Amid the whirring fan-like sounds of machinery designed to extract DNA from corn plants, Mariam Sticklen hovered over a Biolistic gun Monday as she worked to genetically engineer corn plants to produce ethanol, a renewable gasoline replacement.
Placing a piece of corn leaf inside of the machine, Sticklen displayed a .22-caliber bullet that the machine would fire into the leaf, before DNA mixed with gunpowder can be extracted to help create an ethanol-producing corn plant.
The professor of plant genetic engineering is one of many MSU researchers searching for cheaper methods to produce ethanol, a corn-based fuel. Sticklen's research project focuses on engineering corn plants to automatically create a cellulase gene, an enzyme that wouldn't have to be produced manually after the first generation.
"We'd like to produce an alternative energy that is cheap and safe and protects the environment," Sticklen said. "Over 60 percent of corn in Michigan is genetically engineered. If we substitute biofuel for gasoline, it would be a better price, and farmers could make more money."
When ethanol is substituted for gasoline, Sticklen said, the environment is protected from gases such as carbon monoxide. Alternative fuel research conducted by Sticklen and other researchers helps cities, including Lansing, make the transition from gasoline to ethanol and biodiesel, a soy-based product.
Lansing was designated as a "Clean City" in September by the U.S. Department of Energy - joining Ann Arbor and Detroit as the only such cities in the state. The title allows Lansing, which is part of a clean cities coalition encompassing Eaton, Clinton and Ingham counties, to apply for federal and state funding to increase the use of alternative fuels meant to improve the environment and economy.
Liza Estlund Olson, director of the Department of Management Services for Lansing, said in order for the coalition to keep its designation, it must increase its use of alternative fuels by 16 percent and demonstrate a continued effort in having a variety of alternative fuels available.
"The city of Lansing is looking at moving toward using biodiesel in a significant portion of our (city vehicles)," she said. "It's better fuel in terms of better stuff that comes out of a car's tailpipe for people to breath."
Most gasoline contains 10 percent ethanol, Olson said. The ethanol-based fuel, called E-85, is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline.
Olson said Lansing officials are working to convert more than 150 city vehicles to biofuel, starting as soon as next year, and the coalition is searching for methods of producing more ethanol.
"We've had discussions about having additional ethanol plants in the state to produce more ethanol because there is much getting used," she said.
The Caro-based Michigan Ethanol plant, the only ethanol-producing factory in the state, can produce tens of thousands of gallons of ethanol and is now at capacity after a year of being opened, Olson said.
Jody Pollock, executive director of the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan, said the program is working to increase the amount of corn processed in ethanol in the state. In 1999, Michigan used 20 million gallons of ethanol, and in 2002, the state used about 120 million gallons of ethanol, Pollock said.
"For every one bushel of corn, we get about 2.8 gallons of ethanol," she said. "It's much better for our citizens in our state to grow corn to use as fuel. Corn can be processed into clothing and plastics and fuels and different based chemical compounds.
"We can make all these out of corn to lessen our dependence on fuel."
But it would be difficult to have more vehicles run on ethanol since Don's Windmill Truck Stop, 7262 Lansing Road in Dimondale, is the only place to fuel these vehicles, Olson said. As a result, Olson said Lansing city vehicles are more likely to run on biodiesel.
Phillip Sinke, control center manager at Don's, said the truck stop began selling E-85 three years ago, but sales have been very low compared to gasoline.
"It was a joint venture with corn rollers," Sinke said. "There's supposed to be an X-amount of alternative fuel in the market."
Sinke said if more plants that make E-85 are built in the future, ethanol prices will decrease, and more people would be likely to buy it.
For now, MSU researchers continue to search for methods for decreasing the price of ethanol and reducing dependency on countries the United States purchases oil from.
Chemical engineering Professor Bruce Dale also is doing research on alternative fuels similar to work being done by Sticklen.
"We already produce ethanol from corn grain, and we're trying to develop ways to get ethanol from other products," Dale said. "What researchers like myself are trying to do is extend that to a much wider variety of plants, including things that aren't food. This would create more options and is potentially quite a bit less expensive."
Staff writer Janet Harp contributed to this report.
Allison Lucy can be reached at lucyalli@msu.edu.
