Troy Runge holds what could be America's energy future in his hands -- and it looks a little like dog food.
A mix of sawdust bound into pellets, it's Runge's latest creation in his lab on the UW-Madison campus. There, he's been trying different combinations of plant materials, or biomass, as a fuel to replace the coal that burns in the Charter Street power plant about a half-mile away.
Runge's work is part of a broader initiative on campus to develop renewable energy sources, and he is on a team of faculty that will work in the new Wisconsin Energy Institute building. Construction on the building's first phase, funded with $50 million from the state, is set to begin in the fall.
The science conducted there could be the key to making alternative energy sources such as biomass, solar and wind more efficient and reducing dependence on resources such as oil and coal.
"The state and the campus agreed that renewable energy was a high priority for the country and the state, and bio-based renewable energy, or cellulosic biofuels, were a potential large economic driver for the state," said Timothy Donohue, a UW-Madison professor and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
A focus: Fuels from plants
The building is planned for a fairly prominent spot on campus: North Breese Terrace and University Avenue, where the old University Health Services building stands. Still winding its way through the approval process, it is scheduled to go before the city's Urban Design Commission a second time on July 21. The commission sent the architectural design, done by Potter Lawson and the firm HOK, back for revisions because of concerns over the building's bulk, said Peter Heaslett, project manager.
The need for the building developed after UW-Madison won more than $140 million in federal grants to develop the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. That made UW-Madison one of only three U.S. Department of Energy bioenergy research centers and the only one at a university.
The grant money will fuel the research, but the scientists needed a home, which is why the state promised to kick in $50 million to build the Wisconsin Energy Institute building. The state also committed about $4 million a year for faculty and outreach programs.
Much of the research will focus on creating cost-effective fuels from inedible parts of plants, Donohue said.
Currently, ethanol is created using cornstarch, but the researchers will look for ways to generate energy from corn cobs, perennial grasses, wood chips or other native Wisconsin crops.
"We will hopefully mitigate the very legitimate concern society has of how much food supply - cornstarch, or feed corn - is being used for food versus fuel," Donohue said.
Sharing energy expertise
In addition to transportation fuel, other researchers in the building will work on wind, solar, batteries and bioenergy to power heating and cooling.
For instance, Runge is working on the type of biomass the Charter Street plant will burn after its $250 million makeover. He explores how to get biomass to behave more like coal in terms of the amount of energy it produces.
"Biomass is much cleaner than coal," he said. "We want to maximize energy content by minimizing air emissions."
The $50 million the state is providing will construct only the first phase of the building. The second phase will cost another $50 million and will require gifts and grants, which the university has not yet obtained.
When it opens, the institute will house 250 to 300 biologists, geologists, engineers and others, who Donohue said are now spread across campus in 15 buildings.
"All of us in the renewable energy sector will benefit from being under one roof and being able to share expertise and pick each other's brains," Donohue said.
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