Bio-Americas

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Dr. Ihab Farag Professor, University of New Hampshire

Jatropha Biodiesel, the Renewable Alternative to Diesel

Biodiesel is an alternative petroleum diesel fuel made from renewable resources such as recycled cooking oils, vegetable oils or animal fats rather than petroleum.  It is produced by esterifying a vegetable oil or animal fat with an alcohol (methanol or ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst (sodium or potassium hydroxide). Starting material may include: used cooking oil, soybean, corn, canola, cotton seed, mustard seed, or Jatropha oil. Glycerin is generated as a byproduct.
Jatropha crop is being used or considered for biodiesel production in a number of countries. It is a valuable crop that may be used to green the desert or to alleviate soil degradation. It is a hardy plant that can withstand drought conditions and has high oil content. Jatropha cultivation for biodiesel production can help rural economy and enhance rural electrification.
Biodiesel has great promise as a biofuels that could be locally-produced, locally-used, and locally-controlled. Its advantages include increased engine lubricity, which reduces engine wear, drastically lower emissions relative to petroleum-based diesel, far safer to use and transport, and ease of use in existing diesel engines with little or no modification.  Additionally, since Biodiesel contains no sulfur, it allows the use of better after-treatment devices on diesel vehicles which can further reduce emissions, particularly of nitrogen oxides (NOx).  Biodiesel can be used in ?neat? form (100% biodiesel, also referred to as B100), or blended with petroleum in any ratio. The energy balance for producing Biodiesel (defined as the ratio of energy output per unit of fossil energy input) depends on the oil feedstock used, but is almost always greater than 1:1 (usually around 3.3). This implies that it takes less fossil energy to produce Biodiesel than the amount of energy it yields, which makes Biodiesel a renewable fuel.  Biodiesel can be used in the transportation sector as well as for electricity generation due to the positive energy balance.

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Dr. Randy Cortright, Chief Technical Officer, Virent Energy Systems

Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Hydrocarbons

Virent Energy Systems, Inc's patented BioFormingTM process uses Aqueous-Phase Reforming as a new pathway to the economic and energy efficient conversion of plant based sugars to the many hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals that drive the world economy.  Virent?s patented catalytic process generates proven liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel from renewable biomass-derived feedstocks, the only plentiful source of hydrocarbons that exists on earth besides fossil fuels. This new category of biofuels can be used and distributed like conventional fuels and, based on present feedstock costs, will compete at current price levels.  Utilizing a simple reactor system and operating at relatively low temperatures and pressures, the BioForming process reforms carbohydrates to hydrocarbons. By selecting different catalysts and processing conditions, various types of sugars can be reliably converted into hydrocarbon fuels or chemicals.  In addition, by fully accessing the carbohydrates in both cellulose and hemicellulose, the technology can achieve substantial yields of carbon from cellulosic biomass, without expensive pre-treatment.  The technology platform is simple and highly thermal efficient.  Once it is operating, no additional energy inputs are needed, making it possible for the process to yield twice as much net energy as ethanol. This thermal efficiency, combined with lower capital costs compared with multi-stage production processes, and its efficient use of plentiful, inexpensive cellulosic feedstocks, make the BioForming platform a truly cost-effective solution.  Together, these unique characteristics position the BioForming platform as the key enabling technology for renewable hydrocarbon production.

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Dr. George Philippidis Associate Director, Applied Research Center (ARC, Florida International University)

Cellulosic Ethanol: Key Technical Challenges on the Way to Commercialization

Making a dent in international gasoline consumption will require a lot more ethanol than the amounts that can be produced from sugarcane, corn, and cereals.  Cellulosic biomass provides a realistic means to reduce the world?s dependence of fossil transportation fuels.  It is abundant throughout most of the world, does not compete with food or animal feed supplies, and is in general rather inexpensive.  However, biomass is by nature recalcitrant to decomposition, and there lies the challenge to commercialization: how to cost-effectively reduce the cellulose and hemicellulose in biomass to fermentable sugars.  Although a number of processes have been proposed for the production of ethanol from cellulosic biomass, they mostly rely on the use of heat, chemicals, and enzymes to break the long carbohydrates into simple sugars, followed by fermentation of those sugars to ethanol.  Key challenges include maximizing sugar yield while minimizing sugar decomposition, being able to handle a variety of biomass feedstocks simultaneously, reducing the duration and cost of enzymatic hydrolysis, and developing a robust microorganism that produces almost exclusively ethanol from a variety of sugars and can tolerate the presence of microbial inhibitors generated during the chemical treatment of biomass.  The final and ultimate challenge is how to integrate all these steps into a seamless reliable continuous process that produces ethanol at a cost competitive with the price of gasoline.

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Bill Roddy, Corporate Manager of Environmental Affairs, ICM

Fuel Ethanol Plant Environmental Protection Approvals

You or your client has the financial backing and want to build a fuel ethanol plant in Europe.  While a number of environmental protection approvals must be obtained prior to and during the course of building the plant, the air emission approval is often the most time consuming and the most rigorous to secure.  Depending on location, computer simulation modeling may be required to document that there is no significant impact from plant emissions on local air quality.  More often than not, the air emission approval process will dictate your construction schedule.  Also, you may find that project financing is dependent on final issuance of the air emission approval.  In addition, other environmental review approvals may be required to include water management; adequate fresh water supply (usually groundwater) and non contact water discharge to a creek, stream or river.  Other required elements of a potentially required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) may include truck traffic, potential for odor, noise, flora and fauna protection, local environmental health conditions and health risk assessment, and compliance with best available technology.  Depending on environmental impacts, mitigation may be required.