Bark from logs destined for lumber doesn’t currently have much commercial value.

Imagine proposing to Boeing or the US Air Force that they power their jets with wood. Well someone has successfully produced jet fuel from woody bio-mass in a research lab in northern Maine. 

Dr. Hement Pendse Professor and Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering Department of The University of Maine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative in Orono has unlocked the secret of turning trees into usable aviation fuel.

Professor Pendse’s research has focused on taking brush, tree limbs and other low-grade wood products, with little or no commercial value and extract a certain type of cellulose called hemi-cellulose, turn it into sugar, and cook it up into batches of ethanol, bio diesel and now jet fuel. Having converted the paper mill in Old Town, Maine to a refinery, it is hoped that it can produce as much as 2 million gallons of ethanol a year. The mill has already generated nearly 200 new jobs. 

For more than 100 years paper mills in Maine produced stable high paying jobs. Though the demand for high quality paper has been rising with the development of computer printers and copiers, that increased demand did not translate into more jobs. Mills across the country and several in Maine where forced to shut down. The Georgia Pacific paper mill in Old Town, Maine shut down in 2006 ending hundreds of good paying jobs. But now Dr. Pendse and his staff at University of Maine have been awarded a grant to install a commercial demonstration refinery to produce ethanol and eventually jet fuel.

Born in India, the soft-spoken professor was inspired by his father, a university administrator, to look into the secrets of the future. “He made me feel comfortable with what engineering was all about”, says Dr. Pendse.  Hement Pendse came to America to put his skills to work unlocking the secrets hidden in our trees.  “When I was an undergraduate student, I chose chemical engineering, because it was a new and exciting field, non-traditional, moving away from just electrical, and mechanical.”  Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest from the trees.  At first Professor Pendse did not see the expanding horizon of the chemical engineering field.  “As I was finishing undergraduate work it became clear that this field will clearly grow because chemical engineering adapts very well to changing times,” Pendse said. 

Funded by grants from the Department of Defense and other sources, the professor has picked the lock holding the secret to refining jet grade bio-fuel from woody bio-mass. This discovery could not only reduce or eliminate our need for imported fossil fuels but also generate new, good paying jobs.  Dr. Pendse and his research team have produced small quantities of jet grade fuel from otherwise unwanted wood forest products.  He has shown that a wood sugar extract, a slurry called “black liquor,” can be turned into ethanol, butanol and poly-grade lactic acid, a precursor to bioplastics, and now jet fuel.  “We have now taken woody bio-mass, turned it into a substance that has the right kind of high energy density and then the ability to upgrade it so it can meet the specifications of aviation fuel,” Pendse said. The domestic production of jet fuel for military and commercial uses would be an important element towards the goal of energy independence.

The impact of this increased demand for bio-mass has yet to be calculated.  According to the Maine Forestry Service, Biomass chip harvests in Maine have increased more than 3½ times since 2000. In their most recent report, the forest service speculated increased demand for woody biomass would generally increase the potential for conflicts among forest values.  One troubling aspect to all this is there is no standing policy to oversee future development.

Dr. Pendse plans to work with local forest land owners to see if it is possible to process tree bark and branches into an intermediate bio-crude then take that material to a refinery and complete the process producing jet fuel. Dr. Pendse hopes to begin refining the fuel by 2012, with the possibility of refining as much as 2 million gallons a year.  Refining jet fuel from bio-mass, if it eventually becomes economically viable, is highly desirable because it would not divert the production of food crops like corn and sugar to produce the fuel.  Diverting food grains to fuel has become a major conservation issue. Turning to non-food producing bio-products can relieve that pressure on the food production chain.

The Professor also points out this process of using woody-bio mass is a high-level conservation process. “The beauty of this is, the woody bio-mass that we are talking about, the bark portion of the wood itself, can be used to supply the energy required for the process, the steam and electric power. It becomes kind of self-sufficient and reduces our demand for fossil fuel. We are very excited and very optimistic”, he said.

New bio-fuel refineries are expected to generate demand and increase the value for a product that was otherwise considered waste.  “We are working with woody bio-mass, domestically grown renewable and certified tree stock here. Forest land owners and managers understand how to monitor the growth in the forest and make sure the harvest will be less than the growth, so the operation will become sustainable”, Dr. Pendse said. 

Dr. Pendse says the research conducted at the University of Maine is producing more than new fuels. ”The synergy that we have found, what forest land owners need, what the forest product industry is ready to do, and the faculty and students at the university are getting excited about, I think that synergy is generating new enthusiasm, because the students that are involved here they are going to be the next generation’s leaders as to how we can take the natural resources like wood and lead to to-self reliance of the energy that we are talking about.  Maine is kind of in a leading position right now in this area and that’s exciting.” 

If there are any young students out there interested in the field of chemical engineering, Dr. Pendse would welcome you to his research team. “We get undergraduates as early as freshman and sophomores involved in our research so they can get their feet wet and see exactly what this is all about”.

To keep up with the latest research and development at The University of Maine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative in Orono, or the latest news from the Maine Forest Service, click on the sites below.

http://www.forestbioproducts.umaine.edu and http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/biomass_retention_guidelines.html