Verenium Corporation (VRNM)

[spartex]

Test plots for biofuel showing good signs in Highlands

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today
Inmate Farm Manager Larry Harbison, with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office, cuts into the stalk of a sweet sorghum plant recently at the sheriff's farm near Arbuckle Creek.

By PALLAVI AGARWAL

Highlands Today

Published: October 18, 2009

Related Links

TBO Science
More on biofuels
SEBRING - The 15-foot tall plants with browning leaves and rust-colored flower stalks swaying in the breeze almost seemed like something out of "Jack The Beanstalk."

If you haven't seen them around Highlands County, there's a good reason why. They are not from these parts.

Last spring, Larry Harbinson planted them in a portion of a 2 1/2-acre test plot in the boonies of Highlands County where the county's inmate farm is located.

Wednesday, the sweet sorghum crops loomed over him as he bent over to slice off a stalk. He cut a little piece and offered it for tasting. It was sweet with tons of fiber that you have to spit out, and a lingering plant taste.

As manager of the inmate farm, Harbinson usually grows okra, zucchini and squash.

But these days, he's a part of an unusual project that's testing the viability of growing crops foreign to citrus country. Crops with foreign-sounding names like jatropha and switchgrass, crops that won't end up on your plate but whose byproducts may fill your gas tank one day and perhaps provide local orange growers an alternative should citrus continue to be ravaged by diseases.

What's also driving this experimental planting project, spearheaded by the Highlands County Extension Service, are two proposed ethanol plants expected to break ground next year in the county and the general expectation among some circles that production of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesels can only grow.

Verenium and British Petroleum have announced plans to build a cellulosic biofuels plant in southeast Highlands County, called Vercipia. A second plant that will use sweet sorghum is also on the table to break ground next year.

Should that happen, demand for energy crops like sweet sorghum and jatropha will rise, and Highlands County with its open landmass and agricultural base stands to gain.

At least that's the premise that's driving the extension service's experimental growing operation.

So far, extension service director John Alleyne is excited about what he's seen come out of the ground.

Anyone who does any gardening in Highlands County will tell you the biggest challenge they face: Keeping plants and flowers happy in the county's sandy soil that drains water and nutrients like a sieve.

Sweet sorghum, for instance, thrives in clay loams.

Would it grow here and serve its purpose?

The answer is yes, Alleyne said. To a layman, a 15-foot tall plant cannot have growth problems but what Alleyne is also concerned with is the sugar content in the stalk.

Ethanol from sweet sorghum is made by fermenting the sugar. If the sugar content in the crop is not good enough, the viability of using it is under question.

According to Alleyne's calculations, the M81-E variety's average sugar content is comparable and, in most cases, higher than data for sweet sorghum grown on clay loams. What that means is that cultivating M81-E sweet sorghum in the county for fuel or as a fuel additive does not appear to be a problem, he said.

The test plot at the county inmate farm now has expanded to include nine other varieties of sweet sorghum, four types of sugarcane, jatropha and switch grass.

Sugarcane is what countries like Brazil use in making ethanol.

Jatropha, a poisionous plant with high seed oil content, is used in making biodiesel by extracting its oil, and switch grass, also used for making ethanol, uses a technology different from the one sweet sorghum and sugarcane ethanol producers use.

Cellulosic ethanol, of which switchgrass is one source, is produced by unlocking the sugars from stalks and stems of plants instead of sugar and starches, which corn ethanol uses. Cellulose is the main component of plant cells walls. It is more difficult to break down cellulose to convert it to usable sugars for ethanol production but dramatically expands the types of material that can be used.

Alleyne said he'd have a better idea on the jatropha after the winter. Some species of the plant that are used for ornamental purposes have not done so well during our occasional freezes.

How well these plants survive and thrive in the local climate and soil is just one part of the puzzle.

Ultimately, their success depends on the success of ethanol and biodiesel plants that will use them as feed stocks but whether these operations will be feasible in the nation's commercial market remains to be seen.

All the ethanol produced in the country is made from corn. Cellulosic and sweet sorghum-based ethanol is a brave, new technology in a brave new world, of which Highlands County's two ethanol plants could play an important role in help deciding.

'A brave new world'

Lonnie Ingram, distinguished professor of microbiology at the University of Florida's

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a pioneer in the field of cellulosic ethanol.

He and his University of Florida colleagues have taken a lead role in developing an economically viable way to produce the clean-burning fuel. Ingram now holds 15 U.S. patents, 10 patents in other nations and has 23 more pending worldwide.

His process soon will be carried out in demonstration plants in Louisiana and Florida, although the process Vercipia will use is different from his, he said.

Ingram, for one, is very gung-ho about Highlands County's two projects.

Vercipia, which means "green beginnings," will make 36 million gallons of next-generation cellulosic ethanol. That will be the largest cellulosic plant in the world, Ingram noted.

Highlands EnviroFuels LLC will produce 20 million gallons of ethanol per year from crushing sweet sorghum, and its plant is designed to double its capacity to 40 million gallons per year. The crushed residue eventually will be used to also produce cellulosic ethanol, company president Bradley Krohn said.

What makes the two operations stand apart from current ethanol producers is that they are not corn based.

Corn-based ethanol has gotten a bad rap lately because critics say diverting corn for other purposes has been responsible for rise in food prices.

Corn is also used as animal feed, so when it goes to make fuel, it means ranchers have to pay more to feed their animals although Ingram pointed out that the plant residue from the ethanol sources also is used as animal feed.

Some of these plants also require a fair amount of nutrients and water and use fossil fuel, generating greenhouse gases - the very thing they are trying to avoid.

Cellulosic ethanol supporters say using cellulose from agricultural and forestry waste produces less greenhouse gases. Converting cellulosic ethanol requires less fossil fuel so it can have a bigger effect than corn ethanol on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Krohn said his sugar-to-ethanol plant will not only not use crop feed stocks, unlike corn ethanol which requires large volumes of water, his plant will generate water for irrigation for surrounding growers.

But like global warming, ethanol has become a lightning rod for critics. An Internet search reveals contradicting studies that say that greenhouse gases actually go up even with cellulosic ethanol.

The biggest show of support for biofuels may be the fact that more of it reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

"We get our oil from unstable countries that can jack up their prices any time and hold us ransom," Alleyne said. "Biofuels would avoid that."

At least federal mandates are pushing for more ethanol production and usage.

In December 2007 Congress passed sweeping energy legislation that pushes the country to use 36-billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. The bill's Renewable Fuels Standard mandates the use of 100 million gallons of cellulose biofuels by 2010 and 16 billion by 2022.

Krohn said that alone will ensure the demand for ethanol for several years. His project, which is privately funded with partial backing from area growers, has customers lined up, he said.

Krohn said the ethanol plant is not just an economic boon for the county

"This facility will be a zero waste effluent process and will generate a significant reduction in greenhouse gases," he said. "Our process to produce ethanol, which is very similar to that found in Brazil, will not utilize fossil fuels for energy and will have an energy balance of about 8-to-1. More importantly, this industry is about energy security for the state of Florida and the country. We should look at the Brazil model, where ethanol production has allowed Brazilians to completely eliminate the importation of foreign oil altogether."

Pallavi Agarwal can be reached at 863-386-5831 or [e-mail]

http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/oct/18/la-ethanol-nirvana/#