Introduction to Biofuels

by Mousdale; David M.

• ISBN13: 9781439812075
• ISBN10: 1439812071
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-29
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

What role will biofuels play in the scientific portfolio that might bring energy independence and security, revitalize rural infrastructures, and wean us off of our addiction to oil? The shifting energy landscape of the 21 st century, with its increased demand for renewable energy technology, poses a worrying challenge. Discussing the multidisciplinary study of bioenergy and its potential for replacing fossil fuels in the coming decades, Introduction to Biofuels provides a roadmap for understanding the broad sweep of technological, sociological, and energy policy issues that intermingle and intertwine.Copiously illustrated and with numerous examples, this book explores key technologies, including biotechnology, bioprocessing, and genetic reprogramming of microorganisms. The author examines the future of biofuels from a broader perspective, addressing the economic, social, and environmental issues crucial for studying the sustainable development of bioenergy. Each chapter begins with questions and provides the answers later in the chapter as key informational points. Embedded Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) sections provide detailed derivations and equations for a subset of topics that can be found easily as buzzwords in popular media and on web sites. Together, the STEM topics form a thread of essential technologies and a guide to how researchers have established quantitative parameters that are crucial to the ever-growing biofuels database.With so much information scattered throughout the literature, it is often difficult to make sense of what is real and what is an optimistic selling of ideas with no scientific credibility. This book does an excellent job of filtering through volumes of data, providing a historical perspective on which to anchor the information, and outlining the strengths and constraints of the different biofuels.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
The Author	p. xxiii
Units and Conversion Factors	p. xxv
Ethanol as the Leading ôFirst-Generationö Biofuel	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Historical Development of Ethanol as a Fuel from Neolithic Times to the Twentieth Century	p. 1
Oil Supply and Oil Price in the Twentieth Century: Necessity and Alternative Fuel Programs	p. 6
Case Study 1: Brazil and Sugarcane Ethanol	p. 10
Case Study 2: Starch-Based Ethanol in the United States	p. 18
Thermodynamic and Environmental Aspects of Ethanol as a Biofuel	p. 31
Net Energy Balance	p. 31
Effects on Emissions of Greenhouse Gases and Other Pollutants	p. 37
Summary	p. 41
References	p. 41
Cellulosic Ethanol as a ôSecond-Generationö Biofuel	p. 45
Introduction	p. 45
Bioethanol and Cellulosic Ethanol: The Rise of Biomass-Based Biofuels	p. 45
Structural and Industrial Chemistry of Cellulosic Biomass	p. 46
Cellulose, Hemicelluloses, and Lignin	p. 46
Lignocellulose as a Biochemical Resource	p. 51
Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Materials	p. 53
Physical and Chemical Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass	p. 53
Acid Hydrolysis of Pretreated Lignocellulosic Biomass	p. 59
Cellulases: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology	p. 61
Enzymology of Cellulose Degradation by Cellulases	p. 61
Cellulases in Lignocellulosic Feedstock Processing	p. 65
Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Cellulase Production	p. 68
Physiological Regulation of Cellulase Production	p. 68
Regulatory Genes Involved in Cellulase Production	p. 69
New-Generation Cellulases	p. 70
Novel Molecular Features of Cellulases	p. 74
Immobilized Cellulases	p. 75
Hemicellulases: New Horizons in Energy Biotechnology	p. 75
A Multiplicity of Hemicellulases	p. 75
Hemicellulases in the Processing of Lignocellulosic Biomass	p. 78
Molecular Biology of Hemicellulases	p. 79
