Iowa Wants to be the Saudi Arabia of Advanced Biofuels

Iowa is a prolific producer of biomass. It has also long been a focus of innovative design and engineering.

Here is the basic plan devised by Iowa State University engineers:

The Iowa State idea calls for biomass to be transported to small, local fast pyrolysis plants that would convert crop biomass into liquid bio-oil. The bio-oil would be easily transported to bigger, regional facilities where it could be gasified and processed into transportation and boiler fuels.

First, biomass is fed into a fast pyrolysis machine where it's quickly heated without oxygen. The end product is a thick, brown oil that can be divided and further processed into fuels. Researchers sometimes describe bio-oil as densified biomass that's much easier to handle and transport than raw biomass.

Second, the bio-oil is sprayed into the top of the gasifier where heat and pressure vaporize it to produce a combination of (mostly) hydrogen and carbon monoxide that's called synthesis gas.

That gas can be processed into transportation fuels. It can also be used as boiler fuel to create the steam that turns turbines to produce electricity.

"We hope to be able to use cellulosic biomass as opposed to using corn grain for the production of fuels," said Robert C. Brown, the director of Iowa State's Bioeconomy Institute, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering. "This helps us move toward cellulosic biofuels." _PO

Iowa State's basic plan helps to solve some of the problems involved in converting biomass to advanced biofuels. But this approach will remain too expensive to compete with cheap natural gas for at least the next several years, if not the next few decades.

Even worse, the Iowa State plan does not address one of the biggest weaknesses in most biomass to biofuels approaches: The cost of collecting the biomass and bringing it together for preprocessing.

There are several viable alternatives to choose from, in solving that and other similar problems. But as long as natural gas remains cheap and readily available, it is unlikely that even the best of biomass to liquids approaches will be able to compete on a large and global scale.

Even so, these technologies should be perfected for many reasons: In geographically isolated regions and islands, hydrocarbon fuels can be extremely expensive. In such areas, advanced BTL may prove viable.

More, as scalable gas-cooled nuclear reactors become available, the cost of BTL will drop due to the availability of cheap, high temperature heat. Finally, natural gas costs are certain to rise sooner or later. It would be best to have your BTL technology ready for scaling up, when that happens.

Algae Biomass to Natural Gas Conversion 65% Yield

There are different ways that algae can be used to create fuels and chemicals. The conventional way that most people talk about -- the conversion of algal oils to fuels -- will not be perfected for roughly a decade or so. A much better and more timely way of converting algae to fuels, is via thermochemical conversion such as pyrolysis or gasification. Swiss Scientists are attempting to perfect one method of converting algal biomass to methane: catalytic hydrothermal gasification and methanation, or SunCHem, pictured below.

SunCHem Process of Catalytic Hydrothermal Gasification Methanation

Algae have one notable advantage over other sources of biomass: they "grow" much more rapidly. In favorable conditions, they can generate 30-55 tons of dry matter per hectare per year – five to ten times more than sources such as corn, soy, or sugar cane. "And above all, they can be cultivated without soil, simply in bioreactors exposed to sunlight, thus avoiding the use of fertile croplands that are needed for food production," Ludwig adds.

...The process presented this week, which goes by the name SunCHem, transforms the algal biomass into methane via catalytic hydrothermal gasification. "This device doesn't require any solvents and can use non-potable water," adds Mariluz Bagnoud, a scientist from EFPL's Environmental Engineering Institute. "In addition, the nutritive elements the algae need, such as phosphorus, are recycled in the process and re-injected into the culture medium. It is an important breakthrough because these resources are limited, too." Although the environmental impact is thus minimal, the yield is enormous: 60-70% of the potential energy of the biomass produced in these "photo-bioreactors" can be recuperated in the form of natural gas, with all the advantages that this represents in terms of transport and use – it can simply be injected into an existing gas distribution network. "We have examined the entire length of the chain, from the choice of algae type and how it's cultured to its transformation into natural gas, in order to identify the best solutions at every stage," explains Ludwig. "We're currently working on the regeneration of our ruthenium-based catalyzer." _Phys.org

Phys.org

The process depicted above is similar in many ways to the approach preferred by Al Fin bioenergy engineers: IH2 catalytic pyrolysis.

The biggest problem Al Fin analysts see with the SunCHem approach, is its plans to use expensive bioreactors, rather than much cheaper troughs or ponds. Growing algae for its biomass is much different than growing algae for its oil. With the biomass approach, you do not need to use expensive genetic engineering or maintain isolation of specific algal species. Instead, you are aiming for maximisation of biomass production, which may well occur with wild strains or mixed strains of algae.

Another problem with the process as pictured, is the dependency on methane to provide energy to the process. This parasitic use of methane to produce methane reduces yields and potential profits. Much better to find another, cheaper source of energy to drive the process.

As long as geological methane is relatively cheap, producing bio-methane makes little sense. Much better would be to produce diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, and high value chemicals from the algae. That is the approach taken by those who plan to utilise IH2 pyrolysis and similar approaches.

Since algae is one of the most prolific producers of biomass known, and since we have the technology to convert biomass to methane at relatively high yields, it makes sense to optimise this technology for the future, when methane is likely to become a key centre-piece for the energy economies of many nations -- at least in nations that reject nuclear energy.

But how much more efficient it would be to utilise nuclear process heat to carry out biomass to fuels or biomass to chemicals conversions! The antinuclear hysteria which has infested Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, and other advanced nations, is incredibly destructive to their future well-being.

Much better for them to embrace the inevitability of nuclear power for the long term, and to work hard to develop cleaner, safer, more affordable and scalable forms of advanced nuclear power -- both fission and fusion.

Coal Under Attack on All Fronts . . . Plots Comeback

Coal is the second-most plentiful hydrocarbon resources on the planet, second only to gas hydrates. Yet, increasingly, coal is being displaced by natural gas power plants across North America, and is being threatened with replacement by new generations of safe, clean, affordable, small modular nuclear fission reactors.

