Vice President Biden Announces Recovery Act Funding for 37 Transformational Energy Research Projects
A little more than two years ago, Vice President Joe Biden indirectly confirmed that Carbon Dioxide, as it arises in only a very small way, relative to natural sources of emission such as volcanoes, from our essential use of Coal in the generation of truly economical electric power, is a valuable raw material resource.
As we explain, following brief introductory excerpts from the above link to:
"Vice President Biden Announces Recovery Act Funding for 37 Transformational Energy Research Projects
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Washington, DC – At a Recovery Act Cabinet Meeting today, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $106 million in funding for 37 ambitious research projects that could fundamentally change the way the country uses and produces energy. Funded through DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the $106 million is awarded to projects that could produce advanced biofuels more efficiently from renewable electricity instead of sunlight ... and remove the carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in a more cost-effective way.
(In the above, the production of "biofuels ... from renewable electricity instead of sunlight" and removing "carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants" are actually related, as we hope will become clear. Also, concerning "ARPA-E", see: arpa-e > Home.)
'Thanks to the Recovery Act, dozens of cutting-edge research projects with the potential to dramatically transform how we use energy in this country will now be able to get underway,' said Vice President Biden. 'By investing in our top researchers, we’re not only continuing in the spirit of American innovation, but helping build a competitive American clean energy industry that will create secure jobs here at home for years to come.'
'These projects show that the U.S. can lead the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, which will help create new jobs, spur innovation and economic growth while helping to cut carbon pollution dramatically,' said Secretary Chu.
The grants will go to projects in 17 states. Of the lead recipients, 24 percent are small businesses, 57 percent are educational institutions, 11 percent are national labs, and 8 percent are large corporations. In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring America's brightest scientists and innovators together from diverse fields to pioneer a secure and prosperous energy future for the nation. The awards are part of an overall $100 billion investment the Recovery Act is making in creating jobs and driving economic growth through innovation, science and technology."
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Among the various grants, some were made to support a number of projects that should be very intriguing to those of us Coal Country partisans who share interests in both the economic success and the environmental health of our home states and of the entire United States of America; as seen in excerpts from the following link, with comment and additional links appended, which specify and identify some of those more intriguing projects announced by Vice President Joe Biden:
http://www.arpa-e.energy.gov/Portals/0/Documents/News/ARPA-ETableofProject%20Selection4-29-2010FINAL.PDF;
"1. University of Massachusetts Amherst; Partners: University of California San Diego, Genomatica; $1,000,000; This project will develop a “microbial electrosynthesis” process in which microorganisms use electric current to convert water and carbon dioxide into butanol at much higher efficiency than traditional photosynthesis and without need for arable land.
2. Pennsylvania State University; Partner: University of Kentucky; $1,500,000; Hydrogen consuming bacteria that usually derives its energy from residual light and organic waste at the bottom of ponds will be “rewired” to use electricity. The organism will be able to convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into a bio-oil that can be refined into gasoline.
3. The Ohio State University; Partner: Battelle Memorial Institute; $3,977,349; An industrially scalable bioreactor approach to incorporate genetically engineered bacteria that metabolize carbon dioxide, oxygen, and hydrogen to produce butanol. The team anticipates at least a twofold productivity improvement over current levels and a cost that can be competitive with gasoline.
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Partner: Michigan State University; $1,771,404; A bacterium capable of consuming hydrogen and carbon dioxide will be engineered to produce butanol, which could be used as a motor fuel.
5. Ginkgo BioWorks (University of California Berkeley, University of Washington); $6,000,000; The project will engineer a well-studied bacterium, E. coli, to harness electric current to convert carbon dioxide and water into isooctane, an important component of gasoline.
6. Harvard Medical School-Wyss Institute; $4,194,125; This project will engineer a bacterium to be able to use electricity (which could come from renewable sources like solar or wind) to convert carbon dioxide into octanol, an energy-dense liquid fuel.
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Partners: Harvard University, University of Delaware; $3,195,563; This project will engineer two microbes, working together, to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into oil, which could be refined into biodiesel.
8. North Carolina State University; Partner: University of Georgia; $2,729,976; The project will engineer a novel pathway into a high-temperature organism to use hydrogen gas to convert carbon dioxide into precursor compounds that can be used to produce biofuels such as butanol.
9. OPX Biotechnologies Inc.; Partners: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Johnson Matthey Catalysts Inc.; $6,000,000; Microorganisms will be engineered to use renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide inputs to produce a biodiesel-equivalent fuel at low cost. Catalysts will be explored to convert the microbial fuel into jet fuel.
10. University of California Los Angeles; Partners: Easel Biotechnologies LLC, University of California Davis; $4,000,000; The project will use synthetic biology and metabolic engineering techniques to allow microorganisms to use electricity instead of sunlight for converting carbon dioxide into alcohol fuels that can be high octane gasoline substitutes.
