By John Addison. Scientists know how to make fuel from prairie grasses growing on marginal land. They know how to make fuel from fast growing trees with root systems that extend 25 feet into the ground, sequestering carbon emissions and enriching the soil. They even know how to make fuel from algae. They do all this in their labs every day. The problem is making cellulosic and algal fuel in large quantities at costs that compete with fuels from petroleum such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
This is my second article (previous article) from the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals sponsored by NREL. 800 global bioscientists gathered in San Francisco to share their research and showcase their progress.
Their progress with biofuels from cellulosic sources is important. Some corn ethanol plants have closed. Once promising corporations, such as VeraSun, are now bankrupt. Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for fuel-from-food are being scrutinized. Industry would benefit from biomass that can be grown at much higher yields per acre than corn. Industries such as agriculture, wood, and paper would benefit from making money from waste and from having added revenue sources.
At the conference, Verenium (VRNM) shared their progress. In Jennings, Louisiana, they are producing 1.4 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol. The fuel can be mixed up to 10 percent with our current gasoline, saving us from needing almost 1.4 million gallons of foreign oil each year. Some might be delivered as E85. Instead of using corn, which requires high inputs of energy, nitrogen, fertilizer, and water to produce, Verenium is using a crop that produces eight times the energy required to process it – energy cane, a hybrid of sugar cane optimized as a fuel source not a food source.
Sugarcane and energy cane are part of Brazil’s energy independence, being the source of over 40 percent of their fuel. Now energy cane is being grown in some of the more tropical places in the United States. At a time when project financing is difficult, major partners are critical to financing larger commercial plants. In a joint-venture with BP, Verenium plans to build a 36 million gallon per year plant in Florida.
Dr. Stuart Thomas with DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (DD, DNSCY.PK) outlined their plans to bring a 20 million gallon per year plant on line in 2012. They are evaluating non-food feedstocks with much higher yields per acre than corn, including switchgrass and sorghum. DuPont Danisco anticipates reaching parity with $60 to $100/barrel oil by 2015. The pilot plant will be in Tennessee which is providing $70 million of funding for ethanol from switchgrass.
The long-term potential for biofuels may not be in ethanol, but in renewable gasoline, biodiesel, bio-jet fuel, and biocrude. All contain more energy than ethanol, which only delivers 84,000 BTU/gallon. Gasoline delivers 114,000; biodiesel 120,000.
With better microbes and fewer process steps, Chief scientist Dr. Steve del Cardayre with LS9, presented plans to produce industry standard biodiesel from energy cane. The plant should be able to compete with oil at today’s prices by also producing other valuable outputs, such as chemicals which can be used to make detergents. Synthetic biology competitor, Amyris, is moving even faster in building process plants to convert energy cane into renewable hydrocarbons and bio-jet fuel.
Indeed, creating multiple products from a process plant is likely to be critical to having a profitable industry. Oil refining is profitable because fractional distillation creates many valuable products at one refiner:
· Naphtha which can be processed into chemicals and plastics
· Gasoline
· Jet fuel
· Diesel
· Heavy oils which can be processed into lubricants and asphalt
Gevo will build plants with mass efficiency of over 40 percent that can produce multiple products including:
· Bio-jet fuel
· Bio-diesel
· Isobutanol for other products
Gevo sees opportunities to buy existing moth-balled ethanol plants and retrofit for $30 million per plant, a fraction of building a cellulosic plant from scratch. Gevo’s yeast fermentation process produces heat and steam which would be valuable if co-located with industrial processes that benefit from combined heat and power.
By converting wood waste to next generation fuel, Mascoma has a significant potential to co-locate with existing paper mills and wood processing operations. The same is true for Range Fuels.
Enerkem is being paid to covert municipal solid waste into fuel as it targets 2011 to bring live a 9.6 million gallon per year plant in Edmonton, Canada, and a 20 million gallon per year plant in Pontotoc, Mississippi.
Beyond the cellulosic sources for fuel, covered in this article, is the potential for fuel from algae. A future article will examine the near-term challenges and long-term potential of algal fuel.
As this Symposium took place in California, in Copenhagen, Greenpeace protesters stopped all buses because they use biofuel from food sources. In the future, they may welcome biofuel from wood and waste sources as an alternative to gasoline from tar sands and jet fuel from coal.
