By SUSAN MYKRANTZ
Ohio Correspondent

WOOSTER, Ohio — Agriculture and polymers could put Ohio in the lead in the race to find a solution to America’s dependence on fossil fuels, according to Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) during a June 29 visit to the Wooster Campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

Voinovich told researchers and university officials that he is interested in biofuels and their contribution to the overall energy needs of the country. Renewable energy sources comprise only a small part of the country’s total energy requirements, and most of that comes from hydro power as compared to solar or wind power.
“Agricultural products and their use is a new concept and one where Ohio can be in the forefront,” he said. “This could be a new leading industry for Ohio.”

During his visit, Voinovich got a first-hand look at the anaerobic digester project housed at the Krause dairy barn, under the direction of Floyd Schanbacher.

Schanbacher is looking at converting animal waste from the research center’s dairy herd and food processing waste from the state’s food processing industry into biogas. The biogas will in turn be a source of energy to meet almost 64 percent of Ohio’s residential electricity needs.

Federal funds totaling about 1.74 million dollars and money secured through Ohio’s Third Frontier Project totaling 1.5 million dollars provided the financial resources to secure the digester and solid-oxide fuel cell used in the research project. Schanbacher said that the fuel cell could use liquids or biogas to produce energy.

Energy is essential to Ohio, but equally important is chemical and material products produced in the state, according to Steve Myers, director of the Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center.

“There is tremendous growth potential in this area,” Myers said. “The Department of Energy predicts that by 2050, almost 50 percent of the chemicals and materials will come from renewable feedstocks.”

Chemicals specifically play a huge role in the global market, comprising a $375 billion dollar industry worldwide, with an expected strong growth rate and expanding market segment.
“Ohio ranks sixth in the production of all chemicals and first in the production of paints, coatings and adhesives, rubber manufacturing and soap and cleaning compound manufacturing,” Myers said. “Ohio and the Great Lakes region have tremendous potential for contributing to the specialty chemicals market, particularly in the area of agriculture and polymers.”

Myers added that the potential of combining Ohio’s 79.6 billion dollar agricultural market sector and its 49 billion dollar chemical, plastic, and rubber materials sector opens the door for dynamic growth potential in the market.

Presently, seven percent of imported petroleum is made into some type of chemical product. From a value added standpoint, the value of chemical products to fuel is about 10 to one.

Myers said that biobased polymers have a link to the sustainable energy industry, but the market needs to drive the direction it needs to go.

For example, 100 percent of the natural rubber used in the tire industry is imported from Southeast Asia. Research is being done on finding ways to extract latex from the Russian Dandelion plant. This plant had been a source of latex during World War II when there was a shortage of rubber due to the war effort.

With 247 companies in Ohio using rubber in some way, this research is critical, as the price of natural rubber has doubled in the past 2-3 years.

From biogas and biobased polymers, the discussion moved to carbon sequestation.

Dr. Ratten Lal, from the Carbon Management and Sequestation Center told the group that agriculture could play a key role in carbon sequestion in the state.

“Coal is the main source of energy in Ohio,” Lal said.
“It emits 91 million metric tons of carbon in a year.”

With federal regulations requiring an 80 percent decrease in carbon emissions by 2012, agricultural practices can play a key role. Currently 60 percent of Ohio’s 11.6 million hectares is in agricultural use. That land has the potential to sequester 11.5 million tons of carbon or 12-15 percent of the total carbon emissions per year.

Lal added farming practices such as no-till, manure and cover crops have the greatest impact on soil carbon sequestation, capturing up to 1000-1200 kilograms of carbon per hectare per year.

Using biobased fuels can also help carbon sequestation, but Lal cautioned against relying heavily on crop residue to meet the biomass requirements for ethanol production.

He said that with a biomass requirement of 1-1.4 billion tons per year, some of which comes from corn or crop residues and the resulting 100 gallons of ethanol per ton of corn/crop residue, soils can see adverse effects caused by removing crop residue.

In addition to soil erosion, water pollution, crusting, compaction, low crop yields, low biotic activity, there is also low microbial biomass carbon, soil carbon depletion and the disruption of nutrient cycling.

Lal concluded by stating that switchgrass, willow and poplar, to name a few products could be produced on energy plantations and provide a more feasible source of biomass for ethanol production.