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Researchers believe that in the near future, biofuels – fuels generated from plant matter – will take supply a percentage of the fossil fuel solution.
Biofuels are not a magic formula and are themselves beset with problems. For example, many types of bio-ethanol are made from food crop plants such as corn or sugarcane; vital food sources that grow on prime agricultural land.
Ironically, these types of crops, and other such as canola, which can be used to make biodiesel, rely heavily on fossil fuel-generated and petroleum-derived fertilizers and pesticides.
A research team at the University of Queensland, led by Professor Peter Gresshoff, is examining an Indian tree which they believe may one day become the perfect source for biodiesel.
“We have been looking at plants which can make their own fertilizer, and this group of plants are called legumes,” says Professor Gresshoff. “Soy beans, peas, lentils, clovers …we are all very familiar with them as food items but they also produce a lot of oil.
“And so therefore we have actually started to focus on a plant which is a legume,” Professor Gresshoff says. “So it has the ability to make nitrogen fixing nodules and so therefore it can make its own nitrogen fertilizer, but a plant that is not a food plant, which can grow on marginal land in order to produce a high amount of oil – vegetable oil. And that plant is a tree called Pongamia.”
Pongamia is a tree which grows throughout the world in a 30 degree range around the equator. Its oil-rich pods have been used in India for hundreds of years, to fire lanterns and cooking stoves.
“The challenge that we have right now is that the Pongamia tree is literally only one step out of the jungle,” Professor Gresshoff explains. “If you compare it to wheat or grapes or corn, you know where we have had 5,000 or 10,000 years of human intervention in order to select superior material, this is stuff that’s just … growing.”
This lack of selective breeding and knowledge has Professor Gresshoff’s team studying the genetics and biotechnology of the Pongamia tree in order to find the perfect biodiesel progenitor.
“The research which we’re doing is; number one to find the optimal trees for biofuel production,” Professor Gresshoff says. “And then propagate it through targeted genetics in order to have superior plantations.
“The second one is optimization of oil content and composition,” he says.
“The third part of our work deals with the overall development of the seed and the plant. How can the plant grow best? How can it produce nitrogen fixing nodules more efficiently than it is right now in nature?”
Professor Gresshoff shows examples of two soy bean root systems, a close relative of the Pongamia. One specimen is a normal soy bean plant whose roots contain a small number of nitrogen fixing nodules. The second has been genetically modified, and contains literally hundreds of the tiny nodules.
“This is a single gene which has been changed in soy bean and suddenly we have an abundance of nodulation,” says Professor Gresshoff.
It is hoped that genetic modification of the Pongamia would have similarly impressive results.
Aside from their ability to create these nitrogen fixing nodules, Pongamia trees have the advantage that they will grow abundantly on marginal or even saline land; therefore not competing with food crops for prime agricultural land.
Professor Gresshoff explains the scale of the marginal land that would have to be turned over to Pongamia plantations, in order to supply a significant proportion of Australia’s diesel needs in the future.
“In 2007 – 2008, Australia is utilizing 18 billion litres of diesel,” says Professor Gresshoff. “In order to replace 20 per cent of that, I’m estimating that we need 7000 sq km of land. Basically 200 plantations 6km long and 6km wide.”
Professor Gresshoff’s team has so far received a $1 million research contract from a commercial partner. This has been a welcome boost but is only a small percentage of the investment needed to make Pongamia power a reality.
“This $1 million will allow us to understand more of the genes and how they are working as networks as the seed and the oil develops,” he says.
“But in the next six to 12 months I think we need an investment of something like $50 million. In order to purchase land, to start to do economic analysis, and of course some really serious research so that we can stay competitive with the rest of the world,” Professor Gresshoff says.
“British Petroleum, BP, has put $500 million into Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley) in order to look at biofuels,” he says.
“If we within Australia want to take advantage of our experimental know-how then we need to have – and forgive the pun – fuel in our engine in order to go forward, in order to put fuel into other people’s engines.”
