Using small hardwood logs to produce liquid fuels and electricity

The production of larger high-value sawlogs from native forests or plantations requires removal of smaller and defective stems by thinning. This provides space for residual stems to grow into larger high-value forest products. An acceptable return on investment from growing hardwoods in plantations requires that some value is returned from thinned wood. Thus new markets are needed for small-diameter hardwood forest products. The production of fuel and energy from woody biomass offers one such opportunity. The potential value added by converting wood to high-energy liquid fuels such as petroleum or aviation fuel and the prospect of diminishing mineral oil supplies justifies research in this field. The Fischer Tropsch (FT) synthesis appears to offer substantial advantages in the capacity to break down biomass by thermal decay and chemical reformation to form a range of high energy/value fuels. In addition, these processes are exothermic, and create opportunities to produce process heat, electricity and fuels concurrently. The returns on electricity production are optimised where fuel costs are low and where the electricity produced can be used to displace retail purchasing (self-supply). The costs of harvest and transport of biomass prevent profitable production of electricity and sale at wholesale prices. The primary research goal relating to the development of biomass to fuel and electricity production is the adaption of known processes to scales dictated by biomass supplies. However, to self-supply and disconnect from the national grid implies that power plants must incorporate redundancy so energy supply can be secured. This must be achieved within acceptable capital cost limits

In depth metagenomic analysis in contrasting oil wells reveals syntrophic bacterial and archaeal associations for oil biodegradation in petroleum reservoirs

Microbial biodegradation of hydrocarbons in petroleum reservoirs has major consequences in the petroleum value and quality. The identification of microorganisms capable of in-situ degradation of hydrocarbons under the reservoir conditions is crucial to understand microbial roles in hydrocarbon transformation and the impact of oil exploration and production on energy resources. The aim of this study was to profile the metagenome of microbial communities in crude oils and associated formation water from two high temperature and relatively saline oil-production wells, where one has been subjected to water flooding (BA-2) and the other one is considered pristine (BA-1). The microbiome was studied in the fluids using shotgun metagenome sequencing. Distinct microbial compositions were revealed when comparing pristine and water flooded oil wells in contrast to the similar community structures observed between the aqueous and oil fluids from the same well (BA-2). The equal proportion of archaea and bacteria together with the greater anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation potential in the BA-1 pristine but degraded reservoir contrasted with the predominance of bacteria over archaea, aerobic pathways and lower frequency of anaerobic degradation genes in the BA-2 water flooded undegraded well. Our results suggest that Syntrophus, Syntrophomonas, candidatus Atribacteria and Synergistia, in association with mainly acetoclastic methanogenic archaea of the genus Methanothrix, were collectively responsible for the oil biodegradation observed in the pristine petroleum well BA-1. Conversely, the microbial composition of the water flooded oil well BA-2 was mainly dominated by the fast-growing and putatively aerobic opportunists Marinobacter and Marinobacterium. This presumable allochthonous community introduced a greater metabolic versatility, although oil biodegradation has not been detected hitherto perhaps due to in-reservoir unfavorable physicochemical conditions. These findings provide a better understanding of the petroleum reservoir microbiomes and their potential roles in biogeochemical processes occurring in environments with different geological and oil recovery histories715FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP2011/14501-6; 2013/08293-