergy Programs at the University of Tennessee is actively working toward a secure and sustainable energy future for the state and nation. Housed in the Institute of Agriculture, the Office of Bioenergy Programs coordinates a variety of research, development, and outreach programs, all involving bioenergy.

January 2010
Contact: Craig Canham
Corporate Public Relations, Future Science Group
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8371 6092
Email: c.canham@future-science.com

Launched in January 2010, Biofuels is the first of a new range of environmental science titles
published by Future Science. This peer-reviewed journal is devoted to the rapid publication of
new findings and topical commentary in biofuel research. Future Science is part of the Londonbased
Future Science Group.

Biofuels provides a forum for all stakeholders in the bioenergy sector, featuring original research,
review articles, commentaries, news and much more, with a view to establishing an international
forum for biofuel research and communication.

Biofuels research is progressing at an unprecedented rate, with the development of new feed
stocks and improvements in production processes providing the key to the transformation of
biomass into a global energy resource. Published on a bimonthly basis, Biofuels will report key
developments and place these advances in context during this exciting evolution.

The editorial direction of Biofuels is the responsibility of Senior Editors Yusuf Christi (Massey
University, New Zealand) and Timothy Donohue (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA). The
Senior Editors are supported by a team of two Associate Editors, together with an Advisory Panel
of more than thirty international experts.

Senior Editor Yusuf Christi said, “Environmental, economic and social sustainability are
inseparably linked to a sustainable supply of energy. As readily useable, potentially
environmentally benign and a renewable form of energy, biofuels are poised to contribute to our
energy supply in a meaningful way“. He concluded that, “….the journal Biofuels intends to be at
the forefront of the emerging developments on all aspects of biofuels.”

All articles submitted to the journal are subject to peer review by three, or more, independent
assessors. Elisa Manzotti, Editorial Director at Future Science said, “There has been a
phenomenal response to requests for manuscript submissions by Yusuf Christi & Timothy
Donohue, indicating just how much interest there is in this exciting and emerging field. Our launch
issue contains more than two hundred pages of insightful commentary”.

She added, “The journal marks the perfect beginning of the environmental science portfolio at
Future Science, and further details of this expanding programme will follow in due course.”
Biofuels publishes reviews, original research, perspectives, commentary and news & views for
the biofuels community. Biofuels articles are highly structured and illustrated, and presented in
highly accessible formats. The launch issue, its contents of the launch issue can be viewed at
http://www.future-science.com/r/bfs.

For complimentary access to all articles in the launch issue please contact
Craig Canham, +44 (0) 20 8371 6092; c.canham@future-science.com
– ENDS –

For further information please contact:
Craig Canham, Corporate Public Relations, Future Science Group
T: +44 (0) 20 8371 6092 F: +44 (0) 20 8343 2313 E: c.canham@future-science.com

NOTES FOR EDITORS
ABOUT FUTURE SCIENCE GROUP
The Future Science Group (www.future-science-group.com) is an expanding group of
independent publishing companies active in the field of scientific information and endeavor,
including Expert Reviews Ltd (formerly known as Future Drugs Ltd) Future Medicine Ltd and
Future Science Ltd. As a leading provider of products and services for the medical, science and
business communities, we present the most important scientific breakthroughs in an accessible
and evaluated format, while at the same time providing the scientific community with unique
vehicles for disseminating forward-thinking research information and data. Future Science is a
pioneer in publications associated with pharmaceutical science, chemistry and environmental
science. Complete listings of titles under each imprint are available at www.expert-reviews.com,
www.futuremedicine.com and www.future-science.com.

Currently, the transportation sector accounts for 28 percent of total U.S. energy use. As these vehicle technologies are adopted broadly across the country, they could save more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and diesel per day, and reduce carbon emissions from on-road vehicles by 20 percent by 2030.

“By investing Recovery dollars in next generation fuel efficient trucks here at home, we’re not only creating new job opportunities now, but helping lay a new foundation to keep American auto manufacturers competitive in the 21^st century global marketplace,” said Vice President Biden. “Through strategic public-private investments like these, the Recovery Act is helping lay the groundwork for an expansion of our clean energy economy.”

“Improving the efficiency of our vehicles is critical to reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil and addressing climate change,” said Secretary Chu.  “Today’s awards will help demonstrate the potential benefits for long-haul trucks and passenger vehicles and will play an important role in building a more sustainable transportation system for the country.”