Is coal taking all of this lying down? No. In fact, in many ways, coal is the rising star of global energy production.

image via GWPF

BP’s annual statistical review reports that global coal production increased 6 per cent last year, twice the celebrated rate of increase in global natural gas production. This most notorious of fuels now accounts for 30 per cent of global energy consumption – the highest percentage since 1969. It will almost certainly account for more in the years ahead. It is, after all, one of the cheapest primary sources of energy in the world. And its reserves are, for all practical purposes, inexhaustible.

...Americans themselves are consuming less coal – 5 per cent less in the past decade. As U.S. electrical producers shift from cheap coal to cheap natural gas, more coal will be released for export to other countries (where demand for coal increased by almost 50 per cent in the same decade, the energy equivalent of 23 million barrels of oil a day). Already the world’s fourth-largest coal exporter, after Australia, Indonesia and Russia, the U.S. could plausibly become the world’s largest exporter in coming years. The United States possesses more coal reserves, after all, than any other country.

How much more? Energy analyst Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, says U.S. coal reserves contain nearly as much energy as the proven oil reserves of all 12 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries combined. U.S. coal deposits, he says, hold the energy equivalent of 900 billion barrels of oil. The OPEC countries have proven oil reserves of one trillion barrels. _Globe&Mail

We know that new, super-clean coal plants using IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) and CHP (combined heat and power) technologies, are both very efficient and very environmentally responsible. But science and engineering have just begun to start cleaning up coal's act:

One of the new technologies, which involves pressurizing the oxygen, is being developed by a partnership between ThermoEnergy, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the major Italian engineering firm Itea. A version of it has been demonstrated at a small plant in Singapore that can generate about 15 megawatts of heat (enough for about five megawatts of electricity).

The technology simplifies the clean-up of flue gases; for example, some pollutants are captured in a glass form that results from high-temperature combustion. It also has the ability to quickly change power output, going from 10 percent to 100 percent of its generating capacity in 30 minutes, says Robert Marrs, ThermoEnergy's VP of business development. Conventional coal plants take several hours to do that. _TechnologyReview

Coal is a massive and affordable source of energy that is begging to be produced and utilised in a clean and responsible manner.

While everyone from gas advocates to nuclear advocates to green dieoff.orgiasts rail against coal as the mineral from hell, more responsible energy analysts understand that we will need to learn to utilise all sources of energy in clean and responsible ways, if we are to transition smoothly into the age of advanced nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

Carbon Sciences Claims Better Catalysts for GTL

1. The conventional steam reforming using steam:
CH4 + H2O ↔ CO + 3 H2 (∆H = 206 kJ/mol) …………..( 1.1)
2. Carbon dioxide reforming of methane:
CH4 + CO2 ↔ 2 CO + 2 H2 (∆H = 247 kJ/mol) ……… (1.2)
3. Partial oxidation using oxygen:
CH4 + O2 ↔ CO + 2 H2 (∆H = - 38 kJ/mol) ………….. (1.3)
(Source)

GCCThe race is on to find economical uses for the rich bonanzas of methane being unleashed globally by North American practises of horizontal drilling and various types of fracturing tight shale gas formations. Both gas-to-liquids (GTL) and LNG are being proposed and developed to extend the economic reach of methane deposits -- many of which may be stranded far from lucrative markets.

Carbon Sciences Inc. has developed a catalyst which it claims will make the process of dry (CO2 reforming, #2 above) reforming of methane to syngas more profitable. From high quality syngas, any number of high value chemicals or liquid fuels can be produced.

The UOS catalyst technology, developed over the past decade by Dr. Hui Wang, professor of Chemical Engineering, has demonstrated high performance and reliability. The UOS catalyst achieved 92% conversion into essentially 1:1 H2/CO syngas with no detectable sintering, no significant carbon deposition, and thus no catalyst deactivation. Dr. Wang’s research team has successfully tested the catalyst for 2,000 hours of continuous operation in a bench top reactor.


The catalyst has also undergone 600 hours of commercial testing without regeneration. The company claims that its second-generation catalyst has achieved performance levels close to its theoretical limits.


After achieving very positive commercial test results for our catalyst, we are moving ahead aggressively to accelerate the production of larger quantities of the catalyst, as well as completing the technical and economic analyses in preparation for discussions with strategic partners. Working with the GTL experts at our engineering firm, Emerging Fuels Technology, we also plan to demonstrate an end-to-end process that will produce samples of diesel fuel that can be used by existing diesel vehicles.


—Byron Elton, Carbon Sciences’ CEO
Broadly, the methane dry reforming reaction is:

CO2 + CH4 → 2CO + 2H2

...Carbon Sciences’ claims that using its catalyst can achieve a 20% to 30% capital cost advantage over the alternatives because dry reforming is a simpler process, does not require an oxygen plant, uses small amounts of steam and has high conversion efficiency. Additionally, the feedstock cost of dry reforming syngas may be lowered by as much as 25% because CO2 is a zero cost feedstock (and often negative value) that occurs naturally in methane gas fields.
... _GCC

In situations where plentiful CO2 is freely available, the dry reforming method may well offer several advantages, and Carbon Sciences Inc.'s new catalyst may find itself a very lucrative niche in the brave new world of synthetic liquid hydrocarbons and high value chemicals.

But in the long run, better catalysts will lead to GTL processes which will bypass the energy-intensive gasification stage. It is commonly known that micro-organisms break down hydrocarbons in the environment to methane. Other micro-organisms have enzymes which perform reverse, synthesis reactions to create medium and longer chain hydrocarbons. It is these lower temperature synthesis reactions which will win out in the end, probably using robust biomimetic inorganic nano-catalysis. While humans will eventually move away from hydrocarbon fuels, they will likely be using hydrocarbon based chemicals and plastics for many centuries to come.

Why Bio-Energy Continues to Take a Backseat to Hydrocarbons

GCCSociety will require crucial transportation fuels for several more decades. Over that time period, synthetic fuels produced from renewable biomass will become more and more competitive with fuels derived from fossil fuel hydrocarbons. But for now, the infrastructure for biomass feedstock production and fuel processing is virtually nonexistent. And the economic justification for building and scaling that biomass fuels/chemicals infrastructure will require time to fall into place.