This December, the leaders of the world will gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, to develop a framework for a more promising sustainable future. In Denmark they will be able to visit a new cellulosic ethanol plant developed by Inbicon. The feedstock will be an agricultural waste product - wheat straw. The plant will process 24 metric tons per day of wheat straw, ten times more than a demonstration plant that Inbicon only a few years ago. The plant will be more efficient and come closer to competing with refined oil because the operation will have three products creating three revenue streams:
1. 5.4 million liters ethanol year
2. 8,250 MT biofuel which will displace some coal used by a power plant
3. 11,250 MT of molasses which will be used to feed cattle
Can such operations displace all our need for petroleum? No, but in five years we will see commercial scale next generation biofuel operations. If oil is selling for $100 dollar per barrel, then cellulosic biofuels may lower our cost of fuel. In ten years, all such operations could displace 20 percent of our petroleum use and represent an important step towards energy independence.
Cellulosic ethanol is not the only sustainable solution that world leaders will see in Copenhagen. They will see at least 40 percent of the population commuting on bicycles, demonstrating an immediate and very cost-effective way to reduce our need for oil. Many delegates will ride on electric light-rail from the airport and notice the wind farms that deliver the electricity. Some will ride in electric cars that further demonstrate transportation that uses renewable energy.
Next generation biofuels promise to be part of a portfolio of solutions to our current climate and energy problems.
John Addison publishes the Clean Fleet Report and speaks at conferences. He is the author of the new book - Save Gas, Save the Planet - now selling at Amazon and other booksellers.
As with conventionalpower plants
CENTROSOLAR AG NORDEX AG KONV. As with conventionalpower plants, the steam is utilized in turbine to generate power, and byintegrating thermal storage, this power can be supplied on demand. The new shares bear profitshareentitlement for the past financial year 20062007. The capital increase is to secure the required capital base for SolarMillenniums growth strategy. No publicoffering of the securities will be made in the United States of America. About Solar Millennium AGSolar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is globally active company in therenewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar thermal power plants.
Die Artikel stellen weder Kauf bzw. It is notan offer to sell and not request to purchase Solar Millennium AGsecurities. This report is not directed at residents of the United States of America. About Solar Millennium AGSolar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is globally active company in therenewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar thermal power plants round the clock 1424DGAPNews Solar Millennium AG conducts cash capital increaseSolar Millennium AG Capital Increase15. 02. 2008 Release of Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP company of EquityStory AG.
In Spain, Solar Millennium developedEuropes first ever parabolic trough power plants, two of which are alreadyunder construction. In order topromote internationalization, the company shall also intensify projectdevelopments in other countries in the earths Belt. To expand its technological lead, the proceeds from the capital increasewill be also used for research and development activities for the furtheroptimization of the parabolic trough technology. No publicoffering of the securities will be made in the United States of America.
The company is also developing solar chimney powerplants, with the aim of making this technology ready for the market. Disclaimer wallstreetonline bietet Redakteuren, Agenturen und Unternehmen die Mglichkeit, Kommentare, Analysen und Nachrichten auf www. wallstreetonline. de zu verffentlichen. Fr diese Inhalte bernimmt die wallstreetonline AG weder Haftung noch Gewhr. In parabolic trough power plant, troughshapedmirrors concentrate the suns rays onto pipe in the focal line of thecollector. It is notan offer to sell and not request to purchase Solar Millennium AGsecurities. This report is not directed at residents of the United States of America.
Die Artikel stellen weder Kauf bzw. The issuingproceeds will be used to finance further expansion under the currentbusiness model. This capital increase is the first since the company was listed on thestock market in Dies gilt insbesondere fr unvollstndige oder falsch wiedergegebene Meldungen, falsche Kursangaben und redaktionelle Versehen. The aim is to strengthen its position in existingmarkets and allow entry into further markets. mal gelesen 0850DGAPNews Solar Millennium AG Energy Globe Awards zeichnen Solar Millennium fr Sven MoormannTel. In Spain, Solar Millennium developedEuropes first ever parabolic trough power plants, two of which are alreadyunder construction.
Tags: steam
Its time to look at them and see
If there is no oxygen, or too little, it leans the fuel mixture, lowering the fuelair ratio. France seems to have found ways to deal with their waste problems reprocessing, which for some reason, while viable there, is banned in the Therefore smaller and thus economicaly efficiant generation methods that feed users close to the source are the cheapest option even if many more power units have to be built. is one of their methods. Nuclear power stations just dont stack up when that is the important of all reducing the NEED for electricity.
