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NEWS Satellite data aids biofuel feedstocks research NASA researchers are completing a study that aims to predict the agricultural productivity of land in the Midwest that is being converted from traditional cropland to biofuel feedstock production. Christopher Potter, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, and his colleagues presented preliminary findings of the biofuels crop research at an American Geophysical Union meeting Dec. 19. To complete the research, Potter and his colleagues are using satellite imagery data collected by NASA. The satellite images are used to make observations regarding vegetative cover on croplands, and to map aboveground and subsurface carbon pools. The data allows the researchers to track the amount of cropland that is being dedicated to crops that can be used as biofuels feedstocks, such as corn, soybeans and switchgrass. Potter said his team aims to
production on soil, taking into account biomass sources such as corn stover that are harvested rather than left in the field. Potter said the research alone won’t be enough to identify what percentage of each crop is planted for use as a biofuels feedstock. In order to make that determination, researchers would have to team up with economists and market analysts, who would bring in additional statistics. The research will produce an accurate estimate of the amount of land being brought into production each year and what kinds of crops are being grown on it. The team is analyzing satellite data spanning from 2000 to the present. The first stage of research is slated to be complete near the end of 2009.
determine how much of a particular crop is being produced on an acre-by-acre basis and how many new acres of each crop are being planted each year. To measure these aspects of crop production, Potter said researchers typically deal with statistics collected by county agencies. However, these statistics provide only a rough map of where the most productive croplands are located. Potter’s research should provide a clearer picture. “With the satellite imagery, we can see individual plots and how they are producing,” he said. “That gives a big advantage in understanding within a county where the best areas seem to be for generating high yields and sustaining those yields through several different kinds of years.” The data mined from the satellite images is fed into a computer model, which will be able to simulate the effects of feedstock
-Erin Voegele
Two companies are moving forward with respective plans to produce biobased chemicals in Brazil and France. A project being undertaken by Brazilian thermoplastic resin producer Braskem will manufacture green polyethylene from sugarcane-based ethanol, while a joint venture known as Bioamber SAS has begun construction of a biobased succinic acid plant in Pomacle, France. According to Braskem spokesman Nelson Lataif, the process to produce polyethylene from sugarcane is simple in concept. “Sugar in the form of sucrose is extracted from the sugarcane and fermented to produce ethanol,” he said. “This is dehydrogenated to ethylene, which is subsequently polymerized to polyethylene.” The proposed Braskem facility will be located at the Southern Petrochemical Complex in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and will have the capacity to produce 200,000 tons of ethylene and polyethylene annually. To do this, the plant will consume approximately 400,000 tons of ethanol each year. However, the polyethylene plant won’t be
PHOTO: DNP GREEN TECHNOLOGY INC.
Biobased chemical plants develop in Brazil, France
Construction of Bioamber’s biobased succinic acid plant has begun in Pomacle, France.
integrated with an ethanol plant. “Braskem will purchase [ethanol] as a commodity,” Lataif said. The conceptual and basic design phase of the project is complete. The detailing phase and construction are expected to begin in early 2009, with operational start-up scheduled for 2011. The Bioamber joint venture was formed by U.S.-based DNP Green Technology Inc. and French research and development center Agro-Industrie Recherches et Developpements. Its plant is expected to produce
approximately 2,000 metric tons (600,000 gallons) of succinic acid each year. The facility will utilize the U.S. DOE’s proprietary E. coli bacterium, which is under exclusive license to DNP Green Technology and has been optimized by Bioamber. The facility will utilize a fermentation process in which the E. coli feed on sugar and carbon dioxide to produce succinic acid. This can be completed using a wide variety of feedstocks. “Instead of using oil-based [chemical] building blocks … we found a way to make the same building blocks with the same functionalities, but using biological processes,” said Roger Laurent Bernier, DNP Green Technology’s vice president of research and development. According to Bernier, Bioamber’s production facility is being constructed to prove the technology and supply samples of the biobased succinic acid to potential customers. Rather than construct additional facilities, Bioamber plans to license the technology to its customers. -Erin Voegele
3|2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 21