Chemical Education Today
Reports from Other Journals
News from Online: Renewable Resources by Erich S. Uffelman
Renewable resources are topical, given the increasing emphasis on sustainability within chemical industry and the energy community. Before plunging into a brief discussion of some online resources available in these areas, it is worth mentioning bigger issues. Overview Students need to be asked to define “renewable” and “sustainable”. The sun is not a renewable resource, but its projected remaining lifetime of approximately five billion years is so great on a human time scale that it is perfectly reasonable to have solar energy (whether obtained by direct conversion to electricity/hydrogen or via biofuels) as the underpinning of clean, renewable energy. In principle, coal and oil are renewable resources, but on a geological time scale that is not commensurate with their use. These obviously answerable points, however, lead to questions of rate and ethics that are considerably more intricate. At what rate does a resource need to be renewable with a human population of three billion in 1962 (when the author was born) versus over six billion (now) versus future numbers that vary wildly depending on current models? How much can technology influence the rate of resource renewal (e.g., via genetic engineering) or change the source of those resources (e.g., ethanol from grain fermentation versus ethanol from cellulose fiber)? The ease of creating a “sustainable” civilization depends enormously on the standard of living to be sustained, as well as the total numbers of people in that civilization. What are the ethics of widely variable global living standards? How much of civilization’s sustainability should include other species and species’ habitats? How do these questions impact our view of human population? Given that the earth is a dynamic system that undergoes significant change in the absence of a human presence, what is a rational model of sustainability given human-induced climate change versus geological/astronomical-induced climate change? How will world religions and concepts of human rights affect population policy and the global distribution of wealth and standards of living? Clearly, at least at the university level, it is useful for colleagues from economics, political science, philosophy, and the natural sciences to collaborate at educating students on these issues. Population Growth Issues of human population growth for a very general audience are readily available at the PBS television Web site that summarizes their program “World in the Balance” and provides additional educational resources. Sites pertaining to human population growth and demographics can be found at the Environmental Literacy Council Web site; their site is also a good general resource for teachers interested in the environment. The United Nations publication “World Popula220
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tion Prospects: The 2004 Revision Analytical Report” may be found online; it summarizes research performed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, thus recognizing micro-credit in the third world as an important tool for economic development, illustrates current trends in considering the global sustainability of higher living standards.
Web Resources PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/ Environmental Literacy Council, Population Growth http://www.enviroliteracy.org/subcategory.php/30.html Environmental Literacy Council, The Environment http://www.enviroliteracy.org/ United Nations: “World Population Prospects” http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ WPP2004/WPP2004_Volume3.htm Muhammad Yunus’ site: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/ 2006/index.html
Green Chemistry In the chemical community, renewable resources and sustainability come under the umbrella of Green Chemistry. The Green Chemistry Institute site of the American Chemical Society is the main link to the ACS’s information on these topics. Forecasts from the ACS about the state of chemistry in 2015, including economic and sustainability issues, is also available. Another key Green Chemistry site for issues involving renewable resources and sustainability is maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In particular, the summary of work from Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award winners is particularly useful. Chemical & Engineering News regularly has relevant writings on sustainability topics that may be accessed electronically. For instance, a recent article that overviews biofeedstocks for polymers is available online, as is a set of very recent articles on specialty chemical opportunities caused by higher energy prices. The Chronicle of Higher Education devoted its October 20, 2006 issue to sustainability, and its “sustainability library” can be viewed online. Obviously, this Journal regularly visits these topics. Finally, I always find the opinions of Terrence J. Collins (my doctoral mentor) and James P. Collman (my postdoctoral mentor) intellectually stimulating.
Web Resources ACS Green Chemistry Institute http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/ acsdisplay.html?DOC=greenchemistryinstitute\index.html
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ACS State of Chemistry in 2015 http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/ acsdisplay.html?DOC=industry%5cchementerprise2015 %5cchementerprise2015.html U.S. EPA, Green Chemistry http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/ Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award Summaries http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html
C & E News on Biofeedstocks for Polymers http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/83/8340sci1.html C & E News on “Better Energy Through Chemistry” http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover.html http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover2.html http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover3.html http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover3a.html http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover4.html http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8447cover4a.html Chronicle of Higher Education, Sustainability http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i09/ 09sustain_resources.htm Terrence J. Collins’ Site http://www.chem.cmu.edu/groups/Collins/awardpatpub/ pub/Editorial_1.pdf and http://www.chem.cmu.edu/groups/collins/ethics/ index.html James P. Collman’s Site http://www.stanford.edu/~jpc/
Renewable Resources With wildly fluctuating gas pump prices for U.S. consumers and with considerable oil reserves held by nations viewed by the U.S. as potentially unstable suppliers, renewable energy resources are directly relevant to issues of expanding populations and the emerging economic growth of underdeveloped nations. The Renewable Resource Data Center is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. It includes links to many sites categorized by: general overview; solar; biomass; wind; geothermal; climate and weather; and ultraviolet solar radiation. Each of these areas could be reviewed at considerable length, (on top of that, methanol is a potentially significant player in liquid fuels—see the book by George A. Olah, Alain Goeppert, and G. K. Surya Prakash, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, that has excerpts available online). But this paper will conclude by briefly considering Web sites devoted to liquid fuels derived from biomass.
