也许将来有一天，你的汽车燃料来自草木植物。

根据美国能源部（Department of Energy）的一项计划，美国四个研究中心正在进行这一探索，旨在开发能将植物——如柳枝稷、杨树或蜀黍——转化成生物燃料的技术。这项研究有可能不仅为美国，而且为世界带来更好的能源保障和食品保障。

这些植物可在土壤质量有限的地方生长。它们不是粮食作物，因此用它们作燃料不会影响粮食供应。

美国能源部部长里克·佩里（Rick Perry）说，“现代生物学革命为能源工业打开了广阔的新机会，进而开发和使用来自可持续生物资源的产品。”（英文）

下一个重要新事物

一项有潜力的新技术是，使用能够有效分解生物质并将其转化为能源产品的液体，进而简化生物燃料的提炼过程。它将通过一个步骤——而不是成本高昂的多步骤程序，将最可取的植物原料与恰当的化学酶液体相配。

布雷克·西蒙斯（Blake Simmons）是劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室（Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory）的合作研究中心“联合生物能源研究所”（Joint BioEnergy Institute）的首席科技官员。他说，“我们把这叫做一盆子技术”。他说，这将是一项低成本的简便技术，并说，“我认为这将是下一个重大新鲜事物”。“基本就是，你走到一个大罐前，向里面扔一棵杨树，过一个星期回来，你的车就可以加油了。”

能具规模吗？

将植物中的碳元素转化为生物燃料和其他生物产品是第一步。下一步目标是要把这项技术推向市场。西蒙斯说，“我们正在努力打开碳转化的闸门……然后让它产生经济效益”。

联合生物能源研究所的科研人员已经证明，生物质碳转化可以以50公升的规模进行。下一步他们需要证明，这项技术能够被用在成千上万公升的大型商业运作中。

如果他们能实现这一点——并且显示有可能将其中主要成分回收循环使用，那么，这项技术将会使能源领域换新颜。

联合生物能源研究所推出过许多吸引投资者的新发明。目前这项研究得到了加州大学伯克利分校（University of California at Berkeley）的“清洁技术走向市场“（Cleantech to Market）项目的协助。该项目负责评估创新产品的商业可行性。

其他三个生物能源研究中心也在研发生物质材料的生物燃料和生物产品，并致力于将它们推向市场应用：

• 由威斯康星大学—麦迪逊分校（University of Wisconsin-Madison）和密歇根州立大学（Michigan State University）主导的五大湖生物能源研究中心（ Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center）。

• 由橡树岭国家实验室（Oak Ridge National Laboratory）主导的生物能源创新中心（Center for Bioenergy Innovation）。

• 由伊利诺伊大学—厄巴纳-香槟分校（University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign）主导的最新成立的先进生物能源和生物产品创新中心（Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation）。

四个研究中心均与全国各地的高等院校和实验室展开合作。这项努力的成功不仅将会打开一条新的能源出路，而且也会开辟一条新的能源就业之路。

One day, your car may be running on energy produced by grasses or trees.

Four U.S. research centers are looking into this possibility as part of a Department of Energy initiative. The centers are developing technologies that can turn certain plants — such as switchgrass, poplar or sorghum — into biofuels. The research could contribute to energy security and food security not only in the United States, but worldwide.

The plants can grow on marginal lands. And, because they are not food crops, turning them into biofuel won’t harm the food supply.

“The revolution of modern biology has opened up vast new opportunities for the energy industry to develop and utilize products derived from biomass as a sustainable resource,” U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says.

The next big thing

One promising technology simplifies the biofuel refining process by using liquids that efficiently break down biomass and convert it to usable energy products, eliminating costly multiple steps. In just one step, the best plant resource is matched with the right liquid chemicals or enzymes.

“We call them them one-pot technologies,” says Blake Simmons, chief science and technology officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a research center in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“I think that’s the next big thing,” Simmons says, touting the technology’s low cost and simplicity. “Basically, you walk up to a tank, you throw in a poplar tree, go away for a week, and you come back and fill up your car.”

Can it scale?

Converting the carbon in plants into biofuels and other bioproducts is the first goal. The next will be to bring the technology to market. “We are trying to open up the floodgates to carbon conversion … and then transfer that into an economic benefit,” Simmons says.

JBEI scientists have shown that carbon conversion from biomass can be done at 50 liters of scale of operation. The researchers next need to demonstrate that the process can work on a commercial level, which would involve hundreds of thousands of liters.

If they can do that — and also show that it is possible to reuse and recycle the primary components — the technology will be a game-changer.

JBEI has a track record of developing innovations that attract investors. The institute receives help in this from the University of California at Berkeley’s Cleantech to Market program, which evaluates products’ commercial viability.

Three other bioenergy research centers are working to create biofuels and bioproducts from biomass and to make the products commercially available:

• The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University.

• The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

• The Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is the newest center.

All four centers collaborate with universities and laboratories across the country. Success will open new avenues for energy jobs — along with access to innovative energy solutions.