Researchers from the Stevens Institute of Technology, BASF Catalyst and Golden BioMass Fuels Corporation report on their investigation of an energy balance, in broad outline, for the production of a high-quality synthetic diesel from residual crop biomass via a Fischer-Tropsch route in a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

The particular process explored in the paper consists of:
harvesting surplus biomass (such as crop residue);
locally pyrolyzing the biomass into pyrolysis oil (PO), char, and noncondensable gas (NCG);
transporting the PO to a remote central processing facility;
converting the PO at this facility by autothermal reforming (ATR) into synthesis gas (CO and H2); and
Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis of the syngas into diesel fuel.

...The team found that the process considered, in which a portion of the char and noncondensable gas are used to supply heat to the drying and pyrolysis steps and under the assumptions made, has an energy efficiency to liquid fuel on the order of 40%—i.e., 40% of the initial energy in the biomass will be found in the final liquid fuel after subtracting out external energy supplied for complete processing, including transportation as well as material losses.

...Using the process modelled, replacing ~15% of current petroleum consumption in the United States would require the gathering of biomass from a substantial portion of the land area of the major crop-producing states...
_GCC

ACS Abstract of biomass FT study

Due to the relatively low energy density of biomass, a large growing area must be devoted to producing biomass feedstock for whichever energy densification and refining process is chosen.

The study above is based upon a reasonable process, and probably represents nearly the state of the art for biomass to diesel conversion at this time. Local pyrolytic densification of biomass allows for more efficient shipping to a central gasification and F-T catalytic refinery. It would not be a bad method of producing diesel except for one thing: It is much more economical at this time to use either crude oil using conventional refineries -- or even coal or natural gas, using F-T approaches.

Fischer-Tropsch technologies are improving for the use of either gas or coal as gasification feedstocks. Here are a few items from recent F-T news stories:

Altona Energy has inked a cooperation agreement for application of Rentech's technologies in gasification of coal and biomass at its Arckaringa project located in South Australia. [Keep in mind that the biomass component would not be included except for reasons of governmental mandate, rebate, or other top-down incentive. The biomass component is not yet economic when compared to coal.]

Jacobs to Collaborate on Commercialisation of BP/Davy Fischer Tropsch

Completed semi-commercial demonstration of the low temperature Fischer-Tropsch technology at Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant

Oxford Catalysts Moving Toward Commercial Launch

And so on... Fischer Tropsch is an old technology which is being improved and adapted for a wide range of feedstocks and syngas mixtures. Using biomass with F-T and other thermochemical processes is necessarily a second choice, after hydrocarbons, due to the energy density factor. If governmental incentives, regulations, taxes, mandates, rebates, etc. become so topheavy as to shift the economics toward biomass, a wide range of societal and economic repercussions would necessrily follow -- not all of them ultimately for the better.

Over time, alternative means of producing scalable volumes of advanced liquid fuels from biomass are being devised. Some of these methods are likely to achieve economic competitiveness with hydrocarbons, as the incentives landscape shifts and alters. In the long run, F-T is unlikely to survive as a viable process except for production of certain high value chemicals which are difficult to produce bio-synthetically (or bio/nano-synthetically) at lower temperatures and higher efficiencies.

Liquid fuels will be important to society for some decades, and high value industrial scale chemicals will be important for much longer.

Gasification of Coal and Biomass: Oil is Just the Beginning

Expanding Reserves of OilAlthough world oil reserves continue to grow, it is crucial to explore a wide range of new sources for energy and fuels. The use of syngas from the gasification of coal and / or biomass will take advantage of new technologies, to provide electric power, process heat, and syngas for chemical synthesis and fermentation -- for hundreds of years into the future.

A "polygen" plant in Texas will use coal gasification to produce electric power, steam, CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and multiple chemicals -- including sulfur, urea, and argon -- for sale in global markets. It will be an IGCC plant with carbon capture.

Saskatchewan is waking up to coal gasification as a clean alternative to nuclear power.

British Columbia's Nexterra Systems Corp. is installing a biomass gasification system at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George. The plentiful woody biomass resource will provide abundant feedstock for the gasification facility, primarily meant to provide heating to the school, but can also provide reliable electric power.

A unique biomass gasification plant in Florida will provide electric power, process heat, and syngas feedstock for the fermentation of ethanol fuels -- and perhaps eventually other, higher value fuels and chemicals.

Gasification facilities are ideal for providing clean combined heat and power (CHP). The advantage of biomass gasification plants is that if the biomass feedstock is locally produced, it is unlikely to suffer interruptions due to transportation breakdown, for whatever reason.

Peak oil is a sad excuse for a belief system, but even a doomer should be able to open his mind to a wide range of other sources for fuels and energy. Always prepare for possible disasters and extended emergencies. But don't base your hopes or plans on them.

Gasification Plays Crucial Role in Future Coal, Biomass Use

The World CTL (coal to liquids) Conference takes place in Paris on 1-3 March 2011. A wide range of thermochemical processes will be presented, including the U-Gas system licensed by Synthesis Energy Systems from GTI.

The U-GAS?gasification process produces syngas utilizing a single-stage fluidized bed gasifier. This process is highly efficient at separating carbon from waste ash, which allows for the efficient processing of all low rank coal and many coal waste products that cannot otherwise be utilized in the entrained flow and fixed bed gasifiers offered by our competitors. The ability to gasify these lower quality fuels unlocks economic advantages by allowing the use of lower quality feedstocks while maintaining high carbon conversion and clean syngas outputs. _SES

On the biomass front, Chicago will host the tcbiomass conference on 27-30 September 2011.

Building on the success of tcbiomass2009 that hosted representatives from 22 countries and 130 organizations, tcbiomass2011 will be the platform for the world's leading energy innovators to present the latest results that shape the future of biomass conversion. The conference will explore the topics of pretreatment, gasification, pyrolysis, and upgrading.

