Biofuel
Introduction
Despite all the media focus on fuel cell and battery powered vehicles, the fact is that virtually all of the vehicles on the planet run on internal combustion engines that require carbon-based fuels. Aside from a few regions, such as Brazil, which has a huge ethanol industry, the planet’s cars run on non-renewable petroleum.
Distribution, performance issues, required engine modifications to run ethanol, and a lack of biofuel manufacturing capacity, have limited the scope of biofuels.
The focus of this web site is not to develop a detailed thesis and analysis of current limitations, but about investment opportunities in new biofuels.
However, we will detail in bullet point format some of the limitations for each of the current generation of biofuels:
Ethanol
Benefit
- Clean burning
- Distribution and current market exists
Disadvantages
- Low volumetric energy density. At approx. 250 bar, it only has 7.2% volumetric energy of biodiesel
- Explosive
- Limited range of cars
- Inefficient production
- Displacement of food, such as corn, for current production
- Costly without subsidies in North America and Europe
Biodiesel
Benefit
- Can be used by diesel engines
Disadvantages
- Expensive to produce
- Limited feedstock options
- Lower energy density than regular diesel
- May require engine upgrades
Biofuel Market
The current biofuel market is growing fast, often helped by government incentives, and some customers are willing to pay premiums for buying fuel that does not contribute to global warming
Next Gen Biofuels
The Next Gen biofuels are to use cellulosic feedstock, which allows biofuels to be made from not just parts of plants rich in sugar, but all plant material, which is rich in cellulose, a basic building block of plants.
The reason cellulosic plant material hasn’t been used more extensively is because it is exceedingly difficult to break apart. Cellulose must first be broken down either into carbon or sugars. IF it is broken into sugars, then naturally processes can be used to generate ethanol or biodiesel
Breaking Cellulosic Feedstock into Carbon
There are various technologies that can be used. A plasma gasifcation can be used to break apart the carbon. This is a high temperature process that can generate heat almost as hot as the face of the sun. This is a costly technology, but the technology is available from Companies such as Westinghouse. The propriety technology afterwards is to take the resulting gasses and convert it into a fuel.
Fast pyrolysis uses lower temperatures in a vacuum. This is a promising area of research and there are various projects underway, some funded by the US Military. A limitation of pyrolysis is that although the technology has been around for awhile, it has been more of an art than a science. Although the feedstock material can be agnostic, it has to have a certain specifications, such as specific water content and lipid content.
Breaking Cellulosic Feedstock in Sugars
One of the leading companies involved in this area is Iogen, a Canadian Company, which is currently producing approx. 600,000 litres/year of cellulosic ethanol.
One of the challenges facing Iogen and other companies is to create cellulosic ethanol cheaply and effectively at larger volumes. There is not one enzyme that can break apart cellulose and generate ethanol directly. Different enzymes, each operating at different temperatures and pH levels, need to be used.
|
