By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University researcher is working on a way to produce cellulosic ethanol more efficiently.

Gemma Reguera, who works in the departments of microbiology and molecular genetics and crop and soil sciences at MSU, is working on a process that makes the conversion of corn stover into ethanol more efficient. The process uses a bioelectro-chemical cell, also sometimes called a microbial fuel cell, to produce amounts of electricity that can be useful.

Reguera and her team are working with a type of bacteria known as Geobacter, meaning bacteria from the earth. Her experiments exploit and speed up natural processes. “What the Geobacter do is eat up all the acids that are produced from fermentation and extract the electrons and produce electricity,” Reguera said.

From the standpoint of ethanol production, that’s a good thing because those acids destroy the bacteria that produce the fermentation. This whole process can be seen as the production of electricity with ethanol being a byproduct, or the other way around.
“You can adapt a biorefinery by attaching an electrode and it will become a scaled version of the fuel cell that we are developing,” Reguera said. “You can hook it into the power grid very easily. We look at this as a decentralized unit that can be autonomous.”
This could be significant for people in areas of the country where power generation is a problem.

The electricity produced from this process could also be used to help keep the system going without inputs from outside of the system for longer periods of time. Reguera said that more experiments need to be done to determine how long this process can last without maintenance, but in theory she said, all the system needs to keep running is a supply of biomass. It’s also environmentally friendly because there are no harmful byproducts of this process.

Although her recent experiments have been with corn stover, the process should work with other forms of biomass as well. At this point she said she’s at the stage of protecting the university’s intellectual property. How fast all of this develops really depends on whether they can get investors on board to refine the invention; but she hopes they can proceed to the manufacturing stage within the next three years. They are also in the process of getting a patent.
For more details on the GLBRC, go to www.greatlakesbioenergy.org