I contributed this article on the bio-economy to Directions 10, published by Salterbaxter

1. 22 DIRECTIONS 2010 salterbaxter
citiesinfocus
Continued
to sustainability. As a recent
report from WWF Denmark
states:
‘If we do not radically alter
the system and construct
a 21st century green
economy we are likely to
reduce the problem but
not solve it entirely.’
So what is the solution? The
headline finding from the
WWF report entitled ‘Industrial
Biotechnology: More than
Green Fuel in a Dirty Economy?’
is that biotechnology is a big
part of the answer. It has the
potential to save the planet
up to 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2
emissions per year by 2030.
That’s more than Germany’s
total reported emissions
in 1990.
At the centre of the innovation
is the biorefinery. Like a new
type of industrial village, it will
Books have been written
about it. Movies made. We are
addicted to oil. But if we are to
create sustainable cities and
a sustainable society for the
future, we need to urgently
shift away from this oil-
dependent society towards
a ‘bio-based society’.
First we must acknowledge
the scale of the problem.
Petroleum is most visible in
the tanks of our vehicles, but
it is literally everywhere. There
aren’t many products you can
buy today that don’t have
petroleum in them or used
petroleum to make them. From
the computer I’m using to type
this to the paper you’re reading
it on, petroleum is everywhere.
Part of the answer in the short
term is simply to use less of it;
to be more efficient. But
efficiency alone won’t get us
take products such as corn
cobs, sugar, wood waste and
methane and convert them
into all kinds of useful
products, from ethanol (for
fuel), to proteins (for animal
feed), to consumable oils and
compounds (for use in paints,
solvents and bio-based
plastics). Many of the things
that are made from
hydrocarbons today will
essentially be made from
carbohydrates in the future.
The WWF report describes
four interlinked steps on
biotechnologies’ path to
a low-carbon, bio-based
economy:
1. Improved efficiency
2. Switching to biofuels
3. Replacing
petrochemicals with
bio-based materials
4. Closing the loop
Imagine a
world where
cars are fuelled
by sugar, homes
powered by
corn and cities
run on waste.
Welcome to the
bio-society.
Living
in a
bio-society

2. salterbaxter DIRECTIONS 2010 23
Each step presents a
monumental challenge, but
biotechnology is chipping away
at every one of them. Let’s take
a closer look at progress.
Improved efficiency
Biotechnology has made the
production of crops more
efficient, requiring less land
and less energy. Combined
with efficiency gains at the
biorefinery, it has made the
production of biofuels more
efficient. 30 years ago it took
more energy to produce a
gallon of bioethanol than the
energy it contained. Today,
it’s more than a 2–1 gain.
Bioethanol from waste
products, which is being
produced at small scale today,
can be more than a 7–1 net
energy gain.
Switching to biofuels
One of the fastest growing
sources of energy in the world
is biofuels. Today, bioethanol
makes up nearly 10% of the
gasoline in American vehicles,
and in Brazil it’s about half.
The US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) predicts
that global use of petroleum-
based liquid fuels will be flat
over the next 15 years because
biofuels will account for all of
the three million barrel per day
expansion in liquid fuel use.
But, as the WWF report notes,
bioethanol production provides
the platform for the next step.
Replacing
petrochemicals with
bio-based materials
Existing bioethanol plants are
platforms upon which true
biorefineries of the future will
be built. In addition to the
bioethanol, food and animal
feed they are producing today,
they will also produce
speciality proteins, oils and
compounds for use in paints,
solvents and bio-based
plastics.
Closing the loop
Biorefineries are working to
close the loop and eliminate
waste in a number of ways.
One model has a biorefinery
adjacent to an animal feedlot
so that the animal waste can
be converted to biogas to power
the plant; and the grains left
over from ethanol production
can feed the animals. Our
engineers have developed a
system to close the loop on
water, recycling water
throughout the biorefinery
so that there is no discharge.
One of our bioethanol plants
is powered by burning waste
wood and landfill gas. Three
others use co-generation.
To see all of these steps
occurring in one biorefinery,
I would invite you to come to
our research centre in
Scotland, South Dakota. This
little community provides the
corn and corn cobs that the
plant converts to ten million
gallons of bioethanol each year.
In return, the community gets
a local, sustainable market for
their commodities and uses the
distiller’s grains left over from
bioethanol production to feed
their animals.
But what makes this biorefinery
unique is its production
process, where very little is
wasted. First, let’s take the
corn grain, which can roughly
be divided into thirds: starch,
protein (the fibre, fat and
micronutrients) and carbon
dioxide. At this plant, the starch
is used to produce bioethanol.
From the protein comes animal
feed, speciality proteins, oils
used to produce biodiesel and
even edible fibre. The biogenic
CO2
is captured, liquefied and
used for beverage carbonation,
municipal water treatment and
other applications.
The second feedstock that
comes into the biorefinery is
the plant residue – corn cobs,
leaves and husks. The cellulose
is extracted from those
materials and used to produce
cellulosic bioethanol. The
leftovers are fed to an anaerobic
digester that produces biogas
power. Finally, we are
researching the use of the ash
from the anaerobic digester as
an application that could be
used to increase the soil carbon
of the surrounding fields.
Some of the early criticisms of
bioethanol have been the vast
amount of land it takes to grow
the feedstock and the use of
food crops to produce the fuel.
Today’s bioethanol production
is addressing those issues by
being more efficient with the
land and the feedstock. Ten
years ago, an acre of corn was
only capable of producing
around 300 gallons of
bioethanol. Today, the
productive fields around our
biorefineries produce more
than 600 gallons per acre.
With the ability to produce
bioethanol from the crop waste
coupled with increasing grain
yields, it will eclipse 1,000
gallons per acre in the near
future. All the while using the
nutritious part of the kernel to
produce edible food and the
leftovers from the crop waste
to power the biorefinery.
The WWF biotechnology
report cites a 2008 United
Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) study
identifying an additional
two billion hectares that
“are considered potentially
suitable for rain fed crop
production”. That presents
a vast opportunity for
industrial biotechnology and
the biorefinery. Biotechnology
may still be in its infancy in
2010, but if the current pace
of innovation continues it
will undoubtedly be a
fundamental building block in
the creation of a low-carbon,
sustainable future.
biorefinery
Corn cobs, wood waste
and methane converted
into fuel, animal feed
and bio-based products
nathan schock
PR Director
POET