It has to do this to account for differences in air pressure due to weather and location. In fact, it can be done VERY simply. am glad to read about the battery project. One who is willing to do all the processing to every possible shred of good from the coal is needed. And human errors ie Japan are rare, but possibile, its just matter of time.I am absolutely sure that quote of nuclear waste, due to the high costs to secure it, finishes under the oceans. It is completely unnecessary.
It has to do this to account for differences in air pressure due to weather and location. First it was our streams and our wells. You think they care? No they wont even acknowledge what theyve done. Its all about the money. It means that Im conservative and truly want to find market solution to this problem. Its politics. Indeed, for Big Coal, the game is not to prove that carbon capture and storage is viable technology. We can have war in Iraq without sacrifice.
Currently, the biggest drawback to electric cars is the fact that its waste heat has to be got rid of and currently that means vast ponds of superheated water from the steam generated for electricity turbines which have detrimental affect on surrounding climatology and water systems and land use. We can have war in Iraq without sacrifice. cannot drive my kids from North Carolina to Los Angeles with an Electric car. They have the numbers, rather conjecture.
If we were to have turbine system under the cars, on all wheels or at least close to them, we could use that generation system to generate some recoverable energy and possibly allow an electric car to go further without recharging. Another possible option is to make the batteries standard sizeshape with standard connectors. The comment above, recommending the writings of the Rocky Mountain Institute and its cofounder, Amory Lovins is right on.
Related Blogs
Tags:
batteries,
coal,
electric cars,
steam
By contrast biomass gasification for methane
Ethanol distillation to anhydrous form consumes lot of energy, and at too low temperatures for the waste heat in this process to be recycled by steam turbine for electrical generation at above 40 thermal efficiency. Why not built cars that can run on both gasoline and renewable methane from waste biomass gasification?
Ethanol distillation to anhydrous form consumes lot of energy, and at too low temperatures for the waste heat in this process to be recycled by steam turbine for electrical generation at above 40 thermal efficiency.
Ethanol distillation to anhydrous form consumes lot of energy, and at too low temperatures for the waste heat in this process to be recycled by steam turbine for electrical generation at above 40 thermal efficiency. Why not built cars that can run on both gasoline and renewable methane from waste biomass gasification? Ethanol production consumes too much energy, labor fertilizer and valuable arable land.
Related Blogs
Tags:
Biomass,
ethanol,
steam
Some of it is just stuff lyingaround
By replanting the crops, the new plants can use the CO2 produced by the burned plants. So using biomass and replanting helps close the carbon dioxide cycle. Dept of Energy www. eren. doe. govbiopower California Biomass Energy Alliance www. calbiomass. org National Renewable Energy Laboratory The trucks bring the waste from factoriesand from farms to biomass power plant. All rights reserved. Chapter 10 Biomass Energy Biomass is matter usually thought of as garbage. It can even include used tires and livestockmanure. This gas can be burned right at the farm to makeenergy to run the farm. Thats enough energy to make electricity for about two millionhomes!
This stuff nobody seems to want can be used to produce electricity,
Pipelines are put intothe landfills and the methane gas can be burned right at the landfill withburning waster products. Chapter 10 Biomass Energy Biomass is matter usually thought of as garbage. DO NOT click on this is youre using regular modem. The heat is used toboil water in the boiler, and the energy in the steam is used to turn turbines andgenerators see Chapter 8. Privacy Info It is also renewable resource because plants to make biomass can be grown over and over. When manuredecomposes, it also gives off methane gas similar togarbage.
Recycling biomass forfuel and other uses cuts down on the need for landfills to hold garbage. similar thing can be done at animal feed lots. Links Find It News Using biomass can help reduce global warming compared to fossil fuelpowered plant. When manuredecomposes, it also gives off methane gas similar togarbage. CLICK HERE TO SEE FLASH MOVIEOF HOW BIOMASS POWER WORKS…This file is VERY large. CO2 stored in the plant is released when the plant material is burned or decays. California produces more than million bone dry tons of biomass each year.
Some of it is just stuff lyingaround dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, leftover crops, wood chips like in the picture to the right, and barkand sawdust from lumber mills. This gas can be collected. Contact Us Your trash contains some types of biomass that can be reused. new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. One way is to produce ethanol, liquid alcohol fuel.
Related Blogs
Tags:
Biomass,
ethanol,
oil,
recycling,
steam
