AgriLife conducting research work in field

By HOLLI L. ESTRIDGE

holli.estridge@theeagle.com

It may still be years before fuel derived from sorghum stalks or brown-specked banana peels power cars on a mass scale.

But if it happens, there's a good chance Texas A&M University-proctored research will have helped pave the way for that discovery, experts say.

Bioenergy-related research has been under way at Texas A&M's main campus since the 1980s -- before bioenergy was even an area of "excitement," said Bob Avant, bioenergy program director for Texas AgriLife Research.

"We have over 30 projects in the bio-energy area with a funding level of about $27 million," he said. "We're responsible for everything from the field to the fuel tank and everything in between."

Among the wide-ranging research projects under way at Texas A&M are efforts to breed two sorghum components -- a sugar sorghum, bred for sugar accumulation in the stalks, and energy sorghum.

Bill Rooney, a professor in the soil and crops science department and AgriLife researcher, said the energy sorghum, also called lignocellulosic feedstock, can be used in its entirety as a source for ethanol. By comparison, only the stalks of a sweet sorghum could be used to yield fuel, he said.

"It's one thing to identify organisms that have potential," Rooney said. "It's another thing to actually develop them to where they're feasible on a commercial scale."

That's why the department has handed off commercial development of those technologies to a corporate partner, California-based Ceres. The company is currently building a genomics-based breeding facility and research farm on 200 acres near the intersection of Texas 50 and Texas 269.

In Snook, 10 workers will breed new varieties of switchgrass and sorghum -- dense, forage-type plants that will be used in development of biofuels. The company intends to launch commercial sales of the products this year, Ceres spokesman Gary Koppenjan said.

Ceres and Texas AgriLife Research late last year inked an exclusive, multi-year research and commercialization agreement for high-biomass sorghum.

As part of the agreement, Ceres has commercialization rights to AgriLife Research's high-biomass sorghum hybrids. In return, the agency receives royalties, financial and technological support from Ceres. Other aspects of the collaboration have not been disclosed.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M's sorghum research was on display last week as more than 100 international experts converged on the university co-sponsored International Conference on Sorghum for Biofuels at the Omni Houston Hotel.

"Whether it's for grain, sugar or high-tonnage source of lignocellulose, most of you in attendance at this conference are committed to making sorghum the preferred dedicated feedstock for production of ethanol and other liquid fuels," Mark Hussey, interim vice chancellor for agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M and director of Texas AgriLife Research, told attendees.

Discussions at the conference last Tuesday led representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China to sign a collaborative agreement for biofuels research, formalizing cooperation between the two agencies.

Avant said Texas AgriLife Research is convinced that the future will be in biomass, not green-based ethanol processes. That's why the bioenergy program does not include any projects converting corn into ethanol.

The dedicated energy crops under development in Texas AgriLife Research's bio-energy program are being bred to be compatible with sustainable agriculture practices, according to the program's Web site.

Converting waste to fuel

Researchers with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and their commercial partner, Byogy Renewables Inc., are also on the cusp of commercializing technology.

Kenneth Hall, associate director of TEES and a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M, and his colleagues Mark Holtzapple, a professor in chemical engineering, and Sergio Capareda, an associate professor in biological and agricultural engineering, have developed a way to turn everyday waste into high-octane gasoline.

California-based Byogy recently licensed the researchers' integrated process, called MixAlco -- which inexpensively converts waste and non-food energy crops directly to gasoline -- with hopes of having a plant up and running within 18 months to two years.

"The intent is to have raw garbage going in one end of the plant and 95-octane gasoline coming out the other," officials said in a recent written statement.

The focus at Byogy's initial plant would be on using "urban waste", which the plant would grind, sort and then convert into gasoline, officials said. The end result would be a substitute to current petroleum gasoline supplies.

"Our plan is to produce two and a half billion gallons or more of carbon-neutral renewable gasoline per year," said Daniel Rudnick, chief executive officer of Byogy. "We are positioning ourselves not only to handle the opportunity biomass waste streams that are available today, but also the sustainable biomass energy crops of the future. This green substitute for conventional gasoline is the Holy Grail of all biofuels."

Meanwhile, Terrabon LLC -- which holds the world-wide rights to the researchers' technology -- is using $1.6 million in federal grant funds to help build a demonstration-model plant and expand its pilot plant in College Station. The company -- which has licensed some of its technology to Biogy, according to chief executive Gary Luce -- will use the facility to show investors that its process of converting waste to fuel can work on a large scale.

Terrabon is also upgrading its pilot facility, using $1 million in U.S. Department of Energy grant funds to enable it to convert sorghum stalks into acetic acid, acetone and isopropyl alcohol -- and further, into gasoline biofuel. The facility processes wastepaper from Texas A&M and chicken manure from the university's poultry department and can process 200 pounds of waste products per day.

The firm's local facility will be able to process 2,000 tons of sorghum stalks into acetone.

Byogy's planned facility could also integrate another process -- conceived by Hall -- that converts natural gas into hydrocarbon liquids, Hall said.

Dallas-based Synfuels International Inc., a gas-to-liquids energy firm, sublicensed the technology to Byogy, he said.

"MixAlco and Synfuels can be part of Byogy's process, but don't necessarily need to be a part," Hall said. "There are multiple pathways available for Byogy to get there."

Hall said Byogy has also expressed interest in another process under development in Texas A&M's agricultural engineering department. That process brings biomass to an elevated temperature, converting it into gases. Researchers could then condense the gases into a type of oil, treat it and turn it into gasoline, he said.

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