Social Innovation in Biofuel Using Elephant Droppings

What if social innovation could create a solution to our dependency on petrol and create a biofuel out of...wait for it...elephant droppings! Would that not be revolutionary? Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological reduction of carbon dioxide to organic compounds by living organisms. Scientists have found a biochemical cocktail made from the enzymes and microorganisms found in elephant faeces and in rotting vegetable matter. This discovery has the potential to completely change biofuel production by making it possible to mass-produce eco-friendly gasoline for the first time without relying on food crops. American researchers have also found bacteria in the droppings of bamboo-chomping pandas which could be similarly effective in biofuel production.

Social innovation research shows the new technology, along with other second generation or '2G' biofuels, could produce up to 90 billion litres of bio-ethanol in Europe by 2020 and displace more than 60 per cent of conventional petrol use as well as reducing reliance on crops such as maize, which has been blamed for fuelling the global food crisis. Biofuels are gaining increased public and scientific attention, driven by factors such as oil price hikes, the need for increased energy security and concern over greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Therefore, the plans by a Dutch company, DSM who has signed deals to introduce its new fermenting technique in test plants across Europe and the US is heralded as good news.

However, environmentalists are sceptical about whether  it is possible to produce the hundreds of millions of tonnes of 'bio-mass' needed without encroaching on land used for food farming. Plus, scientists also feel there is a lack of political will across Europe to provide the support and subsidy for this large-scale social innovation production. Volkert Claassen, DSM's head of strategy in biotechnology, says, "From the technology point of view, we are very confident that this will work. We are at the point where we need to take this to a very different level. If you want to make these kinds of tremendous changes in the world, then you need the right political environment."

Researchers behind this social innovation technology believe that they are on to something that has a commercially viable method of production. When the elephant enzymes were combined with another enzyme found in an analysis of a compost heap in Switzerland, tests showed the resulting mixture could convert 90 per cent of biomass, such as wheat straw or maize stalks into ethanol. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form and so they have also found a way that converts vegetable matter previously considered to be unusable waste into ethanol. Bioethanol is widely used in the U.S. and Brazil, and could make a big difference to Europe's road transport fuel by 10 per cent by 2020.

Photo Credit: Ferdinand Reus on Flickr