Conference participants will include industry experts, technology developers, entrepreneurs, investors, engineering companies, feedstock suppliers, government policymakers, and researchers.

Many of the same technologies to convert coal and gas to liquids (CTL and GTL) will also be used to convert biomass to liquids (BTL). The U-Gas technology is one example which can be used for multiple feedstocks.

Biomass in nature is less energy dense than coal, but can be densified using pyrolysis, torrefaction, and other methods. Such densification can be carried out near collection sites, making transportation to more central processing, combustion, or gasification plants much more economical.

Here is an example of a pyrolysis plant being built next to a Massachusetts paper plant, to provide power and heat from waste. Much early adoption of pyrolysis and gasification power plants will utilise such synergy. Many others will simply be used as a more economical alternative in the long run to landfills and simple incinerators.

But the technologies of CTL and BTL will become very important as the stifling straightjacket of faux environmentalism is thrown aside in favour of a cleaner, more abundant energy future.

Biomass to Gasoline at Costs of $1.95 / Gallon?

GCC
The US DOE National Renewable Energy Lab is reporting that a biomass-to-gasoline process utilising gasification with methanol as an intermediate, could be as economical as current bio-ethanol production.

A new report from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes that gasoline produced via the methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) route (earlier post) using syngas from a 2,000 dry metric tonne/day (2,205 US ton/day) biomass-fed facility could have a plant gate price (PGP) of $1.95/gallon US ($0.52/liter).

This is a gallon ethanol equivalent on an energy basis (gee) price of $1.39/gallon ($0.37/liter). (Gasoline has a higher energy content than ethanol.) In comparison, based on analysis work completed at NREL, the predicted PGP for ethanol produced via the thermochemical and biochemical pathways are $1.57 per gallon ($0.41 per liter) and $1.49 per gallon ($0.39 per liter), respectively.

...the results from this preliminary evaluation indicate great potential for producing gasoline from biomass via thermochemical biomass conversion to syngas and the MTG process, and thus warrant a more detailed study. Future work areas of interest include obtaining better process information on the MTG section of the plant, especially equipment and operating costs; increasing the heat integration throughout the process; scale-up of the MTG fluidized bed reactor; testing the MTG reactor and catalyst with methanol from biomass-derived syngas; testing of the MTG fluidized bed reactor at higher pressure; and evaluating the possibility of selling raw MTG gasoline and refining it in an existing refinery.

—Phillips et al.

_More at GCC with links

The reason that Al Fin Energy puts so much focus on liquid biofuels, is because renewable liquid fuels will eventually place a price ceiling on petroleum fuels. Biomass to liquids (BTL) is a renewable process which can continue as long as the sun shines and biomass is produced. The greatest threat to BTLs is a new ice age. The greatest promise for BTLs is a warming climate, with higher temperatures and CO2 levels.

It is important for forward looking individuals to understand how much profit to expect from investments in expensive fossil fuel ventures, before a dropping price ceiling makes them unprofitable. Peak oil doomer nonsense -- and associated expectations of eternal profits from petroleum and fossil fuels -- will only break your bank.

Improved Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch for Age of Liquid Fuels

It is good to be realistic at the beginning of a new year. One dose of realism which energy observers must force themselves to swallow, is that the near-term electrification of transportation has been over-hyped. Which means that we will need to find as many sources of liquid fuels as we can -- just in case the US ever gets rid of the Obama regime so as to allow the necessary economic re-structuring for a global economy.

Gasification of coal and biomass hold a vast potential for new liquid fuels. So any improvement in gasification of F-T technology should be welcome in an energy-starved environment.

In a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels, Zhang et al. note that in current major commercial gasification technologies, the series of mutually interactive reactions are fully coupled in a singe gasification reactor. The proposed decoupling gasification (DCG) facilitates or suppresses the interactive effects between the separated and other reactions. The paper generalizes the decoupling approach into two types: isolating and synergizing.

The decoupled reactions can be arranged into two isolated reactors to separate their products to realize polygeneration and also suppress the intereffects between the products of the decoupled reactions. This kind of decoupling approach is called “isolating” decoupling, and the resulting technology integrates usually two reactors, thus calling it “dual-bed” technology.

Another approach of decoupling is termed as “synergizing” decoupling...In this method, the decoupled reactions are rearranged to facilitate the beneficial interactions or to suppress the undesired interactions between the linked reactions (for example, the effect of the products from one reaction on the other reaction). Via this kind of decoupling, it is expected to lower pollutant formation, enable high product quality and high conversion efficiency, and/or enhance the fuel adaptability of the technology.
—Zhang et al. _GCC

More efficient catalytic synthesis of high value fuels would also make a big difference in the economics of new liquid fuels production.

A team from Shiraz University in Iran is proposing a novel reactor configuration for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) that utilizes a fixed-bed water perm-selective membrane reactor followed by a fluidized-bed hydrogen perm-selective membrane reactor. The concept (FMFMDR) produces gasoline from synthesis gas.

The walls of the tubes of a fixed-bed reactor (water-cooled reactor) in a FMFMDR configuration are coated by a high water perm-selective membrane layer. In this configuration, two membrane reactors instead of one membrane reactor are developed for FTS reactions.

The researchers used a one-dimensional heterogeneous model to investigate the performance of FMFMDR. A paper on their work is in press in the journal Energy. _GCC

2010 was supposed to be the year of the electric car, but in fact California itself gulped ever more liquid fuels in 2010 and looks to swallow even more gasoline and diesel in 2011.

All of the lefty-Luddite "cures" for energy shortages are nothing but Austrian wall-paper meant to cover the worsening problems, to keep the public complacent in their cattle-cars until time to open the doors on the great human die-off, the ultimate goal of the leftist greens.

The World Converts to Gasification

GCC
Gasification of coal, biomass, or other carbonaceous materials yields a syngas which can be utilised for electric power generation, fuel synthesis, or the synthesis of chemicals and materials. Gasification lends itself to much cleaner use of coal -- even the "dirtiest" coals -- than current combustion processes. While nuclear generation of electrical power is superior in many ways to the use of coal, coal is more versatile in terms of the broad array of uses to which syngas can be put. And there is a lot of coal in the ground, to be used.

