Development of Cellulosic Biofuels

1. Development of Cellulosic Biofuels Chris Somerville Energy Biosciences Institute UC Berkeley, LBL, University of Illinois

2. The Energy Biosciences Institute(www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org) • $500M committed over 10 years • Research mandate to explore the application of modern biological knowledge to the energy sector • Cellulosic fuels • Petroleum microbiology (bioremediation, biosouring, corrosion, recovery…) • Biolubricants

3. Combustion of biomass can provide carbon neutral energy Sunlight CO2 CO2 Tilling Land conversion Fertilizer Transportation Processing “Combustion” Photosynthesis Biomass Work It depends on how the biomass is produced and processed

4. Net GHG emissions from various fuels From: Americas Energy Future, NAS 2010

5. Overview of Brazil sugarcane • ~8 M Ha planted in 2009 • ~27 B liters ethanol, 2009 • ~80-120 T/Ha • ~6400 L ethanol/Ha • ~429 mills • Plantings last 5-12 y • Large mill • 22,000 tons/day • 750 truck loads/day http://english.unica.com.br/content/show.asp?cntCode ={D6C39D36-69BA-458D-A95C-815C87E4404D}

6. Primary uses of US corn USDA Economic Information Bulletin #79, 2011

7. Renewable Fuel Standard(Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007) 40 Biodiesel 35 General Advanced Cellulosic Advanced 30 Conventional Previous RFS Advanced 25 20 Biofuel Volume (billion gallons) 15 10 5 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Year

8. US Biomass inventory = 1.3 billion tons Wheat straw 26 B gals ~ Corn stover 6.1% Soy 19.9% 6.2% Crop residues 7.6% Grains 5.2% Manure 4.1% Urban waste 2.9% Perennial crops 35.2% Forest 12.8% ~45 B gals From: Billion ton Vision, DOE & USDA 2005

9. Napier grass: A potential energy crop(One-year old crop growing in Florida, photographed in October 2009) Courtesy of Brian Conway, BP

10. An energy crop Yield of 26.5 tons/acre observed by Young & colleagues in Illinois, without irrigation Courtesy of Steve Long et al

11. Crop models for biomass production indicate advantaged regions for biomass production Fernando E. Miguez Steve Long German Bollero

12. Harvesting Miscanthus http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/gallery/index.html

13. Response of Miscanthus to nitrogen fertilizer 20 N0 N60 15 N120 Yield (t/HA) 10 5 0 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Year Christian, Riche & Yates Ind. Crops Prod. (2008)

14. Private forests are extensive Alig & Butler (2004)USDA Forest Service PNW-GTR-613

15. Other crops Nonarable 6.9% 34.4% Forest & Savannah 30.5% Cereal 4.6% Pasture & Range 23.7% Land Usage AMBIO 23,198 (Total Land surface 13,000 M Ha)

16. More than 1.5 billion acres of degraded or abandoned land is available for cellulosic crops Cai, Zhang, Wang Environ Sci Technol 45,334 Campbell et al., Env. Sci. Technol. (2008) 42,5791

17. Agave in Madagascar Borland et al. (2009) J. Exp. Bot. doi:10.1093/jxb/erp118

18. Summary of Syngas-Liquids Processes Richard Bain, NREL

19. Ethanol Production Flowchart Cellulose Process Corn Process Sugar Cane Process Ethanol SugarCane Sugar Ferment-ation Distillation Drying Co-Product Recovery Animal Feed Chemicals Starch Conversion (Cook or Enzymatic Hydrolysis) CornKernels Cellulose Conversion Hydrolysis Cellulose Cellulose Pretreatment • Miscanthus • Switchgrass • MSW • Forest Residues • Ag Residues • Wood Chips ThermochemicalConversion • Heat and Power • Fuels and Chemicals Slide Courtesy of Bruce Dale

20. Projected costs of gasoline from various sources From: Americas Energy Future, NAS 2010

21. Breakdown of Capital Costs for NREL Biorefinery Source : Paul Willems from NREL design, May 2011

22. Batch processes have many inefficiencies Unused capital Catalyst Loss Wastewater Boiler Fuel accumulation Sugar concentration Time

23. Hypothetical alternative scenario Biomass grinding Lignin removal Enzyme recovery fermentation Enzymatic digestion Fuel separation and volume adjustment Solvent recovery Enzyme production Fuel use Lignin use Waste management

24. Classical paradigm for the enzymatic degradation of insoluble polysaccharides Endo Exo-processive Gustav Vaaje-Kolstad, Bjorge Westereng, Svein Horn, Zhanliang Liu, Hong Zhai, Morten Sorlie, Vincent Eijsink (2010) Science 330: 219-222

25. Discovery of a novel enzyme class (CBM33 & GH61) • CBM33s are monooxygenases that introduce chain breaks on the surfaces of crystalline polysaccharides, including cellulose. They act synergistically with standard hydrolytic enzymes. • Their activity can be boosted dramatically by adding external electron donors. • Fungal ”GH61” proteins do approximately the same. G. Vaaje-Kolstad et al., Science 330:219-222 (2010)

26. Sources of biodiesel CRC Report AVFL-17

27. Major types of components of FACE9A diesel CRC Report FACE-1

28. Routes to potential fuels Fortman et al, Trends Biotechnology 26,375

29. Concluding comments There appears to be significant underutilized land but expanded demand for land will require improved management of all land uses Cellulosic biofuels can contribute but are not large enough to be a “solution” to the energy/climate problem There are not technical barriers to production but there are many opportunities to fundamentally improve the production and diversification of biofuels Engineering and finance are the rate limiting step

30. The Future http://genomicsgtl.energy.gov/biofuels/index.shtml