BIOENERGY

Presented by Reinhold C. Mann

Associate Laboratory Director Biological and Environmental Sciences

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

for National Conference of State Legislatures

Advisory Council on EnergyOak Ridge

June 19, 2007

Agenda

• Decreasing uncertainties about anthropogenic factors in climate change

• The challenge

• Bioenergy is part of the solution

• The path forward

Source: IPPC report, 2/07

Source: UN Foundation report, 2/07

International Panel on Climate Change, 2007:Warming of the climate systemis unequivocal• Global atmospheric concentrations

of greenhouse gases have increasedmarkedly as a result of human activitiessince 1750

• Hot extremes, heat waves, and heavyprecipitation events will continueto become more frequent

• Global temperatureand sea level will continueto rise for at leasta millennium− Recent rapid changes

in the Antarctic ice sheetcould raise world sea levelsby up to 20 feet

3 Managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy

“The costs of stabilizingthe climate are significant

but manageable”

The Global Challenge*

Path we need to be on tostabilize atmospheric CO2 at 550ppm(Carbon Budget = ~1043 Gt C)

Where today’s technologywill take us (~2000 Gt C over budget)

Where our current aspirations fortechnology will take us (~500 Gt C over budget)

SolarNuclearEfficient Fossil ElectricAdvanced TransportationEnd Use EfficiencyBiomass

*Information on this slide has been provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Gt C

arbo

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Growing awareness of Carbon emissions

Source: BMW Z4 technical data sheet

200g/km CO2 is equivalent to approximately ¼ t of Carbon every 3000 miles

Stabilization of CO2 concentrations means fundamental change to the

global energy system

Oil Oil + CCSNatural Gas Natural Gas + CCSCoal Coal + CCSBiomass Energy Nuclear EnergyNon-Biomass Renewable Energy End-use Energy

History and Reference Case

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FutureHistory

Stabilization of CO2 at 550 ppm

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FutureHistory

Preindustrial280ppm

Preindustrial280ppm

Source: Jae Edmonds

Technology Options for Transportation – from BP

Concern relating to Threat of Climate Change

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High

HighLow

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Biofuels

Carbon Free H2 for

Transport

CTL

GTL

Heavy Oil

EnhancedRecovery

Ultra Deep Water

Arctic

transport sector

Capture & Storage

Capture & Storage

CNG

Hybrids

C&S

Vehicle Efficiency (e.g. light weighting)

- supply side options

- demand side options

Key:Dieselisation

Decreasing U.S.petroleum consumptionCongress:The “30 by 30” goal

World Ethanol and Biodiesel Annual Production

(Petroleum use @ 1150 B g/yr)

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EthanolBiodiesel

State of the Union 2007:The “20 in 10” goal

• Replace 30% of gas and diesel consumption with biofuelsby 2030

• Requires approximately 1B dry tons of biomass for 60B gal using current technology

• “Billion Ton Study” – there is enough biomass in the US

• Decrease consumption by 20%in 10 years

• Grow production of renewable fuels to 35B gal/year by 2017

Transportation72.8%

4359 4288

528251 79 79 40 32

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Brazil US

China EU

IndiaCan

adaColumbia

OthersAnnual Ethanol Production by

Country in 2005

Upper limit of corn ethanol is around 18 billion gal per year (National Corn Growers Association)

With capacity being built we will reach this limit within two years

We must add cellulosicbiofuels in order to meet our national goals

Potential biomass resource and refinery capacity in 2012Logging residues, crop residues, switchgrass

Source: Perlack et al., ORNL

Data do not include pulp & paper assets in the Southeast

Potential biomass resource and refinery capacity in 2030Forest residues (all), crop residues, switchgrass

Source: Perlack et al., ORNL

Data do not include pulp & paper assets in the SoutheastThe Southeast and Midwest will be the sources for US biomass

Source: Carlo N. Hamelinck, “Outlook for Advanced Biofuels,” PhD Thesis, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, 2004

Lignocellulosicbiomass

Sugar/starchcrops

Oil plants

Gasification

Anaerobicdigestion

Flash pyrolysis

Hydrothermalliquefaction

Hydrolysis

Milling andhydrolysis

Pressing orextraction

Syngas

Biogas

Bio oil

Sugar

Vegetable oil

Water gas shift+ separation

Catalyzedsynthesis

Purification

Hydro treatingand refining

Fermentation

Esterification

Hydrogen(H2)

Methanol(CH3OH)

DME(CH3OCH3)

FT Diesel(CxHy)

SNG(CH4)

Biodiesel(CxHy)

Ethanol(CH3CH2OH)

Biodiesel(alkyl esters)

Bio oil (vegetable oil)

Conversion routes to biofuelsMany feedstocks, many conversion options, many products,different economics, energy balances

