Eastern Kentucky University has officially opened a facility for advanced biofuel research.
The facility, called the Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies, is roughly three years in the making. CRAFT will focus research in two areas: switchgrass-to-cellulosic ethanol and algae-to-biodiesel. According to Bruce Pratt, executive director of the facility, and former chair of the agriculture department at EKU, “things have happened much faster than I could have imagined.” After receiving some state and federal funding over the past three years, the program received a $2.4 million federal grant from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in September.
“The ultimate goal of the program would be to develop a commercial facility to try and produce algae oil for conversion into biodiesel and potentially J-P8 jet fuel,” Pratt said. “We have lots of little baby steps before we can venture into a commercial size facility however,” he added. Fortunately for CRAFT, the money granted from the DLA isn’t the only addition to the program to help it succeed. Pratt said that his program has developed a partnership with San Diego-based General Atomics. Because General Atomics has a presence in nearby Richmond, Ky., helping a military operation to get rid of some older chemical-based weapons, the two, according to Pratt started working together based in part on a geographic convenience. With the help of the president and executive vice president of the school, he adds, the partnership is what it is today.
“We had a meeting in San Diego with General Atomics to get things squared away and discuss how to work on the project and assign responsibilities,” Pratt said, “and our president went with us and sat right in on the technical meetings.” The support for the program doesn’t end with General Atomics or the president. With over 16,000 students, Pratt said there is a real interest in the program because “we are trying to develop a local bioenergy economy here.”
To do so, the facility will utilize a brand new building equipped with three separate laboratories. “We have a lab for biomass research, a saccharification lab and another for algae research.” In addition to the lab work, Pratt said the CRAFT team also includes members from the chemistry, biology, economics, geography, geology and agriculture departments. “We have an agricultural economist that has been working on an economic analysis of the project, looking at the cost of growing and transporting switchgrass,” he said. “He’s done some economic forecasting on the impact a commercial facility would have on the local community. For now, the team is working at the research level, but Pratt said they eventually hope to build a 1 MMgy algae oil facility and eventually end up with a 50 MMgy facility.
Before that, however, they will continue to work with switchgrass handling and growing, eventually taking the extracted sugars from the biomass to feed the algae. “We are using heterotrophic algae so we can grow it around the clock, in the winter and in the dark,” he said. “I think in agricultural terms, feeding algae is just like feeding livestock. Algae are just like little livestock. If you look at the growth curve of algae, and the growth curve of cattle or pigs they are parallel, just a shorter time frame.” The switchgrass will come from within a fifty mile radius and the program has already planted a 60-acre plot to begin testing. “I think it has a lot of opportunity in the agricultural community of Kentucky to grow biofuel crops,” Pratt added, “It has the potential to grow an industry.”
© 2010 BBI International
