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syngas to bioalcohol and electricity co-production systems. It is expected that the bioalcohols directly produced from these thermochemical processes will be comprised of an 80-85 % ethanol/10-15% methanol mix, with smaller percentages of other higher alcohols possibly present as well. Distillation can be employed to separate ethanol from such a mixed alcohol product if necessary. However, this adds to the costs, energy intensity and environmental impacts of the production facilities, and therefore is best avoided. Thus, steps to gain acceptance of mixed alcohol fuels by the automotive industry and regulatory agencies must also be pursued to fully realize the opportunity these technologies represent for bioalcohol fuel production. The 5E assessment indicates that the above thermochemical process will be capable of producing bioalcohols in facilities using as little as 250 dry tons (DT) per day of biomass at a production cost of less than $1.50/gallon. Furthermore, this process should be able to produce ethanol at an average of $1.12/gallon for a 500 DTPD plant. Improvements in this thermochemical technology have the potential of reducing ethanol production costs to below $1.00/gallon by 2012, where biomass feedstock can be supplied at $35/ DT. Other thermochemical conversion processes that incorporate air or oxygen typically produce syngas that has a low BTU value (
distributed production of bioalcohols and electricity. In addition, the thermochemical approach can be used for the conversion of nearly any biomass feedstocks. Several novel technologies have also been under development for the conversion of biomass to bioalcohols. These include processes that employ specially-developed organisms (e.g., bacteria or yeasts) to produce alcohols, some using shallow pond systems capturing solar energy, some using syngas from a gasification process. These are examples of potential future technologies that require further research and scientific validation before their ultimate potential can be determined. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced (February 2007) an investment of up to $385 million for the demonstration and deployment of six biorefinery projects incorporating both biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies in California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa and Kansas. The total investment in these six technologies is projected to total more than $1.2 billion over the next four years. The DOE grant program will provide a significant boost to the advancement of such conversion technologies. The technology developers represented by these six DOE grants (Abengoa, BRI, BlueFire, DuPont, Iogen, and Range Fuels) are among the 38 active technology developers profiled in Appendix I of this report. Additional opportunities are summarized for the commercialization of technologies in California and the Western United States for alcohol fuel production from biomass feedstocks. The impact of high energy prices, geopolitical uncertainty, the growing focus on clean energy technologies and concern about global climate change are driving substantial increases in funding from the public and private sectors. There has never before been such a wide-ranging opportunity for technological advancements in the area of renewable and clean fuels and electricity. Although U.S. government and private sector support has been increasing rapidly, much greater financial support for research, development, demonstration and deployment of renewable biomass to alcohol fuel and electricity production technologies will almost certainly be necessary to assure their commercial success. And, while the majority of active development projects identified by this study are in North America, growing interest in Asia, Europe and South America is also apparent. This suggests the likelihood of increasing worldwide competition for the lead in bioenergy technology development. 5
Page 1 and 2: Northern California Rice field Asse
Page 3 and 4: APPENDIX 1. TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPER PR
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF TABLES Table 1-Categories o
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION The State of Californi
Page 9: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provi
Page 13 and 14: from corn, sugarcane and other suga
Page 15 and 16: Table 1-Categories of Biomass Conve
Page 17 and 18: SECTION 2 - PAST CALIFORNIA BIOMASS
Page 19 and 20: the technological approach was too
Page 21 and 22: conversion technology at NREL, prep
Page 23 and 24: will use matching funds from the U.
Page 25 and 26: Report: Feasibility Study for Rice
Page 27 and 28: Environmental issues Market issues
Page 29 and 30: Presentation: Collins Pine Cogenera
Page 31 and 32: Syngas Production The thermochemica
Page 33 and 34: Alcohol Synthesis The direct synthe
Page 35 and 36: SECTION 4 - BIOCHEMICAL TECHNOLOGIE
Page 37 and 38: Feedstock Pretreatment There are a
Page 39 and 40: Achieving such cost reductions woul
Page 41 and 42: Another novel approach to bioalcoho
Page 43 and 44: have been run for a sufficient time
Page 45 and 46: concerns. This evaluation determine
Page 47 and 48: The data in Table 5 are based upon
Page 49 and 50: Thermochemical System (Electricity)
Page 51 and 52: SECTION 8 - OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALL
Page 53 and 54: For all of the biomass resource cat
Page 55 and 56: The above CEC and CBC inventories o
Page 57 and 58: Economic and Institutional Challeng
Page 59 and 60: SECTION 9 - GOVERNMENT ROLES AND IN
Page 61 and 62:
SECTION 10 - CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMM
Page 63 and 64:
initial attractive application may
Page 65 and 66:
SECTION 11 - REFERENCES Barrett, J.
Page 67 and 68:
Collaborative, California Energy Co
Page 69 and 70:
CATEGORY 1-THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
Page 71 and 72:
and CO at the compression stage. Th
Page 73 and 74:
Range Fuels, Inc., Denver, Colorado
Page 75 and 76:
CATEGORY II-THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSE
Page 77 and 78:
Figure A4. Enerkem Process Diagram
Page 79 and 80:
The slag leaves the gasifier and is
Page 81 and 82:
Figure A6. Thermogenics, Inc., Tech
Page 83 and 84:
CATEGORY VIII-BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
Page 85 and 86:
Figure A8. BlueFire Arkenol Technol
Page 87 and 88:
Figure A9. BEI Process Celunol Corp
Page 89 and 90:
support systems and using the conve
Page 91 and 92:
several years ago, HFTA has been wi
Page 93 and 94:
Figure A11. Losonoco Wood-to-Ethano
Page 95 and 96:
OxyNol process. TVA is decommission
Page 97 and 98:
Technology Characteristics-The biom
Page 99 and 100:
Figure A14. PEC Biomass-to-Ethanol
Page 101 and 102:
CATEGORY IX - BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
Page 103 and 104:
Richland Washington, with U.S. DOE
Page 105 and 106:
construction of which could begin i
Page 107 and 108:
Figure A16. Iogen Biomass-to-Ethano
Page 109 and 110:
commercialize a biomass-to-ethanol
Page 111 and 112:
developed by CBE, is used to separa
Page 113 and 114:
Figure A19. DuPont Process BioGasol
Page 115 and 116:
Technology Characteristics-The Swan
Page 117 and 118:
CATEGORY X-OTHER BIOLOGICAL PROCESS
Page 119 and 120:
CATEGORY XI-INTEGRATED BIOREFINERY
Page 121 and 122:
CATEGORY XII-FERMENTATION OF SYNGAS
Page 123 and 124:
APPENDIX 2. CALIFORNIA ETHANOL PROD
Page 125:
Proposed Advanced Technology (Cellu
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