Web Resources Renewable Resource Data Center http://rredc.nrel.gov/
Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd3527312757.html
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Liquid Fuels from Biomass The Bioenergy Feedstock Information Network (BFIN) provides significant online resources in the area of biomass feedstock information. An excellent source of information and abstracts on the area of biofuels is the Web site for the Renewable Resources & Biorefineries Conference recently held at the University of York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence for Industry.
Web Resources Bioenergy Feedstock Information Network (BFIN) http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/ Renewable Resources & Biorefineries Conference http://www.rrbconference.net/
Ethanol Ethanol and biodiesel are the two main targets of biomass conversion to liquid fuels, although biobutanol is being intensively investigated and developed by DuPont and BP. (DuPont’s position on sustainability is also of interest.) Bioethanol and biobutanol are both produced by enzymatic fermentation processes. Issues of fuel blends with conventional gasoline, water contamination, corrosion, and total energy content per gallon of fuel are still under investigation for ethanol fuel products, particularly E85, an 85% blend of ethanol with gasoline (see discussions in The New York Times and in USA Today). The fermentation process needed to produce ethanol from grains is more straightforward, giving it a short-term development advantage. It is clearly not a long term solution to energy needs, however, given the volume of liquid fuels consumed in the U.S. versus the mass of seed grain that can be reasonably produced, especially considering that the seed grain is also used as food. The production of ethanol from the cellulose fibers of rapidly growing plants is attractive both from an available mass viewpoint and a growth rate viewpoint. However, there has been greater complexity in developing a fermentation pathway based on a cellulose starting material. Progress in developing ethanol from cellulose has been made by Iogen Corp., and their Web site provides a general overview of their process and their partnership with Shell Oil. Shell also has a Renewables site where it highlights its developments in the renewable energy field. Web Resources Biobutanol Fact Sheet, DuPont and BP http://www.dupont.com/ag/news/releases/ BP_DuPont_Fact_Sheet_Biobutanol.pdf Biobutanol Marketing, DuPont and BP http://www.bp.com/ sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9007662&contentId=7014512 and http://www2.dupont.com/Biofuels/en_US/ DuPont Sustainability http://www2.dupont.com/Sustainability/en_US/
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Reports from Other Journals E85 Blend http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/business/ 27ethanol.html?_r=1&oref=slogin and http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/ 2006-02-08-gm-ford-ethanol_x.htm Ethanol from Cellulose: Iogen and Shell http://www.iogen.ca and http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=royalen&FC2=/royal-en/html/iwgen/what_we_do/oil_products/ zzz_lhn.html&FC3=/royal-en/html/iwgen/what_we_do/ oil_products/biofuels_0316.html Shell Renewables http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=rw-br
Biodiesel The other main liquid biofuel under development, biodiesel, is produced by transesterification reactions of animal and plant triglycerides to produce fatty acid methyl esters. The Wikipedia entry on biodiesel provides a useful basic introduction to the topic. Due to the higher energy density of these esters, the higher efficiency of the diesel engine compared to the standard internal combustion engine, and because biodiesel fuel can be used in essentially any extant diesel engine, these fuels are attractive. One major problem that had threatened the significant use of biodiesel was that glycerin (glycerol) is a major waste by-product of the transesterification process. However, a new process for the conversion of glycerin waste into useful products appears to be a powerful step in the practical development of that field. Debate The overall energy contribution possible from biofuels is difficult to quantify, given concerns and questions about total arable land, over-fertilization, the type of plant to be grown (i.e., its rate of growth, genetic manipulability, cellulose content, triglyceride content, etc.), and the total efficiency of converting the biomass to usable fuel. An example of the complex debate of these and other issues concerning the pro and con positions on biofuels can be found by reading the January 27, 2006 and June 23, 2006 issue of Science, which feature a review paper and letters to the editor on the topic.
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The issue of global warming (see the EPA Web site) is obviously receiving considerable attention (for instance the enormous reaction to the documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth”). Certainly, with concerns about the greenhouse effect of CO2, these biofuels are appealing because the same carbon, at least in principle, gets recycled repeatedly in the combustion and photosynthetic processes.
Web Resources Wikipedia: Biodiesel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel Conversion of Glycerin Waste http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/winners/ aa06.html
Science Review and Letters to the Editor on Biofuels http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/311/5760/ 435.pdf http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/311/5760/ 484.pdf http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/312/5781/ 1746.pdf U.S. EPA, Climate Change http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html “An Inconvenient Truth” http://climatecrisis.org/
Magnitude of the Problem Finally, renewable resources and sustainability are so huge in scope that in an article of this brevity I have of necessity omitted many worthy and interesting Web sites, and I apologize in advance for those omissions. These issues can also become politically charged, and I have endeavored to provide a set of Web sites that, taken together, provide what I hope is a fairly balanced overview. Erich S. Uffelman is a member of the Department of Chemistry, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450;
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