The field of biofuel research would have little in the tank without MSU professor Bruce Dale. The professor of chemical engineering and material science finished two studies last month that could foster positive attitudes about alternative fuels and decrease the cost of creating them. Dale’s first study presented evidence against the notion that benefits of biofuels are offset by the land required to produce the corn for ethanol and the gas emissions of the vehicles using the fuel.
“The issue with the arguments were that there was not data to support the claims,” he said. “Our analysis shows that crop management is a key factor in estimating greenhouse gas emissions associated with land use change and associated with biofuels.”
The study identified crop management practices that reduce ozone depletion caused by biofuel production, Dale said. Practices such as no-till farming and cover crops will help biofuels repay the carbon debt created by clearing land to grow corn. Cover crops grow in cornfields after the crop has been harvested, which keeps the land productive.
The second study developed an MSU-patented process that could reduce the cost of producing biofuels. Through Dale’s process, parts of the plant that traditionally are discarded could be converted into fuel.
“It eliminates a lot of the manufacturing, therefore a lot of the cost,” he said. “It also eliminates a couple of steps that destroy the cellulosic material, so you can get a higher amount of biofuel from less material.”
Dale, who has been researching biofuels for 33 years — 13 at MSU — said fuel demand is shifting away from fossil fuels for several reasons.
“It’s becoming clearer and clearer we need to get off petroleum,” he said. “It will be a source of relief on several levels, including the environment and the economy.”
Dale’s research focuses mainly on ethanol, a gasoline replacement made from distilled plants, including corn.
Steve Pueppke, director of the MSU Office of Biobased Technology, where Dale does much of his research, said the work Dale is doing is crucial to improving environmental practices.
“It is possible to produce biofuels wrong,” Pueppke said. “We’re trying to work here at MSU to learn how to produce them well.”
Dale said there are ways to make biofuels without depleting food sources such as corn.
“(Corn and soybeans) are the big ones, but now there’s a number of plants being used,” he said. “We can make biofuels from woody or grassy biomasses, something that’s not a food and never was a food.”
The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in Madison, Wisc., a joint research facility with the University of Wisconsin, helps put MSU at the front of the pack in environmental research, Pueppke said.
“That is the only federally funded research of such studies, so I think that’s validation that we (MSU) are the leaders in this field,” Pueppke said.
Graduate student Bryan Bals, who researches under Dale, said Dale places a lot of trust in his assistants.
“We’re all pretty much independent. He doesn’t micromanage us at all,” Bals said. “He doesn’t pull us along. In fact, he kind of expects us to pull him along.”
While Dale’s work is far from finished, his two recent breakthroughs are signs of progress, Pueppke said.
“There is a huge amount of interest in the subject,” he said. “We want to get it right for the economy, environment and for Michigan and that is exactly what Bruce is doing.”
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