The 2010 Worldwide Gasification Database, a collection of gasification plant data, describes the current world gasification industry and identifies near-term planned capacity additions. The database reveals that the worldwide gasification capacity has continued to grow for the past several decades and is now at 70,817 megawatts thermal (MWth) of syngas output at 144 operating plants with a total of 412 gasifiers.

Gasification is a technological process that uses heat, pressure, and steam to convert any carbon-based raw material into synthesis gas (syngas). Gasification is in use in more than 27 industrialized countries._GCC

As the gasification industry develops and grows, economies of scale will be added to the other advantages of this cleaner approach to energy, fuels, and chemicals.

Two New Gasification Biomass_to_Alcohols Plants

Ineos

Ineos Bio is opening a new plant in Indian River County, Florida, to produce biomass to ethanol via gasification and catalytic conversion. The process can be expanded to add any number of new high value chemical products to the line in the future -- depending upon the catalytic conversion processes used.

Maverick Biofuels is building a biomass-to-mixed-alcohols plant in North Carolina, based upon a similar approach. Biomass is gasified to syngas, which is catalytically converted to C2-4 olefins, and then to C2-4 alcohols. The mixed ethanol-propanol-butanol product is a higher value fuel additive than pure ethanol, with a higher energy density.

The decision to use gasification plus catalytic conversion to produce alcohols rather than attempting to break up the cellulose / hemicellulose into sugars, and then ferment the sugars to alcohols, is an economic one. Gasification and catalytic technology is a relatively mature technology, in comparison to technologies which will be used to dismember cellulose and ferment the mixed sugars to alcohols.

In the long run, microbial approaches will probably prove more economical than high temperature approaches such as pyrolysis and gasification, due to lower energy requirements. Greenhouse gas laws, mandates, regulations, taxes, and penalties will also likely play a part in the calculation -- much to the detriment of the underlying economy.

Gasification Begins to Hit Its Stride

Brian Westenhaus takes a look at advances in gasification science coming from Purdue University.

Gasifiers are reactors in which biomass, coal or other carbon rich substances are heated and flooded with steam, oxygen or both. Simply put, the heat decomposes the carbon-based molecules and the steam makes more hydrogen available for constructing the desired product coming out. Gasifiers are messy and difficult to control reactors with intense operational experience needed and constant supervision for optimal output. As Al Fin noted last week the sources for the heat can range from plasma to simple heating by fuels.

But what is actually happening in the gasifier? Answering this matter would offer a great deal of knowledge on designs, construction and operations. It would put solid scientific foundations into the synthetic fuel economy, which is not so far past the basic making of charcoal and saving back the exhaust gases in fuel forming. Gasifiers are already quite interesting and have some potential for making fuels economically now.

Jay Gore, the Reilly University Chair Professor of Combustion Engineering at Purdue said, “A major focus is to be able to produce a significant quantity of synthetic fuel for the U.S. air transportation system and to reduce our dependence on petroleum oil for transportation.” The research is part of work to develop a system for generating large quantities of synthetic fuel from agricultural wastes, other biomass or coal that would be turned into a gas using steam and then converted into a liquid fuel. _BrianWestenhaus

Projects are ongoing to convert a wide array of feedstocks into advanced fuels, electric power, and useful heat. The University of Wyoming, in conjunction with General Electric, is optimising gasification technology for the clean use of Wyoming's Powder River coal. Westinghouse plasma gasification technology is to be used in the conversion of municipal waste to electric power and heat in the American Midwest. The University of North Dakota is partnering with Cummins Power Generation to demonstrate the feasibility of using gasification to convert fuels such as "forestry, agricultural, and industrial biomass waste; animal waste; waste plastics; and railroad ties or cable poles, as well as a range of coals," to electric power and process heat.

Gasification is a brute force approach to converting cellulose and other carbonaceous materials into useful power, fuels, and heat. But it works, and it works now. The challenge is to increase efficiencies and yields so as to maximise profits. That is the only way for the approach to become sustainable over the long term.

Plasma Gasification is Nothing Like Simple Incineration

Wisconsin-based AFE has licensed Westinghouse plasma gasification technology from Canadian company Alter NRG, for $11.4 million. AFE plans to build a number of waste-to-energy plasma gasification plants in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. AFE's first plasma gasification plant is to be a $225 million, 25 MW Project Apollo in Milwaukee.

What can plasma gasification do that simple incineration can't do?

Plasma Gasification:  The Ultimate Solution for Multiple Waste Streams now Going into our Landfills

A plasma gasification plant ends the need for landfills - and their problems by converting the free "fuel" that would have been placed in the landfill, in the form of municipal sold waste, and hazardous waste. The plasma gasification plant "converts" carbonaceous (carbon-containing) materials such as municipal solid waste and even hazardous waste such as biowaste from hospitals, into two useful and beneficial byproducts;

1. an energy-rich fuel called synthesis gas, which is used to generate "green electricity" from a sustainable and renewable resource.

2. a commercially useful, inert solid, referred to as “slag”. The slag can be used for road aggregate and building materials.

Plasma Gasification provides for a sustainable waste solution for all types of waste streams, including MSW , hazardous wastes, and even low-level radioactive waste, which delivers tangible economic and environmental benefits.

• Plasma Gasification does not produce hazardous bottom ash and fly ash.
• Plasma Gasification is "fueled" by the "free" waste, and is "powered" by electricity, and can be turned off with the flip of a switch.
• Plasma Gasification unit does not need to be brought up to temperature over 24/36 hours burning expensive fuel oil as does mass burn incineration.
• Plasma Gasification systems require very little maintenance and unlike traditional power plants, do not need to be shut down for weeks at a time for cleaning and maintenance while waste-streams back-up.
• Plasma Gasification is just as efficient in smaller-scale systems (25 and 50 TPD units) as large-scale systems.
• Plasma Gasification can provide a high degree of flexibility over the longer term and it can operate at less than 100% of capacity so there is flexibility when waste-stream decline.

