Ethanol produced from readily available waste such as orange peels, newspapers and sugarcane could be the next step toward developing a cheaper and “greener” way of powering cars, according to University of Central Florida professor Henry Daniell.
Daniell and his team of graduate research assistants and post doctorate fellows at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences have developed biofuel research that will use enzymes developed in tobacco plants to create a cocktail that can break down waste materials into sugar, which is fermented into ethanol.
Any organic waste can be used in this process, and Daniell said such waste is readily available since 70 percent of the things thrown away fit that category.
Though the development of biofuel research using enzymes from plants has been going on for over 20 years, Daniell said, current methods of producing ethanol fuel are very expensive and are still emitting greenhouse gases that are poorly impacting the environment.
Daniell said that not only will his way of producing ethanol cost less and emit less greenhouse gases, but it also, unlike other methods,will not decrease the world food supply or take up agricultural land.
“Currently ethanol is produced from corn starch or sugar can, and recently the corn prices have gone up because farmers are selling corn to the ethanol companies,” Daniell said. He said that his team’s method can allow the parts of the corn that we don’t eat, the inner cobs and the rest of the plant, to be used for making ethanol. The food itself is not needed in the process – just the waste.
“With sugarcane [sugar producers] squeeze the sugar juice out and they burn the rest of the sugarcane,” Daniell said. “So, my concept is that you can use this biomass, which is wasted, which is burned, for ethanol production rather than [using] food.”
Below Daniell talks about why he started this research about three years ago:
The steps to conduct this research
According to Daniell and one of his graduate research assistants, Bethany Lloyd, their process works like this:
- First, cloned genes from bacteria or wood-rotting fungi are injected into tobacco leaves.
- Next, Daniell’s team waits for the necessary enzymes to develop in the tobacco plant. This has to be done several times to create a variety of different enzymes that are needed. Lloyd said that each of the researchers working on this project are in charge of one particular enzyme.
- All the different enzymes that are successfully produced are put togther into a cocktail.
- The enzyme cocktail is then used to break down common waste into sugar.
- Finally, using already existing technologies the sugar produced in the process is fermented into ethanol, which can then be used to fuel cars.
Dheeraj Verma, a post doctorate fellow, overseer of the biofuel research and first author of the research, shows some of the tobacco plants that are being used to develop enzymes needed for his team's ethanol production. (Photo taken by Shahdai Richardson)
Why tobacco?
According to Daniell, he chose to develop the enzymes in tobacco plants for a variety of beneficial reasons:
- Tobacco is not a food, so using it does not take away from the world food supply.
- Tobacco is readily available plant that is grown in large amounts every year.
- This would make tobacco useful in a way other than smoking, and therefore would give tobacco farmers another option for doing business.
- At one time tobacco plant allows 100s of different enzymes to be produced using this basic technology, whereas using another plant would produce far less enzymes at a time.
- Once a tobacco plant grows with the enzyme in it, the plant produces seeds with the enzyme already in it as well. That means the tobacco plant will continue to reproduce more tobacco plants with the needed enzymes without genes having to be injected again.
Recognition
First authored by post doctorate fellow Dheeraj Verma, this tobacco-driven biofuel research, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was recently published in the February issue of the Plant Biotechnology Journal.
Such exposure has helped spread the word of Daniell’s work to other scientists who are doing similar research.
“I am familiar with Dr. Daniell’s work in producing genes in plants,” said Lonnie Ingram, a professor of microbiology at the University of Florida. “This is an excellent approach and one that is also being pursued by several other laboratories including at UF.”
Not only has Daniell’s research been recognized by other scientists, but there has also been a variety of media coverage of his biofuel work and other projects being conducted in his lab. Daniell said that though such coverage lets him know he may be on the right track with his work, no scientist should be motivated by the limelight they may receive.
Daniell explains how he feels about the variety of media coverage his biofuel research has recently garnered:
Outside of Dr. Henry Daniell's lab is a display case that contains several article clippings that report on some of Daniell's research projects over the years. (Photo taken by Shahdai Richardson)
