The cut young stem to the right has received a reinforcement of mainly cellulose to grow upwards, towards the sky, from an angle. Photo by Bio4Energy. Did you know that deciduous, or leafy, trees which stems are prevented from growing upright produce extra cellulose to help them reach towards the sky? And that scientist study this mechanism hoping to find keys to make trees produce more of the coveted tree component, used to make consumer products such as printing paper, hygiene products and biofuels?
Both were things to be learned at a Fascination of Plants’ Day, given at Umeå, Sweden, as well as in 38 other countries, as part of an initiative by the Brussels-based European Plant Science Organisation.
But first let us look at the mechanism. Say, for instance, that a seed of an aspen tree took root and started growing into a tree plant on the slope of a hill. If its roots could keep it solidly in place, and there were adequate nutrients, water and sunlight, chances are that the resulting young tree would grow its delicate stem in a U-shape, with the top striving towards the sky. It would do so by reinforcing the one side of its stem with an extra layer of cellulose.* Other stressors than gravity could cause similar reactions, according to online encyclopedias. Nevertheless stability, or rather, trying to create or to maintain it, seems to be an issue.
One of the world’s most long-running annual conferences on biocomposites—composite materials based on biological materials—went ahead this month with 190 registered participants from 16 countries, shepherded by a Bio4Energy scientist.
A new material for the biorefinery industry, potentially worth thousands of Swedish kronor per kilogramme? Yes, such has been discovered, according to Swedish national public radio's morning newscast Ekot, of today, 4 May 2012.
Developed by Bio4Energy scientists at Luleå University of Technology (LTU), the new material based on reject wood fiber from industrial processes at Domsjö Fabriker at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, which in future might line milk cartons or become a component of other types of packaging, are again hitting the headlines. The discovery is another step in Bio4Energy's quest to develop tools and methods for designing efficient materials, fuels and energy based on forest-sourced materials or organic waste. In this case, the new nano-based material could come to replace alumina liners or plastic films.
Read the article by Sveriges Radio (SR) or listen to the radio spot, below, courtesy of Swedish public radio SR and its P1 and P4 stations. In both, LTU professor Kristiina Oksman and Hans Grundberg, a development engineer at Domsjö Fabriker, comment on the findings.
A logotype—and a name—have been suggested for the graduate school. The Shift2Bio logotype reflects the Bio4Energy ditto.Researchers in Bio4Energy today submitted an application for a project under the EU's ERASMUS Mundus Joint Doctorates funding programme, with a view to starting a full-blown graduate school in which doctoral student from eight “core” universities in four European countries would be trained to lead Europe's shift to a greener, bio-based economy.
In addition, 28 associated partners from industry, so-called cluster companies and further universities are part of the project proposal.
“We believe we have a very strong application… and strong partners. We have developed a concept and a constellation that we are very happy with”, said project coordinator Ulrika Rova of Luleå University of Technology (LTU).
B4E has made providing training for doctoral students within its remit a central plank of its acitivites. Rova, together with Stina Jansson of Umeå University and Sven Molin of LTU, have been leading these efforts.
An EMDJ project award would mean that the "core" universities at Luleå and Umeå in northern Sweden, at Padua and Salerno in Italy, at Oulu and Åbo in Finland, and in the Belgian city of Ghent, could take on a leading role in European doctoral-student training that covered the whole of the biorefinery value chain, Rova said.
The Bio4Energy sister organisation, the Swedish Gasification Centre (SFC) launched last year, has its own web pages on the website of Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in northern Sweden. They have sections for News, Publications, Conferences and an entrance to an internal website for members of the SFC consortium, and more.
In an e-mail, SFC coordinator Rikard Gebart, who is a professor at LTU, said that further news of research results, events and conferences would be added shortly.
A first couple of dates to note were a 14 May meeting for the members of Bio4Gasification, a strand of the SFC whose members, mainly biorefinery researchers, propose and develop gasification research projects.
Moreover, 14-17 August SFC would a host a summer school designed to give graduate students an “overview of the subject area combined with a deeper theoretical understanding”, the SFC web said. Further information on the summer school would be published there shortly, Gebart said.
Three senior members of Bio4Energy have fully or partly changed jobs. All smiles as B4E scientist Rikard Gebart hands over the leadership of the Energy Technology Centre at Piteå to Magnus Marklund, he too of B4E, with a symbolic gesture. Photo by courtesy of the ETC.
Björn Sundberg, head of the B4E Feedstock Platform, will be transitioning into a new role with Stora Enso, the multinational pulp and paper company, stepping up his presence at the firm’s Stockholm-based headquarters to 80 per cent by the end of this year. For now, he retains the leadership of the Feedstock research team in B4E.
After some 20 years in the academy, most of which at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), professor Sundberg wanted to make the partial transition to industry to “try something new.
"I will be responsible for research and development within forest biotechnology. In particular I will work towards our eucalypt plantations in South America and Asia, notably in China", Sundberg said of the work ahead at Stora Enso.
“I have the ambition to keep my responsibilities in Bio4Energy during (the remaining) 20 per cent of my time. We will see how this develops”, said Sundberg who has been a key figure over the years at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, a research centre of excellence shared by SLU and Umeå University.
Bio4Energyscientists have said that 45 per cent of fossil fuels used in Rikard Gebart said almost most half Sweden's transport fuel could come from biomass. Photo by Bio4Energy. road transport in Sweden could be replaced by renewable alternatives produced by gasification of forest-sourced biomass or its waste streams. However, “smart” solutions such as pretreatment technologies to render the raw material more malleable had to be further developed for the biofuels, in turn, to be produced on large scale and become a cost competitive alternative to fuels based on fossil oil, they said.
“We have to build huge, extremely costly infrastructure. We need pretreatment technology and gasification technology… Switching from fossil fuels to biomass is not that straight forward. You have to do it smart, preferably using torrefaction”, Nordin told an audience of 60, mostly academics.
Forest-sourced biomass needs pretreatment to be cost efficent in large-scale biofuel production, according to Anders Nordin. Photo by Bio4Energy.Roasting biomass
He was referring to a pretreatment method which, he said, had similarities with roasting coffee beans, although in the case of the B4E research the material to be roasted, or torrefied, was forest-sourced biomass or grasses. Torrefaction would rid the biomass of excess moisture, protect it from contamination and render it more homogenous, giving it similar density properties to coal, Nordin said. All of which would make for easier transportation, storage and conversion of the biomass in the gasifier.
Indeed, in a recent report analysing the European biofuels market, German consultants ecoprog GmgH found the supply to refineries with feedstock, including its transportation, to be the most cost-intensive step in the value chain for biofuels.
The Bio4Energy website has a new section featuring its latest Scientists Jonas Hedlund (right) and Han Zhou of the Bio4Energy Catalysis and Separation Platform work together. Photo by Bio4Energy. publications, which can be accessed by clicking on the ‘Research’ heading of this website. Although in 2011 B4E was not yet fully operational, its researchers published more than 60 scientific articles in the peer-reviewed literature.
"This shows that Bio4Energy has already started to deliver results", said Stellan Marklund, manager of the B4E research environment. The Swedish government's "support for Bio4Energy has enabled it to be a catalyst... thanks to which the research has been sped up".
Zeolite membranes for separation
Breakthroughs included results by Jonas Hedlund of Luleå University of Technology and his team on the B4E Catalysis and Separation Platform, which devised a method for characterising defects in zeolite membranes with a size down to 0.7 nanometre.
conferences on biocomposites—composite materials based on biological materials—went ahead this month with 190 registered participants from 16 countries, shepherded by a 
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Rikard Gebart said almost most half Sweden's transport fuel could come from biomass. Photo by Bio4Energy.
