Institute the backbone of regional efforts to go green

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research have Jerusalem artichokes on their minds. Not to mention switchgrass and just about anything else that might make biofuels.

Researchers are looking for non-food alternatives to corn for ethanol production, experimenting with switchgrass and Jerusalem artichokes to improve the amount of sugar harvests can yield.

“Jerusalem artichoke is a really cool plant,” said John Kennedy, director of research and innovation. “It has a lot of soluble sugar in it, and you need sugar to make ethanol.”

But when the plant blooms, some of that sugar is lost, Kennedy said, because a lot of energy goes into the flowering of the plant. Researchers are looking for ways to delay flowering so more sugar can be harvested.

Javed Iqbal, the scientist in charge of the Jerusalem artichoke project, is growing different varieties of the plant in growth chambers at the Institute and at several farms to determine which variety is best for the conditions in this region and will produce the most biomass per acre.

Switchgrass is also the subject of experiments to create bigger roots, which will make more foliage and produce higher yields per acre.

Kennedy said researchers are not just looking at sugar in foliage plants, but in trees as well, because sugar can be extracted from their plant cells.

“We’ve been working on a hybrid poplar to try and optimize it as a biomass source,” Kennedy said. “It’s not a part of the food industry, grows on marginal land not suitable for growing corn or wheat or soybeans.

“That’s the real story, and that is one of the major challenges in the research area: to develop a viable process for converting cellulosic materials to fuels.”

Kennedy said the Institute will have an even bigger impact on the region’s green efforts when another building is added to the Institute’s campus to contain the Sustainable Energy Technology Center (SEnTeC).

The $8 million building, now in the planning stages, will be the “most significant thing we’re doing in energy,” in Kennedy’s words.

“It will house a research and technology program that will have a focus of helping and driving this region toward having a bio-based industry. SEnTeC will be all about creating a bio-based industry in this area.”

Not only will researchers there focus on producing fuels from biomass, but will find ways to use the product left over when the sugar has been extracted.

Timing will be tricky, Kennedy admitted, because the Institute cannot ask farmers to plant hundreds of acres of a product unless there is someplace for them to sell it.

Another area the Institute will explore is how far from a refinery switchgrass can be grown without running the risk of losing money on the shipping.

“We have to have a whole system figured out before we kick this thing off,” Kennedy said.

He also said over-harvesting a product that can’t be used by most of the cars on the road would be counter-productive.

“Most of the cars we run on the highways will not run on pure ethanol without a major overhaul. How much is the industry ready to accept? That’s the question, and it’s very complicated.”

The SEnTeC building itself will be an example of what the Institute is trying to achieve.

It will be the most energy efficient building on the campus, Kennedy said, with LED lighting, solar panels and other energy-saving features.

“We hope to be able to showcase a lot of advanced energy-saving technology in this building, so we can educate the community about energy savings,” Kennedy said.