Efforts to convert North Carolina tobacco, trees and other crops to bioenergy is slow moving, but progress is being made, said experts at a forum on the bio-based economy.

The biggest challenge is low oil prices which makes bioenergy less competitive. However, speakers at a forum on a biofuels and biochemicals at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park Nov. 4 stressed that demand is still strong and growing for green energy from plants and trees.

“The cost of biomass is always the dominant cost. In any economic analysis, regardless of the product you are looking at, regardless of the mix of products you are looking at, the cost of biomass is the predominant cost. Anything that reduces the delivered cost of biomass is going to have a much larger impact  on the operation of a bio refiner,” said Steve Peretti, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University.

Peretti stressed that the nature of a specific biomass has a tremendous impact on the cost and effectiveness of processing that material. “Loblolly pine is different than tobacco,” he said.

To increase demand for bioenergy, Peretti said North Carolina needs to look beyond making just fuel from trees and crops, but look to making chemicals, plastics and other products as well.

“It is the fermentation to more interesting products that is probably the future and is going to drive the development of this industry,” Peretti said.

For example, engineers need to look at the cellulose and hemicellulose of plants and trees to make high performance fibers for the extraction of heavy metals from drinking water  or for high quality adhesives, he said.

In the meantime, James Croonenberghs, cellulosic business development manager for Novozymes North America, said the development of the bioenergy industry has been slow in North Carolina because of currently low oil prices and regulatory uncertainty.

“This is going to be a marathon. I think we were all in a mindset that it was going to be a sprint. It’s taken a lot more work to get there than we expected. But we are still in it. We are still investing money and our key partners are doing so as well,” Croonenberghs said.

Croonenberghs explained that biomass plants are expensive to build, but he believes the capex costs of building these plants will come down which will encourage the building of the plants.

Croonenberghs said the key to get the industry rolling in North Carolina is to get the first biomass plant built in the state. “There are a lot of benefits of what this industry can deliver to the world,” he stressed.

Peretti also pointed out that the first step is to build that first bio refinery in North Carolina because the second, third and fourth bio-refineries will be easier to finance and build after the first one is completed. “Our big challenge is to get past No. 1,” he said.

In the meantime, tobacco is viewed as a great source for renewable energy and other bio-based products. Peter Majeranowski, president and CEO of Tyton Bioenergy Systems, said that tobacco used for bioenergy is “not your father’s tobacco” and through decades of research, tobacco has been developed into a cheap, efficient and profitable source for sugar, oil, proteins and bio char. He called tobacco the “white mouse” of plant science.

Majeranowski noted that the cost of biomass is 80 percent of a bio refinery’s input costs which are one of the biggest hurdles for green energy. He said tobacco offers benefits of lower input costs. He sees long-term potential for tobacco to be used for green energy.

“Our system vastly different than the way you go traditional tobacco. We process it fresh; we do it at higher densities and then we harvest it with a chopper that makes it look like shredded lettuce so it’s very hard to mistake for traditional tobacco,” he explained.

James Croonenberghs

Peter Majeranowski