# Presentation: 248946

## Slide 1

## Energy Security & the Carbon Cycle

- “One thing I am convinced of is that the next 50 years is not going to be more of the same. ....There will be different sources of energy by the middle of the century”
- 	*Phil Watts, Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell*
- “Our country, the United States is the world’s largest emitter of manmade greenhouse gases. We account for almost 20 percent of the world’s man-made greenhouse emissions.._We recognize the responsibility to reduce our emissions_...My cabinet-level working group on climate change..proposes the United States help lead the way by.. _advancing the technology to monitor and reduce greenhouse gases_...”
- 	*President George Bush,* June 2001

**Notes:**
As Jae pointed out, The US and global energy picture will change in the next 50 years. Already major oil companies, BP and now Shell are moving towards diversifying their products to include renewable and non-carbon emitting energy technologies.

In June, the Bush administration launched the National Climate Change Technology Initiative. The events of September 11th  accentuated the dual and compatible needs to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate energy security.  The United States is on a path to enhance domestic energy supplies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The fundamental understanding of genes and their regulation and role in ecosystems that Genomes to Life will play a critical role in moving the US ahead in these goals.

But before I show how GTL will enable energy independence and promote energy security, its helpful to stand back and quickly review the current US energy system and sources of CO2 emissions.

## Slide 3

**Notes:**
Fossil feedstocks are, as Jae said, the backbone of the US energy energy system.  Fossil feedstocks in the form of coal, petroleum, and natural gas are converted to 

Fuels such as gasoline and natural gas,
Transformed in chemical products
And combusted to produce electricity.

Thru the use of such products the US emits 1,510 Million metric tons of C in the form of CO2 each year. Roughly 2/5th are generated thru electricity production while the rest is generated when fuels such as gasoline are combusted.  Co2 emission from the residential and commercial sectors are strongly dominated by emissions associated with electricity production. While the consumption of petroleum products accounts for 98% of the transportation sector CO2 emissions.  The Sources of emissions from the industrial sector are more evenly balanced between electricity, natural gas, coal, and petroleum.

The total energy picture for the US looks like this.

## US Energy Consumption by Source 104.6 EJ (99.1 Quadrillion Btu) in ’00

**Hydro 3%**

**Notes:**
Note that Fossil fuels account for 86% of the US energy consumption. But note too that Biomass accounts for 3%.  The 3% is overwhelmingly due to the use of wood  by the forest products industry.

GTL can play a significant role in increasing that green sliver in the US energy mix thereby increasing energy security and reducing CO2 emissions. (it also could increase the domestic supply of petroleum but I’ll address that point at the end of this presentation)

## Slide 5

**Notes:**
This slide depicts the flow of carbon in a combined fossil and biomass energy system. And highlights the energy products that can be produced from both fossil and bio feedstocks.

Utilizing the sun’s energy plants convert atmospheric CO2 to plant biomass – predominantly cellulose and lignin.
Some of this fixed carbon ultimately goes into the soil where it may be sequestered for thousands of years. The harvested portion can be converted into all the products that fossil fuels can be. When these products are formed or utilized the carbon is once transformed back to CO2 only to to be retaken up by future trees and grasses.  

To the extent that we can increase these green flows by producing biofeedstocks on US lands we can both reduce net carbon emissions and enhance US energy security. A half a century from now we may have the capability to actually produce H2 gas directly from biophotolysis and we may be able to geosequester both bio and fossil CO2.  

I’d like now to talk in more detail about how a profpound understanding of genes and their regulation can affect the production of biofeedstocks. Later I’ll discuss how bioconversion the other half of this picture can play a role.   

## Genes control Biofeedstocks:fixation, allocation, partitioning, sequestration

- “Only a few genes control the life strategy in plants... when we understand these we can dramatically change plant yields.”
-       Chris Somerville, June 2001

**Notes:**
As this slide depicts, Genes control the amount and quality of biofeedstocks.  By understanding plant genes and their regulation,we can manipulate carbon fixation, the allocation of that carbon to harvestable aboveground components for energy or below ground components that can sequester carbon.  Perhaps just as importantly we can tailor the quality of the feedstock to the products we desire.  For ethanol we need to reduce lignin content and enhance the cellulose and starch fractions. 

Human’s have been manipulating crop genes since the beginning of agriculture.  However, with our new biotechnical capabilities we will be far more efficient. We will also be able to explore the interplay of plant and microbial genes in regulating nutrient availability and uptake.  We will be able in the future to design plant, soil, microbes systems that will allow us to maximize the solar and climate potentials of any location.

Biomass crops are especially well poised to take advantage of the bio-revolution. Biomass crops are for the most part wild crops... compared to corn or wheat or rice, biomass crops are in their domestic infancy.  Biotechnology will allow us to speed up the domestication process in a truly revolutionary way.  

## Domesticated Populus Attributes

- Greater carbon allocation to stem- **ATHB-2**
- No response to competition - **PHYB**** **
- Reduced height growth - **GAI**** **
- Less extensive root system - **Revoluta**** **
- Improved wood chemistry - **Pt4CL1**
- Pest resistance - **Rt**
- Optimized photoperiod response - **Ls**

**Notes:**
This slide  provides on example of how the new biology could domesticate an energy crop .. In this case poplar.. A rapidly growing tree species which is readily cloned.

