UW Joins Bioenergy Elite

Yesterday the Department of Energy announced that UW-Madison, represented by Professor Tim Donohue and a team of over 70 scientists, was one of three institutions to be awarded a $125 million grant to establish a bioenergy research center on campus. The center is part of President Bush's energy initiative to reduce dependence on gasoline. Officially called the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), the facility will be shared with Michigan State University and focus mostly on ways to produce efficient biofuel from cornstalks, wood chips, and perennial grasses. You can read more in the UW's press release here.

The announcement comes on the heels of research describing another technique of producing biofuel from sugars in fruits and root vegetables. In a letter published last week in Nature by UW professor James Dumesic, a team of scientists described the technique of obtaining more efficient fuel by using fructose and glucose, overcoming some of the disadvantages of ethanol. The original research paper is available here, and a good summary from The Economist here.

It should be interesting to follow media content, as well as public opinion, about bioenergy in the near future. I know I've met people around Madison with strong opinions about ethanol, to the point that they avoid filling up at gas stations that boast a %10 sticker. But that's only from a practical standpoint (e.g. claims that ethanol is bad for existing engines) and doesn't even touch on something Hans-Peter Peters mentioned during his visit: how willing are people to use food to produce energy-efficient fuels? It's something to consider with the Dumesic technique. But if the GLBRC is successful at producing fuel from plant waste, perhaps it won't even be an issue.