_PlasmaGasification

Cummins NG Generator Modified to Run on Bio-Syngas

Syngas is just H2 and CO, with a small pinch of CH4 and a tiny dash of CO2 thrown in for variety. You can create syngas from coal, natural gas, biomass, bio-waste, or any carbonaceous material. The ability to use bio-syngas from high-moisture biomass, to power natural gas generators and natural gas turbines, provides a very quick and convenient means of extracting useful power from cellulosic biomass -- without the messy acids, enzymes, fermentations, distillations, or catalysations of other cellulosic biofuels methods. Just direct biomass to power via syngas.

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota, in partnership with Cummins Power Generation, Inc., has begun a project to demonstrate the production of heat and power from high-moisture biomass. Cummins Power Generation has provided the electrical generator for the project, a key component in producing 35-40 kilowatts of power a day, enough for one home.

The Cummins generator, which normally runs on natural gas, has been modified to run on synthetic natural gas (syngas) produced by an EERC-developed advanced gasification unit.

The EERC’s gasification unit can convert a range of fuels, such as forestry, agricultural, and industrial biomass waste; animal waste; waste plastics; and railroad ties or cable poles as well as a range of coals, into clean syngas. Together, the Cummins and EERC technologies will work in harmony as a gasification-based combined heat and power technology, with a variety of applications.

The physical properties of the biomass feedstocks, such as their origin, storage, and aging, can often vary. That variation can affect the performance and, ultimately, impact stack emissions when used in a typical internal combustion generator. The synergistic and seamless integration of an advanced gasifier and the engine generator will overcome this limitation and achieve environmentally acceptable emissions. The project aims at demonstrating this fact. _GCC

Biomass is a low energy density fuel. But it grows anywhere, and can provide moderate heat and power levels for a wide range of purposes far off the beaten track. Portable gasifiers can be airlifted into a remote site, providing full functionality for a wide array of powerful machines in remote wilderness, far from any highway.

Are Baboons Running the Environmental Movement?

Source

Sorry, the title above is unkind -- to baboons. In reality, you would have to remove at least one half a baboon's brain for the primate to be as unintelligent as the average (faux) environmentalist. One of the latest of the host of environmental faux-llies is the organised movement against waste-to-energy gasification plants. Wisconsin legislators are trying to attract a gasification waste-to-energy plant to Milwaukee. But (faux) environmental organisations have banded together to stop them:

Earlier this year, the state Legislature passed a law that would qualify the waste-to-energy system as a renewable energy technology complying with the state’s green-power mandate. At the time, Gov. Jim Doyle said the technology has real potential to help us address the growing need for clean renewable power."

But bill was opposed by environmentalists who objected to the trash-to-energy project and its potential impact on air pollution. Environmental groups that are actively opposing these types of projects in other states have branded them as “incinerators in disguise.”

Josh Morby, a spokesman for Alliance Federated Energy, said that characterization is unfair because no incineration is involved in the plasma gasification process.

Under this technology, the municipal waste is not burned but is instead converted into a syngas that can be used to generate electricity, steam or biofuels. _JSOnline

Gasification -- particularly ultra-hot plasma gasification such as is being planned for Milwaukee -- reduces waste to its component atoms and plasma. Environmentalists may lack the brain power to understand the difference between simple incineration and plasma gasification, but most humans would perceive the distinction fairly quickly.

In New York state, SUNY Cobleskill plans to install a gasification plant on campus as part of a research and training program for the new Environmental and Energy Technology Program. Not a bad idea, given how much garbage is generated at the average institution of higher indoctrination learning. But SUNY plans to turn the gasification program into a 4 year degree! Sorry, SUNY, but while 4 years may be required for a rigorous thermochemical / thermomechanical waste and biomass to energy program, learning to tweak and operate one single gasifier should not take nearly so long.

Tampa Electric will be installing a 250 MW IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) demonstration plant in partnership with RTI. Not a bad idea. But what genius is forcing them to incorporate CO2 sequestration as part of the demonstration? Don't they know they will lose up to half the generated energy and do no one any good at all by sequestering the plant food otherwise known as CO2? Oh, yes -- the idiots geniuses at Obama - Pelosi's DOE!

And to prove that gasification is nothing if not versatile, companies in Israel, Colorado, and elsewhere are developing solar powered gasification plants, using concentrated sunlight to gasify biomass and waste.

Faux environmentalists, deep down, want to reduce the human population of Earth by at least 90%. You do not expect these neo-Luddites to be looking for solutions to real world problems such as potential energy shortages. No, they oppose every form of energy that might possibly work -- including nuclear, biomass gasification, IGCC for clean coal, shale gas, and so on.

It requires a lot of energy to support heavily sub-specialised civilisations such as those in the developed world. If your goal is to reduce the human population of the planet well below 1 billion members, cutting off the energy supply to civilisation would be one of the more obvious steps. Clearly, these quasi- half-baboons will not hesitate to take that step and any others they feel necessary to reach their goals.

Bioenergy's Incremental Growth

A Rutgers professor is using radical synthetic biology techniques on E. Coli to boost production of bio-oils and hydrocarbons.

Instead of performing minor changes to specific genes he said, the work will modify large sections of the genome and put in “entirely new traits rather than modifying existing traits.” By using the computer modeling approach, the team will speed up the development process and make it a faster, better process according to Lun. There is currently no timetable for work on the new strain. _Biodiesel

Rentech's new Rialto, California, facility will use gasification and F-T to convert bio-waste to fuels plus generate 35 MW of baseload electric power. Rentech recently announced that it will use technology from a Honeywell subsidiary in the conversion of cellulosic biomass to hydrocarbon fuels.

Blue Northern's new continuous biodiesel production process may reduce capital costs by 40% and production costs of biodiesel by 30%.

The US DOE is investing in the basic research of biomass pyrolysis to fuels and associated feedstock concerns:

W. R. Grace & Company (MD) – New Technology for Processing Bio-oils to Produce Gasoline, Diesel and Jet Fuels – up to $3.3 million. This project will evaluate a specialized catalytic reactor designed to resist corrosion and extend catalyst life.

· Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (WA) – Catalytic Deoxygenation of Pyrolysis Oils – up to $3.1 million. This project will collaborate with Albemarle Corporation and UOP, a Honeywell Company in a three-year project to develop better processes to upgrade pyrolysis oil to hydrocarbon fuels.

· Gas Technology Institute (IL) – Long-Term Processing in the Production of Gasoline and Diesel from Biomass – up to $2.4 million. This project will demonstrate long-term processing and catalyst stability in an automated, integrated pilot plant that converts biomass directly to gasoline and diesel fuel.

· Battelle Memorial Institute (OH) – Upgrading of Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil – up to $3.2 million. This project will develop catalysts and an integrated process tailored to upgrade pyrolysis bio-oil, demonstrate system operation for more than 1,000 hours using a single catalyst charge, and produce a final product that can be blended to 30 percent by weight with petroleum fuels or that is compatible with existing petroleum refining operations.

• North Carolina State University – North Carolina State University... and partners will investigate biomass production options compatible with forest management with a focus on pine and switchgrass intercropping. The total cost-shared project value is $4,807,390.

• Purdue University – Purdue University will receive up to $1,592,385 for its project that will conduct a sustainability assessment of multiple species of energy crops including miscanthus, switchgrass, and hybrid poplar, and examine the impacts of removing of crop residues within two watersheds representative of conditions in the Upper Midwest.

• University of Minnesota – The University of Minnesota will receive up to $790,943 for its project that will analyze the Mississippi River watershed using a set of models to help stakeholders make informed decisions about what bioenergy feedstocks to use, where to produce or collect them, and what environmental impacts they will have... _BiofuelsDigest

DOE Powers Up Research on Coal/Biomass Syngas

A wide range of carbonaceous substances -- from solid municipal waste to wood to grass to coal -- can be gasified to syngas. Syngas can be turned into a wide range of valuable products, from fuel to high value chemicals to plastics to electrical power, and so on. The US DOE is investing in 8 projects for the development of better methods of gasifying coal/biomass mixtures for production of power, hydrogen, fuels, chemicals, etc.

The selected projects, which will be managed by the Office of Fossil Energy’s (FE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), are:

Area 1: Pre-Processing and Conditioning of Coal/Biomass Mixtures for Simultaneous Co-Feeding Systems. Projects in this area will focus on the development and characterization of multiple coal-biomass mixtures and types that are transportable, storable, and accommodate direct co-feeding into gasification systems.

CoalTek, Inc. (Tucker, Ga.) CoalTek, teaming with the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research in Lexington, Ky., Duke University in Durham, N.C., and the University of North Dakota Energy and Environment Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D., will blend coal and biomass to develop a feedstock for co-gasification. Microwave energy will be used to dry and soften high-moisture coals and form the dried coal into a durable briquetted fuel.
(DOE share: $999,472; Recipient share: $249,868; Duration: 36 months)

Gas Technology Institute (Des Plaines, Ill.) GTI, in partnership with Desert Research Institute and the University of Nevada, both in Reno, Nev.; Clean Coal Briquette Inc. in Lakewood, Colo.; and Parker Towing Company in Mulga, Ala., will produce quantities of Loblolly pine blended with ground coal and coal fines and formed into robust, weather-resistant pellets and briquettes. GTI will demonstrate how the pellets/briquettes are rugged enough to withstand transportation and piling and show how the pellets/briquettes can be processed into a crushed or pulverized product suitable for use in a commercial coal gasifier.
(DOE share: $1,000,465; Recipient share: $250,174; Duration: 36 months)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Va.)—Partnering with the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.; GreenFields Coal Company in Beckley, W.Va.; Alpha Natural Resources in Abingdon, Va.; and Dominion Energy in Richmond, Va., VPI will develop optimally engineered systems for manufacturing coal-biomass briquettes/pellets that are ideally suited for transportation, storage, and co-feeding fixed- and fluidized-bed gasifiers.
(DOE share: $999,061; Recipient share: $251,756; Duration: 24 months)


Area 2: Reactive Properties of Coal/Biomass Mixed Fuels. Research in this topic area will focus on definition and measurements of key reactive properties of several mixed coal-biomass fuels through the use of small-scale laboratory experiments and/or science-based computational models.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.) Georgia Tech will team with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., to obtain experimental reactor data and develop kinetic rate expressions for pyrolysis and char gasification for coal-biomass blends using lignite coal and switch grass; develop an understanding of the effect of pyrolysis conditions on the porous char structure; and build mathematical models for predicting gasification behavior for a broad range of pressures and temperatures.
(DOE share: $1,101,814; Recipient share: $463,585; Duration: 36 months)

Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford, Calif.) Leland Stanford Junior University will combine char mass loss measurements in selected environments containing CO2, CO, H2O, and H2 with specific surface area and temperature programmed desorption measurements to determine char reactivity as a function of temperature, pressure, and gas composition. The data will be used to develop a reaction mechanism and associated kinetic parameters that accurately describe the rate-limiting reaction pathways during conversion of the char to syngas. This will be done for each coal/biomass mixture examined.
(DOE share: $457,583; Recipient share: $114,396; Duration: 36 months)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Va.)—VPI, teaming with the University of Delaware Energy Institute in Newark, Del., and Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., will perform experiments to determine the gas composition of sub-bituminous coal and biomass feedstocks (poplar wood, switch grass, and corn stover); model detailed reaction kinetics and product formation to provide an understanding of the major pathways involved; and simulate and predict the coal-biomass gasification mixtures.
(DOE share: $999,888; Recipient share: $252,504; Duration: 36 months)

Area 3: Design Concepts for Co-Production of Power, Fuels and Chemicals. Projects in this area will focus on the development of preliminary conceptual designs and techno-economic analyses that predict plant efficiency, cost of produced products, and environmental impacts.

Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.) Princeton will design, simulate, and analyze 20 process configurations to enable meaningful cross-configuration comparisons and insights into the potential impacts of advanced technologies. Each plant Princeton designs will produce a separate co-product: synthetic gasoline, light olefins, hydrogen, or ammonia.
(DOE Share: $442,121; Recipient share: $110,570; Duration: 12 months)

University of California Irvine (Irvine, Calif.) The University of California, Irvine, will develop design concepts incorporating advanced technologies in areas such as oxygen production, feed systems, gas cleanup, component separations, and gas turbines for gasification facilities equipped with carbon capture and storage for coproduction of power along with hydrogen, fuels, a petrochemical, and with an agricultural chemical. Three different plant types for three different coals consisting of a bituminous (Illinois No.6) coal, sub-bituminous (Powder River Basin) coal, and lignite co-fed with corn stover will be developed.
(DOE Share: $446,895; Recipient share: $111,725; Duration: 12 months) _GCC

As discussed here previously, it is cheaper to gasify coal and other hydrocarbons than to gasify biomass. The reason the DOE is financing research into coal/biomass mixtures is almost certainly out of "carbon emissions" concerns. But in the long run, the issues of availability and sustainability are far more important than "carbon emissions" -- given the flimsy science behind the hypothesis of anthropogenic carbon doom. In other words, you can grow or scavenge some type of biomass almost anywhere, but you cannot mine coal or other hydrocarbons -- or even geothermal heat, abundant sun, or wind -- just anywhere.

By learning to mix coal, oil, and natural gas with various forms of biomass-derived products, we will be extending our supplies of carbon-based fuels much farther into the future, and providing a more robust, renewable, and versatile feedstock.

Gas from Depleted Mines and Wells: More than the US Consumes!

NewEnergyandFuel
Rich resources of coal and oil lie unutilised in "depleted" mines and wells, just waiting for a clever technology to come and get them. Luca Technologies is one company in possession of a technology which it feels is ready to "go where men dare not go", to retrieve these significant "left behind" energy resources. The Luca approach uses anaerobic bacteria which convert the in situ hydrocarbons into methane gas, which can be easily retrieved.

Once Luca identifies a depleting area or well as a natural gas farming candidate, it withdraws water from the well transfers it to a mobile nutrient module to replenish essential vitamins and nutrients vital to sustaining microbial community health. The water is then recycled back into the well through existing infrastructure and the mobile nutrient module is moved to other wells to provide nourishment to new subsurface habitats. For a complete list of materials and concentrations in Luca's nutrient mix, click here.

Luca then temporarily shuts in the well for an average of one month to allow natural microbial populations to flourish. During this "dwell" period, activated microbes begin producing significant amounts of natural gas. Luca harvests the natural gas using the existing infrastructure. This cycle of restoration and harvesting enables Luca to produce natural gas from depleting wells for decades. _LucaTechnologies_via_BrianWestenhaus

Unlike the oil and gas industry’s extraction methods in which production peaks then steeply declines as stored hydrocarbons are depleted, Luca “gas farms” can reliably produce low-cost clean energy for decades and reuse existing wells and infrastructure to create, extract and transport the natural gas.

How big a deal could this be? Pfeiffer explains, “Farming” natural gas from depleted wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana alone could produce more gas than the annual consumption in the U.S., said Pfeiffer. Microbes have converted one-hundredth of 1 percent of the coal into methane in existing wells. Luca has reached 3 percent conversion in its labs, which would not happen in actual wells but it reflects the potential of the process. _NewEnergyandFuel

Most forms of in situ coal gasification involve combustion -- or superheated air -- as in this approach to gasifying shale oil kerogen rock. But low temperature anaerobic gasification is somewhat safer and more controllable than underground combustion methods.

In situ gasification in all its many forms is likely to acquire greater prominence in the energy scheme. Engineers are developing better means for in situ gasification of oil sands, oil shales, coal, and other dense hydrocarbons. In addition -- as mentioned above -- various means of retrieving the hydrocarbons from "depleted" oil wells will include different types of in situ gasification among the mix -- after retrieving as much liquid crude as possible using more conventional methods.

Around the world, vast amounts of hydrocarbons are sitting and waiting for the best retrieval technologies that humans can devise. Rich deposits which were too expensive for yesterday's technologies are coming within reach of today's technologies. The same will be true tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Peak oil religionists are steeped in technologies of the past to the point that they are reduced to sensing the world with their gluteals, rather than their eyes.

Chemrec's Swedish BlackLiquor to DME Plant Takes Shape

Black liquor is a waste by-product of paper pulp processing. Chemrec plans to gasify the black liquor and convert the syngas directly to dimethyl ether in an efficient process. The new Swedish demo plant will have a capacity of 584,000 gallons per year of DME.

In Sweden, the steel towers forming the main process units of the new BioDME-plant were put in place beside Chemrec’s development plant in Piteå. On July 21 the world’s first demonstration plant for the energy-efficient automotive fuel DME, dimethyl ether, will be ready for commissioning and start-up. The demonstration plant will have a capacity of 584,000 gallons of BioDME per year, using black liquor gasification of pulp and paper mill waste. _BiofuelsDigest

Sweden has developed a reputation for innovation, along with neighbor Finland.

Europe in general is developing some encouraging plans for developing its bioenergy resources.

For several centuries, Europe has been the world's hotbed of research, innovation, and development of a wide range of technologies and sciences. Unfortunately, unless something is done about the rapid implosion of Europe's population, the best days of European innovation are likely behind us -- other than a last hurrah! which is being largely squandered on the green energy hoax and carbon hysteria.

New Fuels, Energy, Materials from Waste, Biomass

NYT
Slovakian company Carbon Green announced a new economically viable plan to use pyrolysis to "recycle" used tires.

Cornell University is planning a new waste-to-energy plant which will utilise pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, combustion, and fermentation.

New York company Clenergen announced a partnership with Honeywell which will use pyrolysis to produce a bio-heating oil from rapid growing biomass -- including bamboo.

Rentech's biomass gasification to jet fuel approach was tested in flight by a US commercial airliner.

A brief look at a variety of waste - to - energy approaches.