University of Florida Office of Sustainability

This is the first of 4 links that were featured on a program called "The Florida Environment," which is played on National Public Radio stations throughout Florida. Great information and sound bites about the history, science, and benefits of anaerobic digestion for waste management and energy production.

These are the other 3 links featuring Dr. Wilkie on "The Florida Environment," which is played on National Public Radio stations throughout Florida. Great information and sound bites about the history, science, and benefits of anaerobic digestion for waste management and energy production.

BIOFUELS AT UF: RECYCLING WASTE TO FULFILL OUR ENERGY NEEDS
--Guneeta Singh-Bhalla

Just as aluminum and plastic recycling programs aim to keep wasted material in the consumer cycle, a growing effort in the research community aims to recycle other forms of consumer waste bringing them back into the consumer cycle as fuel. As the global need for alternative energy resources gains popular recognition, bio-fuels top the list as a promising alternative that incorporates this principle.

Researchers at UF are actively involved in developing efficient techniques and methods for harvesting bio-fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel. Dr. Ann Wilkie from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is researching "closed loop waste-to-energy systems" for the production of biogas and bio-fuels. In the past, distinguished professor Lonnie Ingram also from IFAS developed and patented a strain of e-coli that produces a high yield of ethanol from biomass and other organic material. Since then his technology has mostly been used for commercial ethanol production.

As an educational tool demonstrating the production cycle of bio-diesel, Dr. Ann Wilkie has built a mini unit with the help of student interns that is capable of producing 40 gallons of bio-diesel per cycle. The unit is currently housed at UF’s Energy Research Park. Using a standard transesterification process, the demonstrational unit can produce bio-diesel using waste oil from local and campus restaurants as well as virgin vegetable oils. The waste oil requires additional filtration and titration steps to remove contaminants such as charred food, water, free fatty acids and other undesirable materials.

As a complementary move, UF’s Physical Plant Division recently announced that they are investigating the use of bio-diesel in UF fleet vehicles. Doug Renk, a UF research assistant currently runs a small operation at the UF SEBAC facility converting nearly 500 gallons of UF restaurant waste oil to bio-diesel, which then fuels one PPD pickup truck and some lawnmowers on campus. In conjunction with Gator Nest, Renk and a team of students are planning an expansion of the current operation to fuel more UF-owned vehicles.

A main by-product of making bio-diesel using transesterification is glycerol. Dr. Wilkie has also designed and built a fully functional anaerobic digester where microorganisms take on the task of breaking down the glycerin along with manure and compost into methane and CO2. The CO2 can be fed into enclosed greenhouses to promote plant growth. The methane on the other hand is used to produce heat required for bio-diesel production, thus forming a closed loop diesel production cycle. One such digester is currently up and running at UF’s Dairy Research Unit.

Though using waste oils and currently available vegetable oils for bio-diesel is a good intermediate solution in making the switch to sustainable sources of energy, it will not be the final answer. For one, waste oil is a limited resource. In addition, purifying waste oil requires some steps that may pose hazards to humans and are not particularly cost effective and not to mention that the buzz on bio-fuels is tempting some nations such as the Philippines to deforest large virgin forests in order to free up space for bio-fuel producing crops. Thus researchers are looking into several sources of plant oils that can be produced in a cost effective and sustainable manner.

Such a research project is currently under way in the Wilkie lab. Here Dr. Wilkie and a student are working to produce algal oil from algae that feed on municipality and/or agricultural waste. In search for the most efficient method of producing algal oil, they are currently "bio-prospecting for algae with high lipid content," explains Dr. Wilkie.

According to some estimates, the yield per acre of oil from algae may be over 200 times the yield from the best-performing plant/vegetable oils. If algal oils are as promising as such estimates claim, they may be the next big bet in the bio-fuels market.

http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i09/09a01001.htm
http://news.ufl.edu/2000/11/22/sweet-smell/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...98/10/981020074004.htm

In my opinion, Green Industrialists must establish a Formal Lobby a Green-Bureaucracy-System in order to represent Green Industrial Production Technology Systems which will enable a green revitalization and clean up of traditional Industrial Complex, to include: Green International Standards Commission-Council, Green International Quality Commission-Council, Regional, National and International Green Chambers of Commerce, Clearing House for the positioning of Engineering Talent, Inventions, Patents and Products, Green Programs currently in progress, a Green Inventors Bureau, and Green Associations.

Sincerely,
Ross McClelland

In my opinion, Sustainability Communities must urge their Congressmen and Senators to create, sponsor legislation, which establish Legislative measures to begin limiting green house gas emissions from commercial transportation vehicles and obvious production technology, which may be improved without exorbitant expense. For example, in the commercial trucking industry, in my opinion, by 2009 all Commercial Trucks must, "must" be required to install auxiliary power units on all commercial trucks in order to enable the prohibition of idling of commercial vehicles while the commercial truck is stopped and Driver resting or in a temporary pause for map evaluation or other temp stops. The idling is costing large commercial trucking companies at a 1 million dollars per day and more in fuel costs just for truck idling. How much green house gasses are created by commercial truck idling?

I strongly believe that Truckers have the right to keep themselves cool in summer months and warm in winter months, however, idling a large diesel engine in order to keep the small cab and sleeper-birth of a commercial truck cool or warm is very irresponsibly-extravagant. In my opinion, strict measures must be established as soon as possible of with regards to commercial truck idling! I support Al Gore's efforts 100% to build awareness regarding pollution and green house gas problems, however, next step plans must be realistically established and set in motion of the establishment of production systems upgrade goals and new Legislation, which enable and facilitate immediate next step efforts to revitalize, modernize, Greenizate the Traditional Industrial Complex.

If responsibilities continue on the behalf of the Industrial Complex to allow old production technologies to continue to pollute and emit high levels of green house gasses, in my opinion, the Industrial Complex, at some point in time, in the near future will be negligent of Genocide.

Sincerely,
Ross McClelland

This is a link to a site from the Florida House of Representatives that solicited 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's future. The proposed idea is to utilize anaerobic digestion for treatment of municipal wastewater, thereby generating energy and reducing pollution. You can submit comments and rate the idea through the web site. Please do so!

http://www.100ideas.org/ideas....h=waste-to-energy#2095