Trash-Based Biofuels: From Landfill to Full Tank of Gas

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=trash-based-biofuels

February 12, 2008

Trash-Based Biofuels: From Landfill to Full Tank of Gas

Lawn clippings and unrecycled paper could help break the world's oil addiction

By David Biello

The remains of plants processed for human purposes molder in landfills across the world. Whether waste paper or raked leaves, the plant remnants still contain cellulose, a sugar in greenery that bonds with the chemical compound lignin to furnish a plant's structure. Microbes living in the landfills break down this cellulose into methane, which slowly seeps to the surface and into the atmosphere, where it is a potent greenhouse gas. BlueFire Ethanol, Inc., in Irvine, Calif., would rather harvest that energy for use as cellulosic ethanol fuel.

"We produce 70 gallons of ethanol per ton of waste," says engineer Arnold Klann, BlueFire's president and CEO. "The trick is unlocking the sugar molecule from the lignin, which is the glue that holds it together."

BlueFire estimates 40 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol could be produced from plant waste destined for the landfill, providing as much as one third of all U.S. transportation fuel needs. And, if other forms of waste, such as the stalks of corn plants (corn stover) or the remnants of timber harvest are included, Klann says, "we have enough feedstock in the U.S. to offset 70 percent of the oil import."

BlueFire is set to open its first plant at a landfill in Lancaster, Calif., later this year and hopes to use U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding to open a second by the end of 2008, Klann says. Together the two plants would produce, at best, 22 million gallons of ethanol a year by using sulfuric acid to break the lignocellulose bonds and then burning the leftover lignin to power fermentation of the cellulose into ethanol. "The lignin we recover makes up 70 percent of the steam and electricity we need," Klann notes. "The other advantage of siting at a landfill is that they have methane gas. We can burn that in our boiler and generate huge carbon credits."

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[Blue_In_AK]

1. I've been saying this to my husband for a couple of weeks now...

I must be psychic. It seems like a no-brainer to me.