For cellulose production on a well watered rich lands, we could design a short stubby tree with low lignin content, deep roots, and high pest resistence using our understanding of such genes as these. 

We can look for analogue genes in poplar to these Arabidopsis, rice, corn and tomato genes or perhaps 

## What is the potential impact?

- Biomass crop yield increases shifted from 1%/yr to 2.8%/yr
- Biomass to ethanol conversion efficiencies increased 60%.
- In 25 yrs, biomass crops could be economically competitive on 55 M acres of US crop land at a raw energy price equal to a $15 barrel of oil and 30% of current US gasoline needs displaced by homegrown ethanol.
- 50M tonnes C additionally sequestered in  U.S. soil/yr

- (Analysis w/POLYSYS, Nov 2001)

**Notes:**
Jae has spoken about the global impact of improving biomass crop yields. Here is an example of a national impact. Tree geneticists believe with the coming advances in understanding of gene function and regulation, we can double the expected yields of energy crops in the US in the next 25 years and at the same reduce the cost of their production by 15%. A USDA/DOE US agricultural sector model predicts that with those changes, 55 million acres of US cropland would convert to biomass production. Those acres would produce enough feedstock for ethanol to displace 30% of US gasoline needs. That is more than enough to displace all the gasoline produced from Persian Gulf petroleum and almost enough to free the US from any dependence on Persian Gulf petroleum imports. Furthermore this energy security benefit would come with the side benefits of reduced erosion, little impact on US food production,  soil carbon sequestration, and an improved rural economy.  

## Slide 9

**Notes:**
I’d like to talk briefly now about how genomic understanding gained thru GTL could affect the other side of this story – Conversion.

Microbes already play an important part in current conversion technologies but we are only beginning to harness their potential. Humans have been using yeasts for fermentation of sugars for millenia. 

Biopolymers created from biofeedstocks using bioprocesses are poised to replace nylon and polyethalene. DuPont see’s 1-3 propane-diol as its next nylon and Cargill Dow sees Polylactic acid as the next polyethylene. Both companies are in the processing of starting such manufacturing facilities.

Sugars derived from cellulose and hemicellulose using cellulases are at the heart of the Biorefinery concept. 

## Slide 10

**Notes:**
GTL can accelerate this visions of the biofuture by improving our understanding of both plant cell wall construction and the microbial enzymes necessary to deconstruct those walls.  Imagine creating a plant with a thermocellulase that was only expressed at high temperatures. That is, a plant designed for disassembly.  

The discovery or creation of an organism that can ferment sugars at high temperatures or high ethanol concentrations would vastly improve the efficiency of the bioethanol process. 

## Potential Fossil Bioconversion applications  

- Potential Fossil Bioconversion applications

**Crude**

**oil**

**Desalter**

**Atmospheric**

**pipe still**

**Fluidized**
**Catalysis**
**Cracker **
**(FCC)**** **

**Feedstock**

**FCC Unit**

**Hydrodesulfurization**

**/**

**sulfur removal process**

**Gasoline blending**

**Gasoline**

**Drilling**

- Downhole

- application

- Field

- application

- Pipeline application

- Refinery application

- (

- biodesulfurization

- )

**Notes:**
Upto now I’ve focused on biofeedstocks and bioconversion of those biofeedstocks.  And indeed biofeedstocks are the main focus with regards stabilizing atmospeheric carbon dioxide.

But with regards energy security, bioconversion could also play a role in increasing and improving of domestic fossil fuels. 

Microbes can convert synthetic gas produced either from the gasification of biomass or the gasification of coal to liquid fuels such as ethanol to displace imported petroleum.

Microbes can also be used to increase the quantity and quality of domestic petroleum supplies as this schematic suggests.

Microbes are already being added to oil wells to reduce oil viscosity and permit pumping of petroleum that would be otherwise to thick to extract.  Through similar processes microbes could also increase the recovery    
oil from oil shale in the western United States.

By putting microbes in the oil pipelines, we could start the process of oil refining ahead of the refinery. At the refinery, the displacement of sulfur-carbon bonds with hydrogen-carbon bonds could take place through microbial biodesulfurization.   Biodesulfurization would reduce costs and increase the amount of usable energy from a barrel of petroleum as current desulfurization techniques are energy intensive and require hydrogen gas.

## Slide 12

**Notes:**
I’d like to end on the note that there are three ways to increase energy security-

First increase the domestic resource-
GTL can lead to an increase in both domestic bio and fossil feedstocks for energy

Second reduce your vulnerability to disruption in your energy infrastructure
Biomass feedstocks are inherently widely dispersed and thus difficult to attack. Furthermore GTL will give us the information to develop tools to combat introduced diseases to these crops.

Third and perhaps most importantly,
Stabilize the globe by support and enhance the energy systems of your allies and developing countries. 

The energy technologies that I’ve described, particularly biomass energy, are well suited to a wide range of geographies. They have the potential to promote energy independence while reducing greenhouse emissions and improving rural economies.