Researchers look beyond biofuels as substitutes for fossil fuels

6/18/2006, 3:00 p.m. PT   By LIBBY TUCKER   The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — As biofuels gain momentum as viable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels in the Northwest, Oregon researchers are sounding a word of caution.

 

Biodiesel and ethanol are good short-term solutions to curbing the nation's oil addiction, but they are not sustainable over the long haul, they say.

 

Biofuels could provide 37 percent of U.S. transport fuel within the next 25 years, according to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group.

 

But growth of crops such as corn and soybeans — traditional feedstocks — for biofuels production is energy- and water-intensive. And with limited farmlands available, feedstock production for fuel would have to supplant food production.

 

"There's never going to be enough cropland to replace all the petroleum we use" with biofuels, said Jan Auyong, an Oregon State University professor.

 

In response, Oregon researchers, business leaders, and state officials submitted a proposal for the formation of the Oregon Clean Energy Center for research.

 

The proposed center would centralize efforts under way around the state to develop substitutes for fossil fuel-based materials used in building products and transportation.

 

"I'm worried that people are promoting biodiesel without really looking at the life cycle costs," said Gail Achterman, a commissioner with the Oregon Transportation Commission and a key author of the proposal. "I doubt that people will feel good about replacing foreign imported (petroleum) oil with imported palm oil."

 

Oregon researchers have already begun to develop a whole suite of biofuels that use biomass from agriculture and forest industry waste — in plentiful supply in Oregon — to supplement seed crop production.

 

Like seed crops, leftover stems and leaves and woody materials can be broken down into their component sugars and starches for biofuels production.

 

Using biomass to make biofuels "is already very economically feasible in the U.S. and especially in the Northwest," said Larry Benford, an engineering consultant with Parker, Messana & Associates, a Federal Way, Wash.-based firm that manages clean-energy investments.

 

"We have huge assets, a huge feedstock in terms of land mass" for creating a supply stream of woody undergrowth, Benford said.

 

Oregon produces almost 4.5 million tons of forest residue per year as part of forest-thinning efforts called for by the federal Healthy Forest Initiative, passed in 2003, according to a recent study by engineering firm CH2M Hill. And about 62,000 tons of wood waste from sawmills are entered into landfills each year in Oregon, according to the study.

 

"A lot of the clean-energy focus in the proposal is realizing we need to transition to a society that is closing loops on production," said John Bolte, head of the bioresource engineering department at Oregon State University.

 

Most of the 1 million gallons of biodiesel currently produced in Oregon by SeQuential-Pacific Biodiesel are made in a sustainable manner with waste vegetable oil from the food industry. But restaurant grease is in limited supply.

 

The remainder of the state's biodiesel is shipped in by other suppliers from the Midwest where oil seed crops are grown and turned into oil for fuel production. Any additional demand for fuels will be met by further imports or by in-state production of seed crops.

 

The Clean Energy Center proposal is "taking advantage of these (forest) waste materials that have some very valuable molecules in them and figuring out economically productive ways to turn those into fuels," Bolte said.

 

The proposal is one of a handful of finalists submitted to the Oregon Innovation Council with the hope of being designated a new "signature research center" by the state Legislature.

 

In 2005, the state Legislature charged the Innovation Council with creating several new signature research centers by 2010 to translate research into commercial applications. The state's first signature research center, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, was created in 2005 by the Innovation Council.

 

"We're looking at a wide range of opportunities, with a broad base of established work that is already contributing to the Oregon economy in a significant way," said Rich Linton, vice president for research and graduate studies at the University of Oregon and a member of the Innovation Council's proposal evaluation committee.

 

"Certainly," Linton said, "the clean-energy area is an important one and will receive serious consideration."