11. Medical University of South Carolina; Partners: Clemson University, University of South Carolina; $2,342,602; The project will leverage microbial fuel cell technology to develop a microbial system that uses electricity to convert carbon dioxide into butanol or other alcohol fuels.
12. Columbia University; $543,394; The project will genetically engineer ammonia-consuming bacteria to produce isobutanol from carbon dioxide and electricity.
13. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Partners: University of California Berkeley, Logos Technologies Inc.; $3,948,493; A common soil bacterium will be engineered to produce butanol and hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The organism would be able to produce its own hydrogen by splitting water in the presence of electricity."
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First of all, note in the above the frequent mention of Butanol as being one of the sought-after products of microbiological Carbon Dioxide recycling. And, we refer you to one of our earlier reports:
West Virginia Coal Association | Algae Recycle More CO2 and Produce Butanol | Research & Development;
concerning, primarily: "United States Patent Application 20110177571 - Designer Calvin-Cycle-Channeled Production of Butanol; 2011; Inventor: James Weifu Lee; Designer Calvin-cycle-channeled and photosynthetic ... pathways, the associated designer genes and designer transgenic photosynthetic organisms for photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water are provided. The designer photosynthetic organisms such as designer transgenic oxyphotobacteria and algae comprise designer Calvin-cycle-channeled and photosynthetic NADPH-enhanced pathway gene(s) and biosafety-guarding technology for enhanced photobiological production of butanol and related higher alcohols from carbon dioxide and water";
wherein it was not only explained and documented that photosynthetic organisms could be harnessed to recycle CO2, reclaimed from whatever source, into Butanol, but, that Butanol is a much higher-value alcohol than Ethanol; and, for that and other reasons, unlike either Ethanol or Methanol, can serve as an almost direct replacement for Gasoline.
Key, though, to most of the USDOE-funded developments announced by Vice President Biden, is this:
The microorganisms being developed herein to convert Carbon Dioxide into Butanol, and other valuable products, are ones which rely not, as do the bugs in "United States Patent Application 20110177571", on light to drive the processes, but, on relatively small amounts, since the needed chemical reactions are leveraged by these bugs' bio-catalysis, of electricity.
In that respect, they can be seen as biologically-facilitated and enhanced versions of processes like that seen, for one example, in our report of:
Chicago Recycles CO2 to Methanol | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,609,441 - Electrochemical Reduction of Aqueous Carbon Dioxide to Methanol; 1986; Assignee: Gas Research Institute, Chicago; Abstract: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide is set forth. A solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having electrolyte dissolved therein is electrolyzed utilizing a molybdenum cathode. Faradaic efficiency is generally quite high and without detectable corrosion.
Claims: A method of producing methanol from carbon dioxide (which comprises) electrolyzing a solution of carbon dioxide in an aqueous solvent having an electrolyte therein and utilizing a cathode which comprises molybdenum to produce methanol";
wherein the biologically-mediated synthesis leads to both a large reduction in the amount of electricity required to drive the reactions and the production of a better, higher-energy content Alcohol.
Such electric-powered bugs do exist and are well-known to scientists who specialize in such things; and, more can be learned via:
Microbial Electrosynthesis | Electrofuels.org; "Microbial Electrosynthesis technology is based on the discovery made at the University of Massachusetts that some microorganisms can feed on electricity. The microorganisms live on the surface of electrodes, consuming the electrons released from the electrode as their energy source. The microorganisms use carbon dioxide in the same way that humans use oxygen. The microorganisms “breathe in” in the carbon dioxide and convert it to organic compounds that the microorganisms then “breathe out”. Anything that microbes are capable or producing ... such as the transportation fuel butanol, have also already been produced. Other short-term product targets include the compound ... butanediol, a feedstock for plastics production. Any source of electrical power can be employed. Other attractive sources are electricity generated from wind and geothermal energy".
Again, relatively-low amounts of electricity are required; and, thus, supplemental electricity sources based on smaller, perhaps site-specific and purpose-dedicated generators consuming available incidental environmental energy, as might be exemplified in and by:
West Virginia Department of Commerce Wind Energy; "The U.S. Department of Energy has determined that West Virginia has significant wind development opportunities"; and:
WV Geothermal Energy Conference - TCWV - Turning Innovation Into Enterprise; "WV Geothermal Energy Conference: This conference will provide an overview of the state of enhanced geothermal systems research and development relevant to the State of West Virginia"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Germany & Pennsylvania Hydrogen from Hydropower | Research & Development; which contains separate references and information concerning smaller-scale hydroelectric retrofits, or planned retrofits, of existing dams in New Martinsville, Sutton, Summersville, Barnum, and Grafton, West Virginia;
could well be all that would be needed - - in conjunction with waste heat from a Coal-fired power plant to keep the critters warm - - to consume any objectionable effluent Carbon Dioxide, arising from whatever source, and convert it into, among other things, according to, as herein, Joe the Vice President, "alcohol fuels that can be high octane gasoline substitutes".
