Proceedings - Biomass South 2008

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Todd French, Ph.D., Mississippi State University

Dr. French is an Assistant Professor in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University. He received a B.S. in microbiology from Northeast Louisiana University and a M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from Mississippi State University. Dr. French has over 15 years experience in the area of Bioprocessing. He worked for three years at the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS developing novel bioremediation processes. In 1997, French left Waterways to begin work on his Ph.D. After completion of his doctoral work he accepted a post-doctoral position in Dr. Lew Brown’s laboratory where he began working on renewable fuels in collaboration with the School of Chemical Engineering at MSU. In 2002, Dr. French went to work in the School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University co-developing novel technologies for the production of biofuels and bioproducts.


Wastewater Treatment Facilities: Biorefinery for Biofuels

An alternative fuel currently under investigation at Mississippi State University is centered around the use of waste and non-food sugars that is domestically produced. The source of fuel scales with populations. If domestic sources of fuel are to replace those from foreign sources, alternative fuels will be a factor in reaching that objective. Lignocellulosic biomass is a feedstock from which fuels could be produced. Current research has focused on the production of ethanol from lignocellulose but this work has many obstacles to overcome. Work at Mississippi State University has identified an alternative process for the production of a fuel from lignocellulose. Using oleaginous microorganisms, those microbes capable of producing greater than 20% of their dry mass in triacylglycerides, hexoses and pentoses contained in lignocellulosic biomass can be converted to triacylglycerides. This triacylglycerides, i.e. biocrude, can be converted to a biodiesel, renewable diesel, or JP-8 fuel using an abiotic catalyst. Work with these oleaginous microorganisms has shown that they can accumulate as much as 60% of their dry body weight in biocrude when grown on artificial acid hydrolysate (contains the sugars and other compounds known to be in lignocellulosic biomass). Additional work has also shown that municipal wastewater is an excellent growth medium for the cultivation of these oleaginous microorganisms. Using the known volumes of wastewater generated yearly in the US it is possible to generate ~7 billion gallons or biocrude. This is enough biocrude to significantly reduce the amount of foreign oil derived fuel. Mississippi State University (MSU) has over the past 5 years been investigating the use of wastewater and lignocellulosic sugars for the production of triglycerides via oleaginous microorganisms.

Notes:

Dr. Todd French gave one of the conference’s most exciting and innovative presentations to the biofuels group. Todd explained that the future of sustainable biofuels production will likely come from the waste water facilities already in place. He talked of his research in utilizing the nutrient rich waste treatment stream where guaranteed water flow when aerated and infused with a mix of organism could yield a 40 % - 60 % bio oils by weight when fed a stream on xylose or dextrose. This can all be done with a relatively minor retrofitting of existing waste water facilities and readily available carbohydrate rich biofeedstocks.

The brilliance on the idea relates to the water availability, nutrient –rich waste stream and location in or near urban areas and interstate highways where the biofuels are used and needed.

Key Quotes:

We’ve got to produce sustainable feedstocks and they’ve got to be non-foods.

Reference: Bioresourc. Technol. 09 January 100(1)356-361

Summary:

Thanks to Sarah Ashton, Rachel Cook, Lindsey Hannum, James Jeuck, Liwei Lin, James McCarter, Susan McIntyre, and Mark Megalos for providing notes and summaries for presentations.


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