Three projects will focus on cost-effective measures to improve the efficiency of Class 8 long-haul freight trucks by 50 percent.  These projects will receive more than $115 million in funding to develop and demonstrate systems-level fuel efficiency technologies by 2015, including improved aerodynamics, reducing engine idling technologies, waste heat recovery to increase engine efficiency, advanced combustion techniques, and powertrain hybridization.

The remaining six projects totaling more than $71 million will support efforts to increase the fuel economy for passenger vehicle engines and powertrain systems.  The goal is to develop engine technologies that will improve the fuel economy of passenger vehicles by 25-40 percent by 2015 using an engine-only approach.

The following projects have been selected for awards under two topic areas:

Systems Level Technology Development, Integration, and Demonstration for Efficient Class 8 Trucks (SuperTrucks)

• Cummins Inc. – $38,831,115 – Columbus, Indiana – Develop and demonstrate a highly efficient and clean diesel engine, an advanced waste heat recovery system, an aerodynamic Peterbilt tractor and trailer combination, and a fuel cell auxiliary power unit to reduce engine idling.

• Daimler Trucks North America, LLC – $39,559,868 – Portland, Oregon – Develop and demonstrate technologies including engine downsizing, electrification of auxiliary systems such as oil and water pumps, waste heat recovery, improved aerodynamics and hybridization.

• Navistar, Inc. – $37,328,933 – Fort Wayne, Indiana – Develop and demonstrate technologies to improve truck and trailer aerodynamics, combustion efficiency, waste heat recovery, hybridization, idle reduction, and reduced rolling resistance tires.

Advanced Technology Powertrains for Light-Duty Vehicles (ATP-LD)

• Chrysler Group LLC – $14,458,572 – Auburn Hills, Michigan – Develop a flexible combustion system for their minivan platform based on a downsized, turbocharged engine that uses direct gasoline injection, recirculation of exhaust gases, and flexible intake air control to reduce emissions.

• Cummins Inc. – $15,000,000 – Columbus, Indiana – Develop a fuel-efficient, low emissions diesel engine that achieves a 40 percent fuel economy improvement over conventional gasoline technology and significantly exceeds 2010 EPA emissions requirements.

• Delphi Automotive Systems LLC – $7,480,572 – Troy, Michigan – Develop a novel low-temperature combustion system, coupled with technologies such as continuously variable valve control and engine downspeeding, to improve fuel economy by at least 25 percent.

• Ford Motor Company – $15,000,000 – Dearborn, Michigan – Achieve a 25 percent fuel economy improvement with a gasoline engine in a 2010 mid- to large-size sedan using technologies including engine downsizing, turbo-charging, direct injection, and a novel exhaust aftertreatment system.

• General Motors Co. – $7,705,862 – Pontiac, Michigan – Develop an engine that uses lean combustion and active heat management, as well as a novel emissions control system, to improve the fuel economy of a 2010 Malibu demonstration vehicle by 25 percent.

• Robert Bosch – $11,953,786 – Farmington Hills, Michigan – Demonstrate a high compression, turbo-charged engine based on homogenous charge compression ignition technology (a combustion technology that allows for lower emissions and higher efficiency)  to achieve up to 30 percent fuel economy improvement in a gasoline-fueled light-duty vehicle.

The lead applicant on each proposal is listed above.  The final details of each award contract will be finalized in negotiations between DOE and the grantee.

###

12/17/09

Contacts:

Margaret Broeren, (608) 890-2168, mbroeren@glbrc.wisc.edu

Molly McElroy, (202) 326-6434, mmcelroy@aaas.org

AAAS and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center Announce 2009 Fellows

Tim Donohue and Michael D. Casler of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellows. Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

This year 531 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February 20, from 8 to 10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on December 18, 2009.

As part of the Section on Biological Sciences, Tim Donohue, professor of bacteriology and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of bacteriology, especially for contributions to metabolic and regulatory activities of photosynthetic bacteria critical to bioenergy formation.

“I was honored to be elected a Fellow in the AAAS,” says Donohue. “Recognition like this is always gratifying, especially when you realize the nomination process begins with several of your colleagues. It is sobering because so many other outstanding scientists on campus have been recognized with this distinction.”

