Biofuel, or biojet, has emerged as a way for the air transport sector to pursue emissions targets. But to date, global biojet production and use has been negligible. A number of experts have discussed reasons for this lack of development, along with the drivers for the industry’s historical and future development. In this study, we compile expert opinions through a comprehensive literature review that explores the relative importance of various opportunities and challenges (OACs) for the biojet industry through an economic lens. Approximately 200 relevant publications, which collectively identified over 70 OACs, were reviewed. For each OAC, counts of citations were documented. The most frequently mentioned opportunity for biojet production was the increasing demand for air travel and its associated increase in emissions, followed by the aviation industry’s lack of liquid fuel alternatives and supportive government policy. On the other hand, the high total cost of biojet production was most often identified in the list of challenges, followed by the challenges of feedstock availability and fulfilling sustainability criteria. The large amount of data available in publications also allowed us to track challenges and opportunities over time. For example, until the mid-2010s, the number of cited opportunities were somewhat higher than the number of cited challenges; but in the last 5 years, challenges were more frequently cited, potentially indicating increasing pessimism for biojet prospects. Ultimately, whether (or to what extent) a biojet sector emerges will depend on its profitability. This review indicates numerous aspects that will influence the economic prospects for biojet, some of which are more important than others, but all of which are interrelated and ultimately come together to influence biojet profitability.

Meghan recently completed the final semester of her BSc Environmental and Conservation Sciences on exchange in Auckland, New Zealand. For the past year, she has been working with Dr. Marty Luckert and Dr. Feng Qiu to study the economic aspects of biojet. She is currently starting a MSc in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Yeling Zhu
Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science
University of Alberta

“Bioconversion of specified risk materials for torrefied wood bio-binder application”

As an inedible by-product from the animal rendering industry, ~300,000 tonnes of specified risk materials (SRM) are disinfected each year in Canada, primarily by landfill or incineration. Instead of this costly methods, thermal or alkaline hydrolysis represents a viable technical alternative to valorize SRM. By applying this Canadian Food Inspection Agency-certified strategy, SRM can be processed to produce safe-to-use peptides, which carry various functional groups and can be used as the molecule platform to develop functional biomaterials. One of these value-added applications is the peptide-based bio-binder (or bio-glue) for torrefied wood applications, a renewable solid fuel used for power generation. Bench-scale tests have showed that incorporating bio-binder at a low dosage (≤ 5%) improved the density and mechanical robustness of the made pellets, both of which are of great interest to government and shareholders in terms of reducing transportation cost and improving operation safety. Overall, bio-binder derived from SRM features a great potential in torrefied wood pelleting application.

Dr. Yeling Zhu is a postdoc fellow in Dr. Bressler’s lab. He is working closely with researchers from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and industrial leaders to valorize specified waste materials, a low-value protein waste stream from the animal rendering industry, into value-added functional materials. Potential applications of SRM-derived materials include biosurfactant, bio-adhesives, and plastic fillers.

Dr. Zhu received his PhD in August 2019 from the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, University of Alberta. His PhD study focused on fundamental investigation in the interfacial and colloidal phenomena of multi-phase systems and developing green and low-energy separation techniques, with applications including but not limited to wastewater treatment, crude/heavy oil production, and mineral processing. His expertise also covers designing and synthesizing multifunctional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage applications.

Link to presentation (via YouTube)

Arul Mozhi Devan Padmanathan
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
University of Alberta

“Investigating primary decomposition pathways of cellulose during the pyrolysis process using first principles methods”

Advances in agriculture and biotechnology has made the production of biomass significantly less expensive than crude oil. Pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is a promising method involving burning at high temperatures (400°C-800°C) in the absence of oxygen to produce a corrosive liquid called bio-oil which can potentially be upgraded to transport fuel. However, development of the pyrolysis process to improve the quality and yield of bio-oil is hindered by the limited knowledge of the underlying chemistry and transport. Though experimental studies can explain the overall kinetics of biomass decomposition during pyrolysis, they fail to provide the fundamental understanding of reaction mechanisms, pathways and energetics. This is crucial to create a ‘building up’ effect, enabling the integration of chemical mechanisms in particle level models and engineering the interplay between chemistry and transport to optimize the product, bio-oil. Hence in this study, the temperature-variant decomposition of cellobiose, a model compound for cellulose, during pyrolysis is investigated using a novel condensed phase transition state (TS) search method (ConTS), benchmarked with Car-Parrinello-molecular-dynamics-Metadynamics.  ConTS integrates force-field molecular dynamics with Density-Functional-Theory (DFT) TS-search calculations to include the effect of condensed phase and largely reduces the computational cost. Two primary cellobiose decomposition pathways were hypothesized – at temperatures < 470°C, crystalline cellobiose undergoes an amorphous phase transformation before decomposition; while at higher temperatures, it undergoes direct decomposition. Free-energy analysis of these two pathways was performed using thermodynamic integration method algorithms.  In addition, ConTS calculations revealed that the increased inter-sheet hydrogen bonding in the “amorphous” phase stabilizes the transition state and thereby decreasing the activation barrier for the cleavage of the glycosidic bond. This established relationship between the increased hydrogen bonding and the reduction in activation barrier was previously unexplored. The temperature-dependent decomposition pathways and corresponding energetics arises as a result of the change in the molecular arrangement in the condensed phase pyrolysis environment.

