Assessment of Conversion Technologies for Bioalcohol Fuel ...

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SECTION 1 - ALCOHOL FUELS AS BIOENERGY OPTIONS Figure 1 is a simplified illustration of the technology options available for energy production from biomass (bioenergy pathways). Biofuels represent some of the most attractive of these pathways, since they represent effective means of supplying liquid transportation fuels from renewable resources. Some of the same biomass feedstocks applicable to biofuel conversion processes can also be used for electricity (biopower) generation, as well as for production of food products, animal feed and various other beneficial products or byproducts. Of the biofuel options, alcohol fuels offer the most proven and practicable alternative for the gasoline market, which accounts for threefourths of on-road fuel usage, and over one-half of all transportation energy use in the U.S. Figure 1 - Potential Biofuel and Bioenergy Pathways Biomass Resource Transportation, Preparation and Handling Technology Platform Fuels/ Products Forest & Agricultural Residues Thermochemical Bio-Diesel Bio-Alcohols Municipal Solid Waste Energy Crops Biochemical Direct Combustion Chemicals Drugs Materials Electricity & Heat This study examines the pathways for the two principal technological approaches (or “technology platforms”) under development for producing ethanol and other bioalcohols, including mixed alcohols, from cellulosic biomass feedstocks. Cellulose is the primary material that makes up the cell walls of plants, and is the raw material for many manufactured goods, such as paper, cellophane, and fabrics like rayon. Using either biochemical or thermochemical processes, cellulosic materials–derived either from various types of agricultural, forestry or municipal wastes and residues, or from many different types of cultivated energy crops–can undergo conversion to ethanol and other bioalcohols. However, unlike conventional processes producing ethanol 6
from corn, sugarcane and other sugar and starch crops and residues, none of the processes for producing alcohol fuels from cellulosic feedstocks are yet commercially applied. This study was undertaken to identify, review and evaluate the technologies currently under development for production of bioalcohols from cellulosic feedstocks. Categorization of Biomass Conversion Technologies An estimated 450 organizations worldwide have developed technologies for the conversion of biomass to biopower and/or biofuels. These technologies, summarized in Tables 1 and 2, utilize either thermochemical or biochemical processes, or integrations of both. Table 1 includes six categories of thermochemical processes (I- VI), four categories of biochemical processes (VII-X), and two categories of integrated processes (XI-XII). Table 2 includes three additional processes (XIII-XV) that apply biogas, such as landfill gas, wastewater treatment plant digester gas, or animal manure-derived gas, for bioenergy production. Table 1 lists six categories of thermochemical processes for the conversion of renewable biomass to biofuels and/or biopower. Of these, Categories I-III includes the technologies most relevant for this study–namely, those designed for bioalcohol production. These processes produce a synthetic gas (syngas) via gasification or pyrolysis, which can then be used to produce alcohols in a catalytic process. Category IV technologies produce a crude, unrefined biofuel. The refining of this crude biofuel to produce an alcohol would require costly refining processes, thus eliminating this approach for the production of bioalcohols. The Category V and VI technologies produce biopower and/or heat and not fuels, and therefore are not examined further in this report, other than included for purposes of comparison with bioalcohol production technologies in a later section of the report. The thermochemical conversion processes that incorporate air or oxygen (Category II- VI technologies) typically produce syngas that has a low BTU value ( $1 billion plants) of electricity, fuels and chemicals from fossil-based feedstocks, these technologies appear less viable for alcohol fuel production, and for smaller-scale production plants (200-1,000 BTD/day). Thus, Category I technologies, employing pyrolysis/steam reforming processes (no oxygen or air); appear to be the most promising thermochemical approach for producing alcohol fuels from biomass. Table 1 lists four categories of biochemical processes for producing fuels from biomass. These processes employ anaerobic digestion to produce methane (Category VII), chemical and physical methods to produce sugars from cellulosic materials (Category VIII), enzymes to produce sugars from cellulosic materials (Category IX), or a variety of microbiological processes to produce methane, alcohols 7
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 and 10: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provi
Page 11: distributed production of bioalcoho
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
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SECTION 11 - REFERENCES Barrett, J.
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Collaborative, California Energy Co
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CATEGORY 1-THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
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and CO at the compression stage. Th
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Range Fuels, Inc., Denver, Colorado
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CATEGORY II-THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSE
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Figure A4. Enerkem Process Diagram
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The slag leaves the gasifier and is
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Figure A6. Thermogenics, Inc., Tech
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CATEGORY VIII-BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
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Figure A8. BlueFire Arkenol Technol
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Figure A9. BEI Process Celunol Corp
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support systems and using the conve
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several years ago, HFTA has been wi
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Figure A11. Losonoco Wood-to-Ethano
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OxyNol process. TVA is decommission
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Technology Characteristics-The biom
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Figure A14. PEC Biomass-to-Ethanol
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CATEGORY IX - BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
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Richland Washington, with U.S. DOE
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construction of which could begin i
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Figure A16. Iogen Biomass-to-Ethano
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commercialize a biomass-to-ethanol
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developed by CBE, is used to separa
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Figure A19. DuPont Process BioGasol
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Technology Characteristics-The Swan
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CATEGORY X-OTHER BIOLOGICAL PROCESS
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CATEGORY XI-INTEGRATED BIOREFINERY
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CATEGORY XII-FERMENTATION OF SYNGAS
Page 123 and 124:
APPENDIX 2. CALIFORNIA ETHANOL PROD
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Proposed Advanced Technology (Cellu
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