Multifunctional Hemicellulases?	p. 79
Lignin-Degrading Enzymes as Aids to Saccharification	p. 80
Commercial Choices of Cellulosic Feedstocks for Ethanol Production	p. 81
Biotechnology and Platform Technologies for Cellulosic Ethanol	p. 82
Summary	p. 83
References	p. 83
Microbiology of Cellulosic Ethanol Production I: Yeasts	p. 91
Introduction	p. 91
Traditional Ethanologenic Yeasts	p. 91
Conventional Yeasts	p. 92
Nonconventional Yeasts	p. 99
Metabolic Engineering of Yeasts for Cellulosic Ethanol	p. 100
Increased Pentose Utilization by Ethanologenic Yeasts by Genetic Manipulation with Yeast Genes for Xylose Metabolism via Xylitol	p. 100
Increased Pentose Utilization by Ethanologenic Yeasts by Genetic Manipulation with Genes for Xylose Isomerization	p. 106
Engineering Arabinose Utilization by Ethanologenic Yeasts	p. 107
Comparison of Industrial and Laboratory Yeast Strains for Ethanol Production	p. 109
Improved Ethanol Production by Naturally Pentose-Utilizing Yeasts	p. 115
Toward the Perfect Yeast Ethanologen?	p. 116
ôOmicö Analyses of Yeast Metabolism during Ethanol Production	p. 117
Stress Responses in Yeast Ethanologens	p. 120
Summary	p. 121
References	p. 122
Microbiology of Cellulosic Ethanol Production II: Bacteria	p. 131
Introduction	p. 131
Assembling Gene Arrays in Bacteria for Ethanol Production	p. 131
Metabolic Routes in Bacteria for Sugar Metabolism and Ethanol Formation	p. 132
Genetic and Metabolic Engineering of Bacteria for Cellulosic Ethanol Production	p. 135
Recombinant Escherichia coli: Lineages and Metabolic Capabilities	p. 135
Engineering Zymomonas mobilis for Xylose and Arabinose Metabolism	p. 143
Development of Klebsiella Strains for Ethanol Production	p. 146
Other Bacterial Species	p. 148
Thermophilic Species and Cellulosome Bioproduction Technologies	p. 149
ôDesignerö Cells and Synthetic Organisms	p. 150
Summary	p. 151
References	p. 152
Biochemical Engineering of Cellulosic Ethanol	p. 159
Introduction	p. 159
Case Study: The Iogen Corporation Process with Wheat Straw	p. 159
Biomass Substrate Pretreatment Strategies	p. 162
Wheat Straw	p. 163
Switchgrass	p. 165
Corn Stover	p. 166
Softwoods	p. 170
Sugarcane Bagasse	p. 173
Other Large-Scale Agricultural and Forestry Biomass Feedstocks	p. 174
Fermentation Media and the Very High Gravity Concept	p. 175
Fermentation Media for Ethanol Production	p. 176
High-Concentration Media Developed for Alcohol Fermentations	p. 177
Fermentor Design and Novel Fermentor Technologies	p. 182
Continuous Fermentations for Ethanol Production	p. 182
Fed Batch Fermentations	p. 187
Immobilized Yeast and Bacterial Cell Production Designs	p. 189
Contamination Events and Buildup in Fuel Ethanol Plants	p. 192
Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation and Consolidated Bioprocessing	p. 192
Downstream Processing and By-Products	p. 196
Ethanol Recovery from Fermented Broths	p. 196
Continuous Ethanol Recovery from Fermentors	p. 198
Solid By-Products from Ethanol Fermentations	p. 199
Summary	p. 202
References	p. 203
The Economics of Fuel Ethanol	p. 217
Introduction	p. 217
Market Forces and Incentives	p. 217
The Impact of Oil Prices on the Future of Biofuels after 1980	p. 217
Production Price, Taxation, and Incentives in the Market Economy	p. 218
Cost Models for Fuel Ethanol Production	p. 221
Early Benchmarking Studies of Corn and Lignocellulosic Ethanol in the United States	p. 222
Corn-Derived Ethanol in 1978	p. 222
Wheat-Straw-Derived Ethanol in 1978	p. 224
Fuel Ethanol from Sugarcane Molasses	p. 226
Farm-Scale Ethanol Production	p. 226
Corn Ethanol in the 1980s: Rising Industrial Ethanol Prices and the Development of the Incentive Culture	p. 228
Western Europe in the Mid-1980s: Assessments of Biofuels Programs Made at a Time of Falling Real Oil Prices	p. 231
Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol in 1985: After the First Decade of the PROÁLCOOL Program to Substitute for Imported Oil	p. 234
Economics of U.S. Corn and Biomass Ethanol Economics in the Mid-1990s	p. 234
