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Introductory College Sustainable Biofuels Course

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INSTRUCTORS
COURSE DOCUMENTS
CLASS DETAILS

Both globally and nationally, we are facing significant energy and corresponding environmental challenges. Can future bioenergy technologies provide solutions? In this course we will explore a wide range of issues associated with bioenergy. Topics will include:

  • Past and current uses of bioenergy;
  • Considerations that are driving interest in new bioenergy technologies;
  • Research needed to make future technologies successful;
  • Sustainability dimensions: economic, environmental, and societal.

By nature, the topic of bioenergy is interdisciplinary and requires collaboration for successful research. A strong focus will be on this interdisciplinary aspect. We will look at interrelationships from a systems perspective and come to understand the complexities that are involved and so typical for modern scientific and technological problems. The potential for future biofuels to mitigate global climate change will be highlighted.

We will also take advantage of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), which has a significant portion of its researchers based here at UW-Madison. GLBRC’s focus on the use of cellulosic plant material for the production of liquid transportation biofuels will serve as a primary case study. Interaction with GLBRC will also provide for in-depth dialogs with a wide range of researchers, and laboratory and field activities.

Instructors
Introductory College Sustainable Biofuels Course (Agronomy 375) ‐ Fall Semester, 2010
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Dr. John M. Greenler
 Office: 445 Henry Mall, Room 506D
E‐mail: jgreenler@glbrc.wisc.edu
Phone: 608‐890‐2444

Sara Krauskopf
Office: 445 Henry Mall, Room 506E
E‐mail skrauskopf@glbrc.wisc.edu
Phone: 608‐263‐0809

Course Documents
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Class Details
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General Resources

Wednesday, 9/8
Topics: Introductions and a virtual tour of bioenergy from the global to the molecular
Reading:

Monday, 9/13
Topics: Biocore Prairie Visit
Reading:

Wednesday, 9/15
Topics: Continue scale of biofuel research discussion. Biofuel production systems overview
Reading: Basic introduction to biofuel production systems, challenges

Saturday, 9/18
Topics: FIELD TRIP to the bioenergy research plots at the UW-Madison Arlington Field Station
Reading:

  • Tilman, David, Jason Hill, Clarence Lehman. Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass. Science Magazine. 8 December 2006 314: 1598-1600 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1133306].
  • Tilman, David, et al. Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma. Science Magazine 17 July 2009 325: 270-271 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1177970]

Wednesday, 9/22
Topics: Review of data from Arlington trip, the carbon cycle
Reading:

Monday, 9/27
Topics: Set up soil respiration experiments, continue discuss of carbon cycling, systems thinking. Post your group's experiment idea on the news forum by Sunday night so we can prepare materials for you. If more than one group has the same idea that is ok.
Reading: Read the first 2 chapters of soil primer online, clicking on images as you go. Skim the other chapters so you see some of the organisms that are respiring in your samples. We will be setting up the C02 traps in class so be familiar with those instructions.

Wednesday, 9/29
Topics: Feedback loops in systems and the impact of bioenergy use on key planetary systems
Reading:

  • Solutions to Environmental Threats: Experts tell Scientific American which actions will keep key processes in bounds. Science American. April 2010. 58-60.
  • Climate change science and policy: What do we know? What should we do? September 6, 2010.
  • Connecting Distant Dots: An abstract threatment of very real global processes reveals connections between the most disparate of forces, events, and systems. SEED Magazine. February 2009. 56-57.
  • Rockstrom, Johan, et al. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature. September 2009. Vol 461. 472-475.

Monday, 10/4
Topics: Soil respiration experiments, continued
Reading:

  • Hillel, Daniel, Cynthia Rosenzweig. Research Roundup: Soil and Carbon Climate Change. CSA News. June 2009. Vol 54. 4-11.

Wednesday, 10/6
Topics:Jatropha as a biofuel source for developing Countries

Reading:

  • The little shrub that could - maybe. Nature. October 2007. Vol 449. 652-655.
  • The Jatropha Stove Project (JSP) Web-site
  • Lark, Tyler. Jatropha as a biofuel source for developing countries. Powerpoint Presentation. October 6th, 2010.

Monday, 10/11
Topics: Global energy and bioenergy flows: mapping energy and biofuel use

Reading: For the UN IPCC chapter on "Energy Supply" (below) read: sections 4.1, the introduction to 4.2, and 4.3.3.3. Make sure you consider Figures 4.4 and 4.14.

  • R.E.H. Sims, R.N. Schock, A. Adegbululgbe, J. Fenhann, I. Konstantinaviciute, W. Moomaw, H.B. Nimir, B. Schlamadinger, J. Torres-Martínez, C. Turner, Y. Uchiyama, S.J.V. Vuori, N. Wamukonya, X. Zhang, 2007: Energy supply. In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
  • Global Energy Flows: PowerPoint

Wednesday, 10/13
Topics: Midterm Exam

Monday, 10/18
Topics: Life Cycle Assessment: Excel Modeling Activity
Reading:

Wednesday, 10/20
Topics: Biofuel production systems

Reading:

  • Dale, Bruce and George Huber, Grassoline at the Pump. Scientific American. July 2009. 52-59.

Monday, 10/25
Topics: Cellulase lab and enzyme biochemistry

Reading:

Wednesday, 10/27
Topics: Plant cell wall structure, improving plants for biofuels biomass, introduction to bioprospecting activity

Reading:

Monday, 11/1
Topics: Cellulase lab, with bioprospecting material

Reading:

Wednesday, 11/3
Topics: Tours of GLBRC Microbial Synthetic Biology (MiSynBio) lab and the Cameron Currie lab (leaf-cutter ants and associated microbes)

Monday, 11/8
Topics: Cellobiase activity in microbial extracts lab

Reading:

Wednesday, 11/10
Topics: Guest: Steve Slater, GLBRC Science Programs Manager, "Life-cycle analysis for assessing environmental impacts"

Reading:

Monday, 11/15
Topics: Biotechnology, Synthetic Biology and Biofuels
Reading:

Wednesday, 11/17
Topics: Synthetic Biology and Biofuels

Reading:

Monday, 11/22
Topics: Socio-political aspects of biofuels.

Reading:

Wednesday, 11/24
Topics: No class.

Reading:

Monday, 11/29
Topic: LCA comparison of biodiesel verses corn (grain) ethanol biofuels. Guest: Julie Sinistore, PhD candidate in Biological Systems Engineering

Reading:

Wednesday, 12/1
Topics: Bioenergy, and water use and quality

Reading:

Monday, 12/6
Topics: Land use change related to biofuel cropping systems
Reading:

  • Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt, Fargione et al, Feb 7, 2008, Science

Wednesday, 12/8
Topics: Scale and distribution of abandoned agricultural lands

Reading:

  • Biomass energy: the scale of the potential resource, Field et al, 2007.

Monday, 12/13
Topics: Student presentations


Wednesday, 12/15
Topics: Student presentations