FY2010 - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Seed Money Fund—
Energy and Transportation Science Division
martii, palmarosa; (7) cymbopogon flexuosus, “lemongrass” or “citral”; and (8) Dictamnus alba, anethole,
“burning bush.” Detailed chemistry was run on each of the extracts using gas chromatography (GC-MS).
The plant extracts were then blended at 20% levels (B20) in 2007 certification #2 ultralow-sulfur
petroleum diesel fuel and sent to an outside laboratory for property and chemistry determination per
ASTM D7467 (Standard Specification for Diesel Fuel Biodiesel Blend). None of the B20 blends passed
all of the ASTM requirements, failing one or more of the following: cetane (ignition behavior), flash point
(vapor safety), filter plugging, oxidation stability, and ash and residues.
Finally, the B20 blends were run in a single cylinder research engine at the National Transportation
Research Center to determine ignition, combustion, and emissions properties. Some of the B20 blends
provided worse performance than the #2 diesel fuel in the areas of fuel consumption and/or emission
levels of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, or smoke. However, three of the blends produced equivalent or
better performance than the base diesel fuel.
We attempted statistical correlation of these results, but the number of fuels was too small and the fuels
too diverse to uncover direct linkages between plant characteristic and fuels performance. Analysis is
continuing and will be used as a basis for future publications, proposals, and as part of a UTK PhD thesis.
Overall, the procedures developed proved to be useful for evaluating potential new fuels; we identified
and studied several new plant sources for biofuels; we now have a database of chemistry, properties, and
engine performance for these new fuels; and we established collaboration with UTK Plant Sciences for
future research and proposals.
Information Shared
Joyce, B. L., B. G. Bunting, S. L. Lewis, J. S. Choi, J. S. Storey, F. Chen, and C. N. Stewart. 2010. “Fuel
Properties of a Novel Plant-Based Biofuel from Copaifera Reticulate.” Poster presentation at
American Oil Chemists Society Annual Meeting, May.
05873
Computational Simulation of Catalytic Biomass Pyrolysis
C. Stuart Daw, Charles E. A. Finney, and Sreekanth Pannala
Project Description:
We are developing and demonstrating unique computational tools for simulating catalytic pyrolysis of
woody biomass with sufficient chemistry, kinetics, and multiphase hydrodynamics to interpret laboratoryand
pilot-scale data and evaluate potential barriers to commercial scale-up. Addition of catalytic materials
to biomass pyrolizers has been recognized as a promising step to reducing problematic tar products, but to
date there has been no development of comprehensive reactor models to interpret experiments or to aid in
scale-up of reactor designs. This project will utilize two computational codes to simulate catalytic
biomass pyrolysis reactors: MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges), a DOE-sponsored code
for general multiphase flow simulation, and a modified version of an ORNL-developed steady-state code
for fluidized bed combustion of coal. Both codes will need to be adapted for biomass chemistry, physical
properties and pyrolysis operating conditions and then compared with appropriate experimental data for
validation
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