"Endless" Biofuels Proving Themselves on Land, Sea, Air
Neste Oil of Finland has produced award winning aviation biofuels, advanced biofuels for land vehicles, and is now participating in an extended marine fuels test by the Port Authority of Rotterdam.
Gevo, Inc., maker of bio-isobutanol, has submitted its advanced biofuel for testing by the National Marine Manufacturers Association as a blendstock with marine fuels -- to replace ethanol additive. It was found that isobutanol could be combined at higher levels with marine petro-fuels than ethanol, and did not suffer from phase separation when water entered the fuel system -- unlike ethanol. More details and links
Neste biofuels are hydrotreated and refined, producing an advanced high performing biofuel with superior burning characteristics to traditional biofuels, and significantly cleaner emissions than petro diesel. The Neste products can serve as a drop in replacement for land and air combustion engines, and are likely to serve as well for marine engines.
Other advanced biofuels -- such as isobutanol -- serve as additives to significantly extend petro-fuel supplies. Such extenders will have a significant effect on supplies and prices, over time, as production and distribution of the biofuels becomes more efficient at all stages in the new infrastructure.
Biofuels will be available in increasing supplies into the foreseeable future. The quality and quantity -- as well as versatility, affordability, and availability -- of these fuels will continue to improve.
Neste Oil, the Port of Rotterdam, and the Rotterdam Climate Initiative have launched a trial in which a Port Authority patrol boat will run for an extended period on Neste Oil's NExBTL renewable diesel. This will be the first time that NExBTL renewable diesel has been used in a marine environment. The pioneering trial, which is due to last a total of 1,000 hours, will measure the patrol boat's exhaust emissions and engine performance, and gather operational experience.
"The new trial launched by the Port of Rotterdam marks a new and positive step forward for Neste Oil," says Kaisa Hietala, Neste Oil's Vice President, Marketing. "Our NExBTL fuels have already shown what they are capable of in terms of performance and lower emissions on the road and in the air, and now we will have the opportunity to see how our renewable diesel performs in marine use as well." _Neste_via_GCC
Gevo, Inc., maker of bio-isobutanol, has submitted its advanced biofuel for testing by the National Marine Manufacturers Association as a blendstock with marine fuels -- to replace ethanol additive. It was found that isobutanol could be combined at higher levels with marine petro-fuels than ethanol, and did not suffer from phase separation when water entered the fuel system -- unlike ethanol. More details and links
Neste biofuels are hydrotreated and refined, producing an advanced high performing biofuel with superior burning characteristics to traditional biofuels, and significantly cleaner emissions than petro diesel. The Neste products can serve as a drop in replacement for land and air combustion engines, and are likely to serve as well for marine engines.
Other advanced biofuels -- such as isobutanol -- serve as additives to significantly extend petro-fuel supplies. Such extenders will have a significant effect on supplies and prices, over time, as production and distribution of the biofuels becomes more efficient at all stages in the new infrastructure.
Biofuels will be available in increasing supplies into the foreseeable future. The quality and quantity -- as well as versatility, affordability, and availability -- of these fuels will continue to improve.
Labels: biofuels
posted by al fin at
5:40 AM
3 Comments:
Climategate 2 begins.
Spotted at Climate Audit, The Air Vent....
What are your thoughts on cost of biofuels? It seems that biofuels have been proven to perform well in many applications, but the issue of cost seems to be the Achilles heel to me. What are the prospects of biofuels approaching a per gallon cost that's even remotely close to petroleum fuels? How long will it take to reach near parity?
I hate to strain a comparison, but it's seems a lot like Solyndra vs other solar panels: they had a technology that worked well technically, but it just couldn't match the cost of its competitors. And in that case, the cost difference wasn't as big as I suspect the cost difference between oil and biofuels is right now.
Convergence of costs can occur 3 ways: Either biofuels costs fall to the level of petrofuels, petrofuels rise to the level of biofuels, or the two fuels simultaneously converge.
Eventually, petrofuels will be too expensive to burn, because the demand for them will fall to levels so low that refinery output would be very limited.
Biomass production, on the other hand, is limited by how much CO2 we can obtain. CO2 is very scarce in the atmosphere, so we will have to obtain it some other way, to produce high volumes of affordable biomass.
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