Scientists look for plants with most ethanol
Date: 2.10.2006
Teams at Monsanto and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, both in Creve Coeur, Mo., are part of a national rush to improve the harvest, processing and value of corn for transportation fuel. So is the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
They are responding to a call by the U.S. Department of Energy that the nation produce 30 billion gallons of renewable biofuels by 2030. The National Corn Growers Association, based in Chesterfield, Mo., says about 15 to 20 billion gallons of that will come from corn-based ethanol.
Applying cutting-edge tools to a centuries-old process, these scientists hope to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and environmentally harmful auto emissions. Companies, corn growers and venture capitalists will profit in the process.
The ultimate solution, say policymakers and many researchers, is finding a way to turn stalks and leaves, grasses and trees into sources of renewable biofuel. But that technology will take years to develop.
"What's doable now is to make ethanol from corn. And the reason that works now is because it's already developed," said Roger Beachy, president of the Plant Science Center. "So, in the short term, it's simple — how do we make more for less money? From growing the corn to making the ethanol, you ask all along the way how science can reduce the costs" and increase value.
The answers are broad: Increase corn yield per acre and deal with crop fungus and pests. Identify hybrids that produce the most ethanol per bushel and improve marketable processing byproducts such as cooking oil and animal feed.
The solutions are specific.
Pradip Das, director of crop analytics at Monsanto, oversees about 100 scientists in Creve Coeur plus teams in Iowa, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. So far this year, the local group has analyzed more than 3 million corn kernels to find strains that are the most fermentable, contain high levels of lysine and carry other traits useful for ethanol production and agriculture.
Kernel by kernel, corn is weighed, measured, vaporized, scanned and broken down to its genetic parts.
Monsanto buys equipment, such as the type of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine used in hospitals. Its engineers create gizmos, including one that uses air to suck kernels into a tube where it is weighed. Runts are automatically rejected and the remainder are dropped into tiny wells in trays fed into the MRI for scanning, 2,595 at a time.
The goal is to measure the components — starch, protein, fiber, oil and moisture — that make up corn. Those with the most starch that can be broken down by enzymes yield the most ethanol.
High lysine leads to more nutritious distiller's grains, an ethanol co-product sold as animal feed. Lysine also may improve the performance of yeast in fermenting fuel, Das said.
The best corn is used by Monsanto's breeding group to produce seed. It is genetically modified with additional traits, such as insect resistance and herbicide tolerance, that will improve overall yield for farmers, Das said.
The seed is sold as "Processor Preferred," in competition with corn similarly developed by companies including DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. of Johnston, Iowa. Monsanto equips ethanol producers with near-infrared scanners and computer software to analyze the grain and verify its high-starch composition; they pay a premium to growers.
"The results are real time. The seeds are already on the market," Das said.
His group performs basic ethanol production at the lab bench to test theories. At the Corn-to-Ethanol center in Edwardsville, agriculture and ethanol companies contract to have the process scaled up and make sure their improvements carry to a commercial level.
Pam Keck, acting director, said she couldn't reveal the center's partners or discuss their proprietary projects.
Pioneer has said it worked with the center to improve the nutrition of distiller's grain.
Renessen LLC, a joint venture of Monsanto and Wayzata, Minn.-based Cargill Inc., with headquarters near Chicago, sells high-lysene corn. It also is developing an ethanol production method that could further improve animal feed co-products and make ethanol plants more profitable.
Critics who say increasing national ethanol production will drive up prices of food and animal feed by creating competing uses for limited acres are off track, Tolman said. Despite having fewer acres than in the recent past under corn production, the 2003 through 2005 corn harvests were the largest on record, with a high of 11.8 million bushels in 2004. This is because of the use of biotech seeds and breeding technology, he said.
As the nutrition of distillers' grain improves, it will displace the use of whole corn in animal feed — making even more kernels available for ethanol production, said the NCGA.
"We in the industry really don't see a trade-off between food and fuel," Tolman said.
The association believes that with technology improvements, American growers could harvest 14 billion to 15 billion bushels by 2015 or 2016, with about 5.5 billion of that available for ethanol production after other demands have been satisfied. That would yield nearly 16 billion gallons of ethanol, enough to meet about 10 percent of U.S. gasoline demand.
"Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsletter&topic_id=1&subtopic_id=3&doc_id=13478]
