Bioenergy - Biomass Utilisation

Biomass is actually potential energy stored within itself and i believe we are not fully utilising the potential out there. Finding more about the current research progress in this field is important as i discovered recently at a workshop organised by ICES of Singapore. The Bioenergy-Biomass Utilisation workshop was held on 25-Feb 2013, organised by ICES in collaboration with A*STAR. I will try and capture key learning’s from the event. Some of the techniques discussed below could potentiall be used for future projects. Research topics discussed were:

Cultivation and characterization of a New Butanol-Acetone Producing Clostridium Species -Asst. Prof He Jianzhong (NUS)

Molecular engineering of membrane materials and fabrication for the separation of Acetone butanol ethanol (ABE) broths produced from non-food biomass -Prof. Neal Chung (NUS)

Enhancing plant biomass for cellulosic ethanol production -Prof. Prakash Kumar

Developing Novel biocatalysts for cellulosic Ethanol production -Dr Geng Anli

Next Generation Fuels: Upgrading of biomass-derived Pyrolysis Oil -Dr. Chang Jie

Thermal degradation of biomass to produce valuable products -Dr. Paul Sharatt

Brief intro

The workshop explored mainly 2^nd generation biofuels derived from non-food crops¹. This is vital to avoid the whole drama of "Food vs. Fuel" , keeping in touch with current rocketing food prices in an ever rising inflation environment. The figure below summarises the methods of obtaining biofuels from lignocellulose:

As you can see from Fig. 1 above, there are multiple ways we can make use of Lignocellulosic biomass.

Key Research Findings

• In the generation of biofuels via biological process: A single species of Clostridium has been identified as highest yielding strain capable of producing butanol at 29% yield².
• Membrane based pervaporation was successfully demonstrated to yield 99.5% alcohol from fermentation broth. This membrane technology is currently being explored for commercialisation².
• Novel biocatalysts (enzymes from fungal strains) for biomass hydrolysis and sugar fermentation were identified and tested with Oil palm empty fruit bunch. Results show 84% conversion rate².

Shak's Recommendation

• I foresee many opportunities to utilise current research findings in majority of industries. For example, wood chips from logging industry, Kernels and husk leftover from corn field, not to forget; PALM Oil industry. This about the huge potential of converting wasted leftovers into useful bio-energy.
• Encourage all interest parties from whichever industry you come from to collaborate with ICES, develop synergies between R&D and your Industry. [** Must put Disclaimer here: I do not represent ICES or any other interested party, there are research departments in most Engineering universities around the world, you may wish to sponsor their research. But if you are in Singapore, there is local collaboration between NUS/NTU and ICES which you can support too.]
• There's potential alternate application of membrane based pervaporation to separate impurities from water to obtain Process Water, without the hassle of distillation, a major cost component in Utilities.

REFERENCE:

[1] Blog Entry on Biofuels Part 2: http://sustainablechemeng.blogspot.sg/2011/05/biofuels-part-i-intro-history.html

[2]ICES Bioenergy - Biomass Utilisation Workshop abstracts : http://www.ices.a-star.edu.sg/media/22848/Abstracts%20for%20Bioenergy_Biomass%20Utilisation%20Workshop.pdf