Poplar materials,
including bark, leaves and wood, are used to make
cellulosic
ethanol.Dennis Wise/University of Washington
(September 6, 2015) Groves
of poplar trees could one day fuel our vehicles and be the source of chemicals
that we use in our daily lives.
The research, led by the University of Washington, will seed
the world’s first wood-based cellulosic ethanol production facility. The
handful of other cellulosic ethanol factories use agricultural waste to convert
feedstock into sustainable transportation fuels.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded project is in its
final year, and the consortium of 10 academic institutions and private
companies will gather at the UW Sept. 8-10 to share results and finalize
research projects. They identified hybrid poplars as a beneficial feedstock
because of the tree’s fast growth, year-round availability and wood that is
readily broken down to fermentable sugars.
ZeaChem, a Colorado-based biofuels company and one of the
industry partners in this study, is moving ahead with plans to build a
commercial production facility in Boardman, Oregon, in 2016 that will produce
fuel-grade ethanol and bio chemicals.
“We’ve established that poplar is a viable and sustainable
feedstock for the production of fuels and bio-based chemicals,” said Rick
Gustafson, a UW professor of bioresource science and engineering, who leads the
project. “We’ve provided fundamental information that our industry partners can
use to convince investors that production of fuels and chemicals from poplar
feedstock is a great investment.”
Shannon Ewanick
with the UW’s Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory operates
the pretreatment
reactor, known as a “steam gun.”Dennis Wise/University of Washington
The research team, called Advanced Hardwood Biofuels
Northwest, set up five demonstration tree farms with different varieties of
poplar. None of the trees is genetically engineered, but instead researchers
bred them to thrive in different environments and to grow fast. The trees can
gain up to 20 feet a year, allowing for a harvest every two or three years.
“They grow like mad,” Gustafson said. “The production growth
rate of these trees has just been phenomenal.”
When a poplar tree is
cut, its stump naturally sprouts new shoots and the next generation of trees
grow out of the parent stumps. Each tree can go through about six cycles of
this regrowth before new poplars must be planted, Gustafson said.