Biofuels are not a magic formula and are themselves beset with problems. For example, many types of bio-ethanol are made from food crop plants such as corn or sugarcane; vital food sources that grow on prime agricultural land.
Ironically, these types of crops, and other such as canola, which can be used to make biodiesel, rely heavily on fossil fuel-generated and petroleum-derived fertilizers and pesticides.
A research team at the University of Queensland, led by Professor Peter Gresshoff, is examining an Indian tree which they believe may one day become the perfect source for biodiesel.
“We have been looking at plants which can make their own fertilizer, and this group of plants are called legumes,” says Professor Gresshoff. “Soy beans, peas, lentils, clovers …we are all very familiar with them as food items but they also produce a lot of oil.
“And so therefore we have actually started to focus on a plant which is a legume,” Professor Gresshoff says. “So it has the ability to make nitrogen fixing nodules and so therefore it can make its own nitrogen fertilizer, but a plant that is not a food plant, which can grow on marginal land in order to produce a high amount of oil – vegetable oil. And that plant is a tree called Pongamia.”
Pongamia is a tree which grows throughout the world in a 30 degree range around the equator. Its oil-rich pods have been used in India for hundreds of years, to fire lanterns and cooking stoves.
“The challenge that we have right now is that the Pongamia tree is literally only one step out of the jungle,” Professor Gresshoff explains. “If you compare it to wheat or grapes or corn, you know where we have had 5,000 or 10,000 years of human intervention in order to select superior material, this is stuff that’s just … growing.”
This lack of selective breeding and knowledge has Professor Gresshoff’s team studying the genetics and biotechnology of the Pongamia tree in order to find the perfect biodiesel progenitor.
“The research which we’re doing is; number one to find the optimal trees for biofuel production,” Professor Gresshoff says. “And then propagate it through targeted genetics in order to have superior plantations.
“The second one is optimization of oil content and composition,” he says.
“The third part of our work deals with the overall development of the seed and the plant. How can the plant grow best? How can it produce nitrogen fixing nodules more efficiently than it is right now in nature?”
Professor Gresshoff shows examples of two soy bean root systems, a close relative of the Pongamia. One specimen is a normal soy bean plant whose roots contain a small number of nitrogen fixing nodules. The second has been genetically modified, and contains literally hundreds of the tiny nodules.
“This is a single gene which has been changed in soy bean and suddenly we have an abundance of nodulation,” says Professor Gresshoff.
It is hoped that genetic modification of the Pongamia would have similarly impressive results.
Aside from their ability to create these nitrogen fixing nodules, Pongamia trees have the advantage that they will grow abundantly on marginal or even saline land; therefore not competing with food crops for prime agricultural land.
Professor Gresshoff explains the scale of the marginal land that would have to be turned over to Pongamia plantations, in order to supply a significant proportion of Australia’s diesel needs in the future.
“In 2007 – 2008, Australia is utilizing 18 billion litres of diesel,” says Professor Gresshoff. “In order to replace 20 per cent of that, I’m estimating that we need 7000 sq km of land. Basically 200 plantations 6km long and 6km wide.”
Professor Gresshoff’s team has so far received a $1 million research contract from a commercial partner. This has been a welcome boost but is only a small percentage of the investment needed to make Pongamia power a reality.
“This $1 million will allow us to understand more of the genes and how they are working as networks as the seed and the oil develops,” he says.
“But in the next six to 12 months I think we need an investment of something like $50 million. In order to purchase land, to start to do economic analysis, and of course some really serious research so that we can stay competitive with the rest of the world,” Professor Gresshoff says.
“British Petroleum, BP, has put $500 million into Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley) in order to look at biofuels,” he says.
“If we within Australia want to take advantage of our experimental know-how then we need to have – and forgive the pun – fuel in our engine in order to go forward, in order to put fuel into other people’s engines.”
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