As part of the Section on Agriculture, Food and Renewable Resources, Michael D. Casler, a research geneticist for USDA-ARS at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center and an agronomy professor, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to agricultural sciences in teaching, research on perennial forages and bioenergy crop genetics, quality, fitness, and adaptation, and for scientific services.

“The recognition of two Great Lakes Bioenergy scientists is a tribute to the tremendous expertise we have within the center,” says Steve Slater, scientific programs manager at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. “It’s the strength of our researchers along with their highly collaborative nature that has allowed us to make so much progress in our first two years.”

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee’s institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer.

Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.

# # #

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center is one of three Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers funded to make transformational breakthroughs that will form the foundation of new cellulosic biofuels technology. The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research 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 on the GLBRC, visit www.glbrc.org.

* * *

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An image is available for download at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/queenAntGarden09.html

CONTACT: Cameron Currie, 608-265-8034, currie@bact.wisc.edu; Garret Suen, 608-890-0237, gsuen@wisc.edu

MADISON – Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.

Here’s a new one to add to the list: the ant farmers, like their human counterparts, depend on nitrogen-fixing bacteria to make their gardens grow. The finding, reported this week (Nov. 20) in the journal Science, documents a previously unknown symbiosis between ants and bacteria and provides insight into how leaf-cutter ants have come to dominate the American tropics and subtropics.

queen_ant_garden09

“Nitrogen is a limiting resource,” says Garret Suen, a UW-Madison postdoctoral fellow and a co-author of the new study. “If you don’t have it, you can’t survive.”

Indeed, the partnership between ant and microbe permits leaf-cutters to be amazingly successful. Their underground nests, some the size of small houses, can harbor millions of inhabitants. In the Amazon forest they comprise four times more biomass than do all land animals combined.

“This is the first indication of bacterial garden symbionts in the fungus-growing ant system,” says Currie, a UW-Madison professor of bacteriology.

A critical finding in the new study, according to the Wisconsin scientist, is that the nitrogen, which is extracted from the air by the bacteria, ends up in the ants themselves and, ultimately, benefits the nitrogen-poor ecosystems where the ants thrive.

The fungus-growing ants, Currie notes, are technically herbivores. They make their living by carving up foliage and carrying it back to their nests in endless columns to provide the raw material for the fungus they grow as food. “But plant-feeding insects are known to be nitrogen limited,” explains Currie, “and the plant biomass nitrogen is lower than what the insects need for survival.”

Also see this research featured in Wired.

Enter the nitrogen-fixing bacteria, two species of which were isolated in laboratory and field colonies of the ants. But merely finding the bacteria, Suen emphasizes, wasn’t enough. It was necessary to prove that the ants were actually utilizing the nutrient to confirm a true mutualism.

“This is important because it could be that the bacteria are fixing nitrogen for themselves and not actually benefiting the ants,” says Suen. “Showing that the nitrogen fixed by the bacteria is incorporated into the ants establishes that these bacteria aren’t just transient visitors.”

One other type of insect, the termite, has been previously shown to utilize nitrogen-fixing bacteria. And other bacteria-ant symbioses have been documented.

However, the discovery of the nitrogen-fixing mutualism in ants has significant ecological implications given the dominance of ants in virtually all of the word’s terrestrial ecosystems. The new work suggests that an important source of nitrogen in the American tropics and subtropics is derived through the partnership of ant and bacteria.

Says Currie: “It is possible that this fixed nitrogen can have ecosystem scale impacts.”

The partnership with bacteria, which Currie says could extend back to the origins of the gardening ants some 50 million years ago, confers a competitive edge that has permitted the leaf-cutters to prevail in their environments.

Says Suen: “Without nitrogen, there is no way these guys could achieve such large colony sizes. These ants are one of the most dominant insects in the Neotropics. The ability to have colonies with millions of ants is predicted to require a tremendous amount of nitrogen.”

The new study was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the National Science Foundation. In addition to Currie and Suen, the new study was co-authored by Adrian A Pinto-Tomas now of the University of Costa Rica; Mark A. Anderson, Fiona S. T. Chu and W. Wallace Cleland of UW-Madison; and David M. Stevenson and Paul J. Weimer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Forage Research Center.
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- Terry Devitt, 608-262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu