Save the grass clippings, save the world.

That's not just a turn of phrase from a popular television program but, quite possibly, a future built on research right here at Rowan. Don't believe it? Read on.

For several years now a team of biology and engineering faculty and students has worked at creating strains of bacteria that could, potentially, help produce so much ethanol from waste products like corn stalks, leaves, even grass clippings, that America's dependence on foreign fuel could one day be cut in half.
 

"The feed stock is cheap," said Dr. Brian Lefebvre, a chemical engineering professor involved with Rowan's bio-ethanol project. "It's stuff that's just laying in the field right now."

Bio-ethanol, or ethanol, is essentially purified grain alcohol. As a fuel source it's typically made from sugar cane or corn but the process for converting those crops into fuel is expensive and limited to areas where they grow abundantly.

A home grown alternative

But Rowan researchers are working on processes to tap latent sugars in waste products like corn stalks, grass clippings, leaves, even old paper – biomass that would ordinarily be landfilled or plowed under – to produce the same grade of fuel now made with more expensive source materials.

Lefebvre (pronounced "le-fave"), whose team tests new strains after they're developed in Rowan bio labs, believes the energy potential in waste biomass is virtually limitless and could be tapped in the near future.

"Any organic material could theoretically be used and it would be feasible in ten to 20 years," he said.

Lefebvre said once the process is perfected about 70 gallons of fuel may be produced from one ton of biomass. A billion tons of biomass collected per year (a reasonable amount, he believes) could produce about 70 billion gallons of fuel, roughly half the amount of fuel Americans use each year.

Plus, turning all that biomass into fuel would clean up the nation's forests and fields and drastically reduce the amount of landfilled material.

To build a better bug

Dr. Gregory Hecht, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and an advisor on the bio-ethanol project, described the production of bio-ethanol as a three-step process – acid pre-treatment of source material to release sugars, fermentation to produce ethanol and distillation to purify it.

Rowan researchers are working on the middle phase. Their goal is to breed strains of e coli bacteria that produce a high volume of ethanol quickly and are resistant to toxins that are released during fermentation. The toxins, including ethanol itself and others like furfural, inhibit the production of ethanol and can kill the very bugs that create it.

"In a sense, they're pickling themselves while they're doing what you want them to do," Hecht said.

Despite the challenges, Rowan students have, in fact, developed ethanol- and furfural-resistant strains of bacteria that are producing ethanol in campus fermenters and their work has gained international attention.

Student-scientists have already discussed their work at prestigious seminars in the U.S. and Canada.

"We've been invited to the American Society of Microbiology Conference the past two years and we're going for our third this May," said Vincent Foring, 21, a senior biology major. "It's nice to be taken so seriously as an undergraduate for such a hot topic. Normally talks by students at the ASM are given by graduate students."

The kids are alright

There are presently seven Rowan University students working on the bio-ethanol project – three biology and four engineering majors.

Foring, who wants to attend dental school upon graduation, said the hands-on research he's done at Rowan helped him land several high-profile interviews.

"It absolutely helped," he said. "The thing about research is when you apply what you've learned you understand a lot more."

Keith Riegel, a senior engineering student who already landed a job with DuPont upon graduation, said students on the research team feel the potential of their work is virtually limitless. But will it save the planet?

"It does feel that way," said Riegel, 21. "Right now we're so dependent on gasoline. It would be great to break that reliance and make all the ethanol we need right here."