AUM professor's reactor could turn waste into energy

Auburn University Montgomery professor Dr. Ben Okeke, left, explains a biodiesel process for U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright, right, that makes fuel from fiber waste Monday in Montgomery. Okeke is seeking federal funds to expand the research. Bright was looking for a hands-on demonstration to help support the measure.

By: Brittany Whitley Staff Writer | Opelika Auburn News
Published: June 30, 2009

An Auburn University Montgomery professor is looking for funding for what he calls a “farm deployable microbial bioreactor,” a machine that turns waste, such as grass, paper and sawdust, into clean-burning ethanol and food for animals.

Dr. Ben Okeke, a professor of biology at AUM, presented the machine to U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright on Monday morning in hopes of acquiring the $1 million he needs to complete the research on the reactor.

Basically, the reactor works much like an old moonshine still. It turns nonfood plants and wastes to sugar, which is, in turn, fermented into ethanol.

“This is an all-in-one unit,” Okeke said. “We take readily available (sources) and turn it to clean-burning fuel.”

Bacterial microbes naturally break down plant matter and waste into sugar, Okeke said.

“We’re trying to do what the microbes do naturally,” he said.

In Alabama, there are 15 million tons of forest residues, such as wood chips and tree limbs, that could potentially be converted into about two billion gallons of fuel from this system.

Alabama uses three billion gallons of liquid fuel per year, he said.

“We would be able to almost offset the need for our fuel,” Bright said.

Unlike ethanol from corn, the ethanol retrieved from the waste products would not cause price inflation elsewhere. The price of corn went up when corn ethanol production began. “It has no impact on food,” Okeke said.

In addition to being a low-cost, effective fuel provider, the bioreactor also produces food stock (yeast) for farm animals and makes residue fiber that can burn in the machine to produce more ethanol.

“This technology could benefit the whole nation, in particular, rural areas,” Okeke said.

The technology works on a small scale, but funding is needed to take the system into a fully operation enterprise. Specifically, more sugar needs to be produced by the system to make it viable. “It still needs a lot of research to have large volumes,” he said.

Bright said the bioreactor will not solve all of the U.S.’s fuel problems, but it could be one piece of the puzzle.

“We’re going to need a variety of different sources (of energy),” Bright said. “I will, hopefully, be able to influence (lawmakers) and get some appropriations for Dr. Okeke. We can become less dependent of foreign fossil fuel.”