Assessment of Conversion Technologies for Bioalcohol Fuel ...

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technologies under development. This approach was used to generally evaluate some of the principal technologies under development, using information compiled from developers and from publicly available reports and publications. The profiles of active developers of cellulosic biomass-to-alcohol technologies are presented in Appendix I. 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides a perspective on the potential viability of various technological approaches for the production of alcohol fuels (bioalcohols) from renewable biomass (cellulosic) resources in California and the Western United States. Included is a historical review of several biomass-to-alcohol fuel projects that have been pursued in California. One reason such projects have yet to achieve commercial reality -- in California and elsewhere -- is that the principal conversion technologies underlying these ventures have not been adequately assessed for their scientific and engineering basis, energy efficiency, environmental impacts, economic viability, and socio-political effectiveness. Progress toward commercialization and deployment of such technologies requires more complete assessment of all these technology aspects, applying appropriate evaluation methodology to sufficient technical data. To address the above need,a “5E” assessment approach (Schuetzle, 2007) was developed and applied to evaluate the potential viability of technologies under active development for the production of bioalcohol fuels from cellulosic biomass. The components of this 5E assessment methodology are: E1–validation of technical performance and stage of development; E2–estimation of energy efficiency; E3– environmental impact assessment; E4–economic analysis; and E5–appraisal of socio-political effectiveness. Hundreds of organizations worldwide have engaged in the development of technologies for the conversion of biomass materials to bioenergy, including electricity and process heat as well as various biofuels. The report separates these bioenergy technologies into fifteen different categories based on the technology characteristics and type(s) of bioenergy produced. Those technologies designed to produce ethanol or other alcohols, either as primary or secondary products, were selected as the focus for further study. Organizations that have concentrated their efforts on the production of bioalcohols were specifically identified and information on these organizations and their technologies was gathered directly from them and/or from other various sources of published information. Results of the 5E assessment are provided generically for the technology categories where available data was found to be adequate to perform such an assessment. In many cases, technology developers have either not yet acquired some of this required data or keep this data confidential; thus the study does not comprise a complete or equally applied assessment of all candidate technologies. The report’s recommendations include further study needs in those cases where sufficient data for complete 5E assessment are not available. On the basis of this assessment approach, technologies are identified that appear to have the most promising potential applicability for the conversion of biomass resources to bioalcohols in California and the Western region. Of these, it is concluded that the thermochemical conversion technology with the highest probability for near-term success is an integrated pyrolysis/steam reforming process incorporating 3
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: INTRODUCTION The State of Californi
Page 11 and 12: distributed production of bioalcoho
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
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initial attractive application may
Page 65 and 66:
SECTION 11 - REFERENCES Barrett, J.
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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
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CATEGORY II-THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSE
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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
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Figure A8. BlueFire Arkenol Technol
Page 87 and 88:
Figure A9. BEI Process Celunol Corp
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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
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OxyNol process. TVA is decommission
Page 97 and 98:
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
Page 107 and 108:
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
Page 113 and 114:
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
Page 121 and 122:
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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