Q&A The Beltway Biochemist Valerie Reed faces the challenges of driving down the cost of biomass conversion, replacing the whole barrel and holding her own at Thanksgiving amongst a family full of scientists. Valerie Reed, acting manager for the U.S. DOE Biomass Program, is leading a federal government initiative of nearly $200 million to expedite the commercialization of next-generation, biomass-based fuels and chemicals. With investments being made in pilot-scale demonstrations to commercial-scale facilities, Reed and the DOE Biomass Program coordinate the efforts of national laboratories, universities and private companies as they all work to prove out commercially viable conversion pathways and begin meeting the volumes set forth by the renewable fuels standard (RFS). As the industry anxiously awaits the commissioning of the biofuel and biochemical facilities of the future in places like Emmetsburg, Iowa, or Lake Providence, La., Reed looks toward 2013 with growing anticipation. You have a doctorate in biochemistry. What is your earliest memory of your interest in science? Science seems to have been with me since the beginning of time. My mom was the head of a science department for a high school, teaching chemistry, physics and technology. My dad was a chemical engineer for the pharmaceutical industry. My brother has a physics degree and my sister a medical degree, add to that my biochemistry degree and Thanksgiving dinner is a lot of fun! But I really knew I would follow a science career path when I took high school chemistry. I had the coolest teacher and was just in awe of the fun things we got to do in lab. One of your program’s recurring talking points is the notion of replacing all of the product streams that come from a barrel of oil. Why is this so critical? In the United States, we spend about $1 billion a day to import oil. Domestically 24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2012
produced biofuels can improve this situation by decreasing imports. For example, ethanol already displaces about $20.9 billion worth of imported gasoline annually. But in order to fully reduce dependence on foreign oil we are pursuing a portfolio approach to develop additional technologies to replace gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heavy distillates as well as a range of biobased chemicals and products. You’ve led efforts in biomass utilization that have resulted in significant reductions to the price of cellulosic ethanol production. How exactly does research accomplish this, and, where are the savings found? Over the past decade, the DOE’s Biomass Program has supported a range of research and development projects focused on reducing the cost of cellulosic ethanol. These include a biochemical conversion case (fermentation to ethanol) and a thermochemical conversion case (gasification to ethanol) that have both shown the potential to be viable in the near term. In the biochemical case, the process scenario was based on dilute acid pretreatment of corn stover followed by enzymatic saccharification (which depolymerizes cellulose into glucose and hemicellulose into xylose, both fermentation sugars) and cofermentation of the five and six carbon sugars to yield ethanol, which is then distilled and purified. We worked with our partners at national laboratories, universities and industry to use this as a roadmap for the research needed to target the costreduction goals. From 2001 through 2012, production cost improvements across this process helped decrease the price of cellulosic ethanol from about $9 per gallon to around $2 per gallon. In the thermochemical case, the process scenario was based on the gasification of woody biomass followed by syngas cleanup, tar reforming, and catalytic mixed alcohol synthesis followed by the separation and purification of ethanol from the mixed alcohol stream. Thanks to technology and