Case Study: The View from Sweden	p. 236
Subsequent Assessments of Lignocellulosic Ethanol in Europe and the United States	p. 240
Complete Process Cost Models	p. 240
Reviews of ôGrayö Literature Estimates and Economic Analyses	p. 243
Pilot Plant and Industrial Extrapolations for Cellulosic Ethanol	p. 245
Near-Future Projections for Cellulosic Ethanol Production Costs	p. 245
Short- to Medium-Term Technical Process Improvements and Their Anticipated Economic Impacts	p. 246
Bioprocess Economics: A Chinese Perspective	p. 250
Governmental and Macroeconomic Factors	p. 253
Mandatory Biofuels Targets	p. 253
Impact of Fuel Economy on Ethanol Demand for Gasoline Blends	p. 257
Biofuels Pricing in the Era of Carbon Taxation	p. 258
Summary	p. 259
References	p. 260
Advanced Biofuels: The Widening Portfolio of Alternatives to Ethanol	p. 265
Introduction	p. 265
Biobutanol and ABE	p. 265
Bacterial Production of C3-C7 Alcohols and Related Compounds	p. 268
Glycerol	p. 271
The MixAlco Process	p. 272
Biohydrogen	p. 273
The Hydrogen Economy and Fuel Cell Technologies	p. 273
Bioproduction of Gases: Methane and H2 as Products of Anaerobic Digestion	p. 276
Heterotrophic Microbes Producing H2 by Hydrogenase Activity	p. 277
Nitrogen-Fixing Microorganisms	p. 280
Development of ôDarkö H2 Production Systems	p. 281
Production of H2 by Photosynthetic Organisms	p. 284
Microbial Fuel Cells: Eliminating the Middlemen of Energy Carriers	p. 291
Summary	p. 293
References	p. 293
Chemically Produced Biofuels	p. 301
Introduction	p. 301
Biodiesel: Chemistry and Production Processes	p. 301
Vegetable Oils and Chemically Processed Biofuels	p. 301
Biodiesel Composition and Production Processes	p. 303
Biodiesel Economics	p. 308
Energetics of Biodiesel Production and Effects on Greenhouse Gas Emissions	p. 311
Case Study 1: Hydrogenated Plant Oils and ôGreen Dieselö	p. 315
Case Study 2: Enzymes for Biodiesel Production	p. 316
Fischer-Tropsch Diesel: Chemical Biomass-Liquid Fuel Transformations	p. 318
The Renascence of an Old Chemistry for Biomass-Based Fuels?	p. 318
Economics and Environmental Impacts of FT Diesel	p. 320
Biodiesel from Microalgae and Microbes	p. 322
Marine and Aquatic Biotechnology	p. 322
Microdiesel	p. 325
Chemical Conversions of Glycerol Produced by Fermentation	p. 326
Chemical Routes for the Production of Monooxygenated C6 Liquid Fuels from Biomass Carbohydrates	p. 327
Biomethanol and Biodimethylether	p. 328
Chemistry and the Emergence of the Hydrogen Economy	p. 330
Summary	p. 333
References	p. 334
Sustainability of Biofuels Production	p. 341
Introduction	p. 341
Delivering Biomass Feedstocks for Cellulosic Ethanol Production: The Logistics of a New Industry	p. 341
Upstream Factors: Biomass Collection and Delivery	p. 344
Limitations Imposed by Land Availability and Land Use	p. 346
Sustainable Development and Biomass Production	p. 354
Definitions, Semantics, and Analysis	p. 354
Case Study: Sustainability of Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol	p. 360
Future Horizons for Cane Sugar Ethanol	p. 365
Bioenergy Crops and Genetically Manipulated Plants	p. 367
Engineering Resistance Traits for Biotic and Abiotic Stresses	p. 368
Bioengineering Increased Crop Yield	p. 369
Optimizing Traits for Energy Crops Intended for Biofuel Production	p. 371
Genetic Engineering of Dual-Use Food Plants and Dedicated Energy Crops	p. 374
Summary	p. 376
References	p. 377
Biofuels as Products of Integrated Bioprocesses (Biorefineries)	p. 383
Introduction	p. 383
The Biorefinery Concept	p. 383
Biorefinery Entry Routes	p. 386
Fermentation of Biomass-Derived Substrates	p. 387
Biomass Gasification	p. 390
Biorefinery Pivotal Products	p. 392
Case Study 1: Succinic Acid	p. 395
Case Study 2: Xylitol and Rare Sugars as Fine Chemicals	p. 400
Case Study 3: Glycerol	p. 403
Central Substrates and Biorefinery Flexibility	p. 405
When Will the Biobased Economy Be Possible and When Will It Be Unavoidable?	p. 407
Summary	p. 413
References	p. 413
Index	p. 421
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