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| UL Lafayette researchers Ramalingam Subramaniam and Stephen Dufreche experiment with yeast grown on shrimp and sweet potato waste to produce biodesiel. |
Researchers at UL are exploring a plethora of alternative energy models, but say economics will ultimately decide their fate.
By Wynce Nolley
Many might not consider Lafayette, or Louisiana for that matter, to be an area on the vanguard of green energy with our economy so heavily tied to the petroleum industry. They would be wrong, as Lafayette is one of the leaders in green technology in the region and across the county, blazing an eco-friendly path toward renewable and sustainable alternative energy.
Our trailblazer is of course UL Lafayette, specifically its Bioprocessing Research Lab.
“Our underlying current of a lot of what we do is taking the philosophy, ‘Let’s look at what society throws away and see if we could reuse it as a feedstock for making chemicals or power,’” says Dr. Mark Zappi, dean of the UL College of Engineering and leader of this innovative team of more than 20 faculty members.
The lab is a multidisciplinary effort comprising engineers, chemists, biologists, economists and students from the university’s various colleges. It spans several facilities across campus and Acadiana all working to research and implement viable alternative energy sources. The lab’s research is running the gamut from utilizing the capacity for algae to produce biofuels to constructing a gasifier facility to implement several alternative energies to create its own power grid.
Algae is prized as a renewable energy source for its ability to produce high amounts of lipids, which are natural oils. It also leaves behind algal cake that has the potential to create other products, specifically building blocks for other chemicals. But according to Zappi, the lab’s research into turning algae into a viable alternative energy is peaking.
“Algae is at a real turning point,” he says. “It’s a technology that I think holds a lot of promise but is one that is not quite there. The economics have just not proven completely all the way at this point. In my mind it’s an advanced research project that’s not ready for primetime technology.”
The lab is also looking at extracting valuable oils for biofuels from yeast that is grown on sweet potatoes and rice.
“We’re also taking waste materials like sweet potatoes and we’re feeding them to yeast in this case,” says Zappi. “We’re also looking at taking sewage and other waste streams and growing bacteria again all for the idea of getting them fat and having a lot of oil in them.”
UL Engineering has also been working closely with CLECO on an alternative energy production facility in Acadia Parish Industrial Park. The $1.5 million gasifier facility is “99 percent complete,” according to Zappi, and is expected to open at the end of July. The facility will create synthesis gas, or syngas, a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide created by burning feedstock materials like rice stalk hulls and sugarcane bagasse at high temperatures under low oxygen levels. Syngas can then be further processed to create electricity and diesel fuel. The facility will also feature torrefaction capabilities, where wood chips are heated to a point where they closely resemble coal.
One other energy the gasifier facility will explore is a solar-thermal technology. Two rows of 150-foot parabolic mirrors measuring 10 feet high will direct sunlight to heat fluids in a specialized pipe up to 2,000 degrees that transfers the heat to make steam. This process will be about half the cost of traditional photovoltaic solar panels.
Another project the lab has been working on is its research into refining alligator fat into fuel. According to a research paper it published in the science journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, roughly 15 million pounds of fat could become 1.25 million gallons of fuel with as much as 91 percent the energy content as petroleum diesel.
Zappi notes another energy source showing promise is renewable diesel, where waste oils are taken and then put directly in petroleum refineries to make the same chemical as petroleum diesel that contain renewable plant-based and animal-based sources.
“Those I think are the wave of the future where we can take our existing refining capacity but start putting in small percentages at first of renewable oils and plant-based oils and see how that goes over time,” adds Zappi. “I also think that getting waste streams growing bacteria high in oil and yeast and then putting that oil into refineries to make renewable diesel is getting close to being a reality and a mature process.”
But as promising as these green projects are, none is set to replace petroleum any time soon.
“I think we need a toolbox of all kinds of energy sources and let long-term economics decide which way we go,” says Zappi. “But we also have to keep in mind ecological impacts, too. About every alternative energy process right now is probably one technical breakthrough or two away from becoming more economically viable. It’s all about economics.”
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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