Arul Mozhi Devan Padmanathan is a PhD candidate working with Dr. Samir H. Mushrif in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta. He received his undergraduate degree in Chemical engineering with honors from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar in 2018. Previously, he worked in the production of ethanol through fermentation of biomass using a carboxylate platform at the Mix-Alco laboratory in Texas A&M University. His current research mainly focuses on delineating the reaction mechanisms of biomass primary decomposition during pyrolysis and in turn enabling efficient downstream processes.

Link to presentation (via YouTube)

Marina Lazic
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

“Bioconversion of methane to biodegradable plastic”

Methane (CH₄) is the highly potent greenhouse gas that accounts for about two-thirds of the global warming effect. However, from a biological perspective, methane represents carbon and energy source for a group of bacteria known as methanotrophs. Methanotrophs convert methane into its cellular components that drive biochemical processes during the active bacterial metabolism. In this project, the focuses of interest are metabolites called “biopolymers”, specifically polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). This biopolymer is precursor for production of biodegradable plastic (bioplastic). In addition to PHB, methanotrophs can convert methane into various bioproducts (amino acids, lipids, proteins). Considering the cost and availability of methane, an interest has intensified in the use of methanotrophs for low-cost production of bioproducts from single-carbon feedstocks. However, strain-to-strain variation in substrate range, parameters for growth optimization, and metabolic regulation is a major obstacle for the large-scale industrialization of methanotrophs.

In this study, methanotroph Methylocystis sp. Rockwell was grown with either methane or methanol as a carbon source and either ammonium or nitrate as a nitrogen source. Intracellular metabolites, generated by precision ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem accurate mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) and Flame Ionization Detection Gas Chromatography (FID-GC), were compared to determine how these different carbon and nitrogen source combinations affected the production of metabolites. The results from this study revealed how Methylocystis sp. Rockwell alters its metabolism with different carbon and nitrogen sources, with implications for the production of industrially useful metabolites.

Marina Lazic obtained her B.Ss. and two M.Sc. degrees in Molecular Biology at University of Novi Sad, Serbia. She completed her third M.Ss at University of Wyoming, U.S.A. and joined Stein/Sauvageau research group in winter 2019 as Ph.D. student pursuing degree in Microbiology and Biotechnology at Biological Sciences University of Alberta.

Marina’s previous work was mostly focused on genetic engineering and designing light-activated proteins. Currently, Marina is studying single carbon bioconversions (methane, methanol) with a focus on biodegradable plastic’s precursors (PHB, PHBV). Marina received various awards and scholarships. The most recent awards include CTL TA Award for development of teaching innovation (with Dr. Lisa Stein), 1st place award for the best 3-minute thesis, Biological Science, University of Alberta, 1st award for the best oral presentation, Dr. R.E. Peter Conference, University of Alberta, 1st place award for 3-minute-thesis, Future Energy Systems (FES) Colloquium, University of Alberta. Marina is also interested in teaching and active learning promotion in science classroom.

Link to presentation (via YouTube)

Basem Zakaria
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Alberta

“A cycling on-off power supply scheme for electrochemically enhanced anaerobic digestion”

Sustainable management of organic waste and wastewater is one of the biggest environmental challenges to be addressed in Canada. Developing advanced anaerobic biotechnologies can provide an energy-neutral or energy-positive treatment option for waste and wastewater. Notably, anaerobic digestion is the most widely adopted method for organic waste and high-strength wastewater treatment that can produce methane-rich biogas, which can be upgraded into renewable natural gas. However, the traditional anaerobic digestion process suffers from process instability and low energy recovery. Recently, another emerging anaerobic bioprocess, known as microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), has been successfully integrated with anaerobic digestion by introducing a pair of electrodes into the bioreactor. Such integrated processes are operated with a continuous supply of a small external voltage to assist the microorganisms in overcoming the thermodynamic barrier involved in the degradation of complex organics. Since the amount of energy required for the external voltage leads to additional cost, here we developed a cycling on-off power supply scheme for the operation of the integrated process of anaerobic digestion and microbial electrochemical cells for biomethane production. Our results demonstrated that the integrated process could be operated with intermittent power supply without deterioration in performance. Thus, the operational cost can be reduced by powering the digesters with surplus electric energy during off-pick and mid-pick hours.

Basem Zakaria obtained his bachelor and master’s degree in Environmental Biotechnology at Cairo University, 2016. Now, he is a 3rd-year Ph.D. graduate student in Environmental Science and the vice president of the Egyptian Student Association at the University of Alberta. He has been working for more than nine years on several research projects focused on developing and designing technologies for biological soil and wastewater treatment, recovery of valued products and biomass conversion. During his Ph.D., he combined the use of multi-disciplined sciences; molecular biology, chemistry, biotechnology, and engineering to improve the waste treatment and energy recovery through coupling the existing anaerobic digestion technology with a microbial electrochemical cell. He has made some outstanding achievements through publishing more than 16 peer-reviewed articles and books and leading several projects. During his studies, he has received several prestigious awards and scholarships; Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, Dr Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering, and Australian Governmental Scholarship.

Link to presentation (via YouTube)