Cellulosic Ethanol Reality Begins to Set In

[GliderGuider]

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2010/12/01/cellulosic-ethanol-reality-begins-to-set-in/">Cellulosic Ethanol Reality Begins to Set In

It is hard to believe that just a few short years ago, Congress mandated a massive increase in usage of cellulosic ethanol. This was remarkable, because no commercial cellulosic ethanol facilities even existed at the time. But people like Vinod Khosla were busy testifying before Congress that the only thing holding the industry back was more funding, and if they would provide the funding we could replace all of our gasoline consumption with cellulosic ethanol.

So Congress mandated in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act that we would use 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in 2010, 250 million gallons in 2011, and then rapidly expand to 16 billion gallons per year by 2022. At the time, I saw a very appropriate analogy that summed up the situation: “It’s like trying to solve a traffic problem by mandating hovercraft. Except we don’t have hovercraft.”

I tried to bring a dose of reality to the debate in this blog. I have worked on cellulosic ethanol myself. I know first hand the challenges. Biomass has low energy density relative to fossil fuels, and thus a conversion facility must have easy logistical access. In most cases, this means that biomass must be sourced close to the facility. This puts some limits on the size of biomass facilities, so they suffer from the lack of economies of scale. I have harped on this logistical issue for years, and a newly released study from Purdue reiterates the points I have made: “Without solving the logistical issues, commercial production of second-generation biofuels will not take place.”

Further, cellulose generally makes up less than 50% of the composition of biomass, limiting the biomass fraction that can be converted into ethanol. The fraction that is converted ends up as a dilute beer of generally around 4% ethanol and 96% water. This makes the energy requirements of purifying cellulosic ethanol very high. Of course if you listen to Bob Dinneen and the guys at the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), they say the issue is that not enough money is being thrown at the problem. But that’s their answer to anything ethanol-related: We need more money.

[yourout]

1. My personal belief is Algae has the greatest potential to decrease our dependence on....

Dino fuels.

[GliderGuider]

2. It's a widely shared belief.

It's not mine, but at least it's widely shared.

The entire renewable energy industry has foundered on two words: "belief" and "potential".

Show me a million barrels of the stuff in tanker trucks and I'll change my belief. Until then... I prefer to believe in LFTR!!!

[yourout]

3. If your talking about liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) then I am with you 100%

Goofy thing is this technology has been around for 50 years but because it's not useful for making bombs it was abandoned.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[StevieM]

4. I agree with you about producing electricity from thorium. With regards to algae, the impression

I get is that current technology makes it more feasible to get diesel and jet fuel from algae, at an affordable price, than to produce gasoline. If that's the case, then maybe a portion of our transportation needs can be met this wa

[yourout]

5. Initially use of Algae based fuels would be mostly as you said, Augmentation of the current diesel.

supply for jet fuel and trucking.

Log term we would need to adapt VW's diesel technology to our commuter transportation fleet. I have a VW TDI Jetta that gets 42 to 44 mpg and a hybrid of this could easily get 60+ and a plug in hybrid with a small diesel could easily be over 100 mpg.

[StevieM]

6. I've heard that 40 percent of all new cars sold in Europe are diesel cars. I would like it if we had

more options like that here in the U.S.

[reggie the dog]

12. in france a majority of new cars sold are diesel

as diesel is about 80 euro cents a gallon cheaper than gasoline, i have a diesel car that gets 50 to 60 mpg

[txlibdem]

10. I vote yes for LFTR as well but fuel burners are going to be with us for a long time

I agree wholeheartedly that LFTR is the way to go but there will be millions of fuel burner vehicles on the road for decades to come. Cellulosic ethanol and algae biofuel has to be at least looked into. The alternative is to keep buying foreign oil to keep them running.

Eventually I hope that all those vehicles will be replaced with electric vehicles. Or we will switch away from cars and trucks to the far more efficient and far more convenient Personal Rapid Transit.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[GliderGuider]

19. Well at least coal isn't fairy dust

It's fly ash!

Wait, what?

[Terry in Austin]

20. Personal rapid transit

In a rational world, PRT would be the best and most practical successor to the automobile system.

Alas, we're so stuck on cars that the discussion gets limited to what else we can put in the tank (or battery, or squirrel cage...)

