In conjunction with a five-year, $17.2 million grant, researchers from the LSU AgCenter are working to support Louisiana’s bioproducts industry. With cutting-edge technologies and innovative recycling techniques, scientists look to profitable alternatives for biomass feedstocks, renewable biological materials that can be used as fuel.
Vice Chancellor John Russin, who has been heavily involved in the ongoing research, said the hefty grant marks the largest amount of funding any University scientist from the AgCenter has received.
He said the grant’s purpose was to investigate the production of dedicated biomass crops in Louisiana, specifically for bioproduct production. Bioproducts, Russin said, are traditional chemical products made from renewable sources other than petroleum and natural gas.
“We have an existing biomass and bioproduct industry in Louisiana,” he said. “It’s called sugar.”
Biomass is the “cellulosic waste product” derived from sugar production, he said, and mountains of biomass are known as “bagasse.”
With more than 450,000 acres of sugarcane grown in Louisiana, Russin said the state has 11 sugar factories. Green sugarcane is transported to these factories and crushed to extract juices, which are then clarified and concentrated to produce syrup.
From that syrup, raw sugar is crystallized, and a residue of molasses is produced, Russin said. The raw sugar is then refined into white sugar — otherwise known as “table sugar” — while most residual molasses are sold for animal feed.
Russin said the factories produce anywhere from half a million to one million tons of bagasse, or “what’s left after the sugar mills crush the cane,” per year. Through U.S. Department of Energy funding, he said the AgCenter had been working for several years to try to find a higher value use for the bagasse.
“Our task was to develop production guidelines and processing guidelines for two additional crops, focused solely on biomass and bioproducts,” Russin said.
As a result, the team produced guidelines for energy cane, commercial sugarcane with too much fiber and not enough sugar, and sweet sorghum, tapping into a larger national interest to commercialize the backyard crop.
In addition to developing guidelines for energy cane and sweet sorghum, Russin said the AgCenter vested interest into bioproducts like syrups, biobutanol, hydrogels, plastics, bone scaffolds and wood adhesives.
Butanol, a “very valuable” alcohol that can be used for fuel, Russin said, is projected to be worth $10 billion by 2020. He said researchers have discovered ways to produce the feedstock using different syrups and a bacterium.
“We’re trying to get our yield up as high as possible so that we have an alternative renewable source for butanol that utilizes the syrups that we produce here in Louisiana,” Russin said.
He said the AgCenter is also working with biological engineers to make skin and bone scaffolds, known as artificial bones, out of cellulosic materials. Though they have not yet gone through animal trials, patients could, in theory, lay the cellulosic materials on burnt skin to allow skin cells to grow on top and wait for the scaffolding to degrade within a couple weeks.
Researchers also developed a renewable alternative to wood putty made from polymers and bagasse. Within a few minutes, the putty polymerizes solid with the help of a heat gun, ready for sanding, painting and drilling.
Electrical engineering freshman Jeremy Waters said renewable sources of energy are important to longevity of environment and the “overall welfare” of people.
“They’re renewable, so you don’t have to fight over them as much,” Waters said.
Religious studies junior Mikaela Allen said the alternative sources give humanity “a way to sustain itself.”
Whether students realize it or not, Russin said everyone consumes products made from nonrenewable, carbon- or fossil-based sources.
“The quicker we can find alternatives, the quicker we’re going to be able to build a more renewable, sustainable economy,” he said.