Uses of plants in the future

David S. Seigler
Department of Plant Biology
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA

seigler@life.illinois.edu
http://www.life.illinois.edu/seigler

 UsesofplantsinthefutureOutline
Crop improvement
Loss of genetic variation and gene
sources
Expanding agriculture
Fossil fuels
Plants as chemical precursors
Plants as fuels
o Methanol
o Ethanol
o Methane
o Seed oils

 Reading

CHAPTER 19 IN THE TEXT, 458

ff.

 Introduction

Plants are renewable

resources. Can plant
resources support increasing
population in the future?
Will we have sufficient plant
diversity to choose new crops
or to improve present day
ones?

 Over half the world's population is
inadequately fed.
The average American consumes about
5 pounds of grain per day. About
80% of this is fed to animals.
In many underdeveloped countries,
individuals consume about 1 pound
of grain daily, mostly directly.
The problem is complex. There is
already enough food produced to
feed everyone.
Our farming methods are not
applicable in most of the world.

 Bettercrops
Yields can be improved greatly in
many cases by selection of better
cultivars. There is resistance to
change in cultivars by farmers.
Another problem is the loss of
"land races" and hence genetic
variation however.
See p. 465. Changes in human
population and food production.
The major problem is that all this
so far has just barely kept pace
with human population growth.

 TheGreenRevolution

In the 1960s, wheat varieties were

selected that could grow well in
humid tropics. They were widely
planted in India.
For several years, production
increased markedly and India even
began exporting wheat.
Then the population increase
caught up. Now India is back in
the importing category again.

 A similar thing happened with rice.
Shorter cultivars of rice that
matured more rapidly permitting the
farmers to grow more crops per year
were developed.
Most tropical crop plants are
relatively unselected and probably
yields could be improved
dramatically.
Will all this solve the problem?
See p. 459.

 Genetic variability

People are gradually depending on

fewer and fewer crops.
Further, they are cultivating fewer
and fewer types of these crops.
Wild forms are, in many cases, even
eradicated to prevent them from
crossing with the cultivated forms.

 Almost all hybrid corns in
the U.S. come from selections
made by one family in the
1840's and 1850's.
Almost all hard red wheat
comes from a hybrid cross
made in Canada about 1900.

 The same is true for many other
crop plants.
All of these things can lead to
disastrous problems with
monocultures.
This happened with the southern
leaf blight of corn in the early
1970's.

 Gene banks
Gene banks have been established for
many of the major crops.
However, many tropical crops are
still not included.
The quality of preservation in these
gene banks also varies widely. We are
just now learning how to preserve and
maintain seeds for long periods of
time.
The seeds must periodically be taken
out and grown. Care must be given to
prevent any hybridization with nearby
similar plants.

 New ways of making plant
variation

Many of these methods involve

plant tissue culture. This is
especially useful for plants that
are reproduced vegetatively.
Somatic mutations may be created.
Protoplast fusion can also be
used.
Genetic engineering.

 Expanding agriculture
Agriculture can possibly be expanded
into areas that are presently too
cold, too dry, or too saline.
Some crop plants already have been
grown in many cases and may well be
adaptable.
Knowledge of minor crops may be
useful in this regard.
Many areas used for expanded farming
are not appropriate for agriculture.
As tropical forests are destroyed,
many species will be lost.

 There are very limited potential
sources of arable lands.
We dont know all the long term
effects of forest destruction,
but they don't look positive.

 Dependence on fossil fuels

Although our system of farming

appears to work well, we are
heavily dependent on fossil fuels
(petroleum, natural gas and coal)
to make fertilizer, drive
tractors etc.
We put six times more energy into
farming than we get out.

 More energy efficient methods of
agriculture will almost certainly
have to be developed.
Some crops require much less
energy input than others.
This has led to reduced tillage
agriculture, which has its own
set of problems.

 There are also problems with
inappropriate use of pesticides,
herbicides, and genetically
modified crops.
Many of these problems will have
to be resolved in the future.
Naturally occurring compounds
from plants may provide a partial
solution.
Biological control will almost
certainly become more important.

 Uses of plants as chemical
precursors

Plant seed oils for diesel

Fermentation of plants for ethanol
Production of methanol.
Biomass is the total quantity of
organic
material produced.

 Fuel uses

Ultimately, all fuels come from

CO2 fixation by plants or solar
energy.
Methane: Biomass can be fermented
anaerobically to produce methane.
Methane is easy to transport and
use. The systems for delivery are
already largely in place.
Cellulose is probably the most
abundant organic compound.
Lignins are also very common.


 When dried, straw or wood has
only about half the energy
content of oil.
Sewage and animal wastes can
also be fermented to produce
methane.

 Some of the limits are the
cost and land area
requirements to grow the
crops.
Many schemes of this type
produce less energy than they
consume.

 Methanol

Destructive distillation of
wood and many other plant
materials produces methanol.
Methane can be converted by
steam reforming into methanol.
Methanol can be added to
gasoline or used directly.

 Ethanol
This is the most common approach.
In countries like Brazil, it's
fairly favorable. The cost and
land area to grow the crops is a
major limitation. Sugar, in some
cases from starch, is converted by
yeast into ethanol
The scheme is not new. Ethanol was
first used as a fuel in 1894.
Gasohol was first marketed about
1936 (8-10% ethanol). Almost all
U.S. gasoline contains about 5%
ethanol in any case.

 EthanolplantsintheU.S.

 In Brazil, in 1973, they began to
make EtOH in a big way.
They have abundant cassava and
sugar cane.
Hydrolysis of wood, bagasse,
straw, paper, cotton, to sugar is
a major problem. This can be done
by acid hydrolysis under pressure
or cellulase enzymes.
Sugar cane is one of the most
efficient plants. The materials
are already collected, but not all
are used.

 Generally alcohol is two to four
times more expensive than gasoline in
the U.S.
The Brazilians have improved sugar
cane yields, improved alcohol
production, and improved the yeasts.
Brazil has about everything going for
it: lots of land, little oil, adverse
balance of payments, rural
unemployment problems, and good
climate.

Productionofethanolfrombiomass

 Fuelcellsbasedonethanol

Switchgrass,Panicumvirgatum
MiscanthusXgiganteus


 Seed oils for fuel

These are already similar to diesel

fuels in many of their properties.
They can probably be used without
major work except for economics. They
will work in basically unaltered
diesel engines, but gums and waxes
must be removed. Antioxidants must
be added to prevent polymerization.
Mixing about 50:50 with diesel fuel
improves the properties quite a lot,
but viscosity is still a problem.

 Some farmers are already using
biodiesel because they can make it at
home. This involves conversion of
the fatty acids to methyl esters.
Sunflower oil is the most popular.
About 15-20% of the crop is needed to
provide energy to grow the next crop.
Sunflower oil costs about two times
more than diesel fuel. Peanut oil is
also usable. Soybean oil works, but
they are grown on more valuable farm
land and compete directly with corn
and wheat.

 Oils can also be isolated
from algae and fungi in
culture, but the costs of
culture are usually too high
to permit this to be a good
alternative.
As much as 70-80% of some
Candida species are oil.

 Sunflower, soybean, and
similar crops yield about 1
barrel per acre. Crambe,
peanut, safflower all yield
about 2 barrels per acre.
African oil palm yields about
7-10 barrels per acre.

 Other chemical precursors

Ricinoleic acid from castor

beans is used to make nylon.
Ricinoleic acid is converted to
an 11-carbon precursor which is
made into nylon in France.
Erucic acid is made into
plasticizers and lubricants as
well as nylon 13/3.
Jojoba oil is made into a
lubricant.