[txlibdem]

21. That's a fact

PRT would be the best transportation system we've ever devised because it allows us to tear out all the parking lots, paved driveways and paved roads. These structures block rain from filtering back down into the aquifer, water just runs off (and collects poisonous oils, antifreeze, etc., left behind by fossil burner vehicles), fills up the sewers, causes flooding and eventually gets into rivers, streams and lakes and causes water pollution. It's a lose, lose, lose as far as our clean water needs are concerned.

With PRT we could tear out all those unnecessary structures and use them for growing crops, parks, community gathering spaces, you name it.

Look at your average retail establishment. What percentage of the land is used by the building and what percentage is used up for the parking lot, ramps, curbs, concrete pillars to stop idiots from driving into the building, etc., every wasted square foot devoted to the automobile. In larger corporate or retail spaces like malls they need to have multi-story parking structures. With PRT, all that space can either revert to natural landscaping or be converted to more retail or office space. Most of these type establishments commit at least 1/3 of the land area to parking and vehicle access. That is like taking a 33% pay cut, reducing profits by 1/3rd. What sane businessman would choose to take a 1/3rd cut in their profits?!?

[JohnWxy]

7. Oil price reality will begin to set in...

The world is currently in a deep recession. China and India's growth has 'slowed' to about 9%. What's going to happen to the price of oil/gas when normal rates of growth are restored? Can you say $140 oil??.. in a few years??

How will that affect the commercial viability of any alternative fuel?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x267683

[NickB79]

8. So either way, gas prices are going to shoot sky-high

And a pretty much permanent cycle of recessions down the "bumpy plateau" of Peak Oil will be setting in.

Well, that's comforting :eyes:

[JohnWxy]

14. that's why we need to develop alternative fuels: add to supply help keep prices down, economy alive.

[txlibdem]

11. I just heard oil hit $90 a barrel

Something tells me we haven't heard the last of the $140 Barrel.

It totally sucks for the folks stuck driving a gas or diesel car. But, on the bright side, electric cars make sense with gas at $1 per barrel, they are a no brainer with gas above $3.

[heliozoan]

9. What about the Q-microbe?

I know that this doesn't address co-location of biomass and processing facilities but I thought that the Q-microbe was going to revolutionize cellulosic ethanol production? http://www.qteros.com/

[Nihil]

13. I guess not enough people were clapping?

[JohnWxy]

15. Joule Biotechnologies produces ethanol from sunlight and CO2 using photosynthetic micro-organism

http://cleantechnica.com/2010/02/15/one-giant-step-closer-to-fuel-from-sunlight-by-joule-biotechnologies/


Joule Biotechnologies, Inc. has just announced that a lease agreement has been signed for a new facility in Leander, Texas, which will serve as a pilot plant to develop the company’s solar powered system for producing ethanol and other biofuels. The energy efficient process is based on photosynthetic microorganisms and it operates without the use of conventional biomass or algae biofuel processes.

CleanTechnica and Gas 2.0 have been eagerly following Joule’s progress, and the company has already produced ethanol and diesel at a lab scale rate. It plans to start ethanol production this year at the pilot plant, with diesel to follow early next year. Once operating at full scale, the facility has the potential to deliver at the rate of 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre yearly, and 15,000 gallons of diesel. That could be the tip of the iceberg, because the same process can also yield a variety of high-value chemicals in addition to biofuels.

Biofuel from Sunlight and Microorganisms

Joule prefers to call its system “solar fuel,” and rightfully so. The heart of the process is the company’s proprietary SolarConverter, which contains photosynthetic organisms in a bath of brackish water and nutrients, with carbon dioxide fed in. While the concept is similar to producing algae biofuel, there are several significant twists. The organisms are not algae, they are bio-engineered proprietary organisms that produce and secrete fuel without the need for costly fermentation processes, extraction or refinement processes. The system also skips the need to collect and transport large quantities of biomass.


also see:
Fuel Startup Makes Ethanol From the Sun, CO2

[yourout]

16. Very interesting.......I am going to research it more.

[kristopher]

22. This approach has promise; what are the input requirements?

It is going to be limited (like algae) by the same need for concentrated CO2 and it will require fertilizers. Do you know how it is envisioned that the process will be integrated for those inputs?