High yield wood crops

Putting genomesto work for

energy securityWhole-genome

microarrays

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Metabolicprofiling

Carbon allocation

Conventionalforestry

Short-rotation hardwoods

Bioenergy and plant genomics:Expanding the nation’s renewable energy resources

Accelerateddomestication

Populus - early results from genome sequence availability (Jerry Tuskan, ORNL)

Using Poplar tree genome, the expression of one gene (IAA16.3) was altered. This resulted in enhanced radial growth of IAA16.3 transgenics vs. controls

Using Poplar tree genome, the Using Poplar tree genome, the expression of one gene (IAA16.3) expression of one gene (IAA16.3) was altered. This resulted in was altered. This resulted in enhanced radial growth of IAA16.3 enhanced radial growth of IAA16.3 transgenics vs. controlstransgenics vs. controls

IAA16.3IAA16.3

ControlControl

90-day-old Populus cuttings

stem cross sectional area (cm)

transgenic

control

7.14.4

‘Omics technologies applied to help design better ethanologens - where are the biochemical limitations?

Cellulose Cellulose Ethanol & Byproducts

Biochemical pathway

Gene expressionmeasured by microarray analysis

Protein expression measured by mass spectrometryProteomic analysis

Cellulose hydrolysis Fragments and fermentation products measured by mass spectrometry

Exocellulase on crystalline cellulose based on explicit water model by Brady (Cornell) and provided by Himmel (NREL).The 100,000 atom simulation ran for 20 nsecusing LAMMPS code on Jaguar 1024 processors by Uberbacher, Agarwal, Locascio, and Ghattyvenkatakrishna (ORNL).

Ultra-scale modeling and simulation of biological systems

Challenge: Advance our fundamental understanding of microbial, plant and ecosystemsto solve energy-related challenges

• Use biological or “bio-inspired” processes to:− Produce clean energy− Sequester carbon− Help clean up the environment

• Understand how ecosystemsrespond to global and regional change

• Understand how living organismsreact to their environments

• Identify the composition and functionof molecular machinesand molecular interactions

• Determine the genetic basisfor complex traits Source: Ellis, Trends Biochem. Sci.

26 (10), October 2001

Our scientific objectives

Biology at ORNL

Understand molecular interactions in cells

and communities

Plant Sciences

Microbiology

Mouse genetics andcomparative genomics

Microbial community expression profiling

Proteomics metabolomics

Computational biology

Neutrons for structural biology

Bioinformatics

Imaging Biotechnology

Joint Genome Institute

Plant sciences

Microbial ecologyand functional genomics

Society–technology interfaces

Environmentaldata systems

Ecological management

Global climatesimulation

Subsurfacescience

Carbon cycle andecosystem research

Environmental and climate research at ORNL

Detect, model, and simulateenvironmental responses

We have formed a consortium

•World-class cross-disciplinary science and proven ability to rapidly impact biomass to biofuel conversion•Unique anchor facilities at the core partners•Home base at the UT/ORNL Joint Institute for Biological Sciences•Managed like a biotech start-up companyhttp://bioenergycenter.org

Bioenergy Science Center (BESC)

• An internationally recognized center leading interdisciplinary research focused on scientific advancements underpinning commercially scalable and environmentally sustainablebioenergy production

• An openly accessible resource for data, information, and methods leading to bioenergysolutions

• Fully integrated with other bioenergy-relateddata sources and research activities

Vision

Create revolutionary advancements in overcomingthe recalcitrance of biomass for sustainable large-scale biofuel production through fundamental plantand microbial systems biology and by exploiting the natural diversity of biological systems and enzymes

Mission

BESC leverages substantialcommitments and investments

• State of Tennessee, through UT: >$24.6M− JIBS construction: $11.6M − Research equipment: $3M − Joint UT-ORNL research: $10M− 3 Governor’s Chairs: $3M–5M

• State of Tennessee: $48M− $40M for 5M-gal/year pilot

switchgrass-to-ethanol facility, located close to UT/ORNL,to be operational in 2009

− $8M in agricultural price supports

• Georgia Research Alliance: $6M− $3M for equipment, − $1.5M for two Eminent Scholar

hires (matched by $1.5M from UGA and Georgia Tech)

• Virginia Tech: $0.5Min cost share support

• Oklahoma Bioenergy Center − >$10M at the Noble Foundation as

part of this $40M center with U of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State

Total:More than $90M

Summary• Significant opportunity exists for

increased penetration of biofuelsand for establishing a biofuelsindustry

• We have an exceptionally strong scientific base from which to solve significant challenges in cost-effective production of biofuels

• Partnerships States/academia/NatlLabs/industry with farmers are a critically important to reach challenging goals