[Partly extracted from April 14th 2011 Article in JWeekly.com]
“When we talk about renewable fuel, there are a number of issues we have to bear in mind,” says Prof. Yuval Shoham, of the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP).“When we’re talking about the release of CO2 to the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming, one of the relatively short-term solutions is to get liquid fuel from biomass that’s easily degradable … and the two main sources are sugar and corn,” he explained.
“The catch there is, for one, you’re using food — and it’s no secret that sugar prices have risen because of that — and also, you’re actually only using a small portion of the biomass in the plant. About 80 percent of it goes to waste,” he said. “And that’s where my research comes in.”
To that end, he and his researchers have had success with hydrolyzing wood and leftover crops — ones that can’t be used for food — for more efficient conversion into liquid fuel. But without government funding to set up plants for alternative fuel production and without a real change in the average person’s energy consumption, these solutions won’t go very far, according to Shoham.
“There’s always a fight with the traditional industry that doesn’t want change, with the car industry in particular, so some of this really does have to do with policy,” he said. “But maybe the biggest element that we can really control is education. All we’re talking here is saving energy.”
Shoham pointed to European countries, many of whose energy levels are well below that of the U.S.
“It comes down to realizing, maybe we don’t have to drive the largest cars anywhere, lights can be turned off during the day, air conditioners shouldn’t be on all the time,” he said. “All those small things, they will make a big difference.”
Plant Power at GTEP
“Our goal is to develop a platform technology for conferring new genetic traits to crop plants; such crop plants should provide a net energy gain, have environmental benefits, be economically competitive, and be producible in large quantities for biofuel production without reducing food supplies.”
It makes sense and has been done since antiquity: the burning of wood, animal fat and plant oil to generate heat and light. The scientific challenge today is to get the right plants involved in the right processes to empower our world on an even grander scale.
The GTEP group on biomass-based fuels coordinated by Prof. Yuval Shoham of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering is applying ancient energy wisdom to modern industrial processes. The goal is an industrial process that converts foliage and agricultural refuse into easily transportable fuels such as ethanol or methanol as shown by Prof. Shimon Gepstein’s team in the Faculty of Biology. New technologies able to increase the biomass of plants – especially those grown under harsh conditions such as in the developing world. Genetic engineering is used to develop a platform technology for conferring new genetic traits to plants that can be grown on marginal lands with minimal water supply.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
