advanced biofuel feedstocks and conversion technologies

Ricardo-AEA

© Ricardo-AEA Ltd

www.ricardo-aea.com

Judith Bates

Presentation to New Energy Forum Event

Biofuels, where next?

London, 10th July, 2013

Biofuels – feedstocks and conversion technology

overview

© Ricardo-AEA Ltd Ricardo-AEA in Confidence 2

•Overview of technologies

–Production of biofuels from oils

–Biochemical routes

–Thermochemical routes

•Lignocellulosic feedstocks

•Microalgae

Biofuels feedstocks and conversion technologies


Feedstock Conversion Fuel

Overview of conversion technologies

Transesterification FAME biodiesel

Hydrotreatment HVO biodiesel

Sugar extraction Fermentation

distillation

Bioethanol,

biobutanol, ETBE

Sugar extraction

Microbial

fermentation

Diesel (via

farnesene)

Sugar extraction with

advanced pre-treatment

Fermentation and

distillation

Bioethanol,

biobutanol, ETBE

Gasification

Fischer Tropsch

BtL diesel,

kerosene, SNG,

DME

Other catalytic

processes

Bioethanol

biobutanol

Pyrolysis Upgrading Liquid biofuels

Anaerobic digestion Upgrading Biomethane

Vegetable oils

and animal fats

Sugar and starch crops

Lignocellulosic

biomass, including

residues and wastes

Wastes and residues


Production of biofuels from vegetable oils

http://www.biofuelstp.eu/fuelproduction.html © Copyright CPL Press

http://www.biofuelstp.eu/fuelproduction.html


• Well established, mature technology

• Current production capacity: UK 0.6 Mt/yr, Europe 23.5 Mt/yr, US 7.1 Mt/yr

• Significant capacity in Indonesia/Malaysia and South America (Brazil,

Argentina)

FAME biodiesel – production capacity


• Chemical reaction of oils with hydrogen to produce diesel type

hydrocarbon – HVO or renewable diesel – drop in fuel

• Can be tailored to meet aviation fuel requirements

• First commercial plants now in operation

– Neste Oil have four commercial plants world wide (Finland, Nls

and Singapore); total output of 1.9 Mt/yr

– Dynamic Fuels one commercial plant in US (0.2 Mt/yr)

– AliphaJet planning pilot plant based on catalytic

decarboxylation of crude fats (230 t/yr)

Hydrotreatment of Oils


• Current feedstocks

• Vegetable oils from food crops – oil seed rape, soy, palm, sunflower

• Waste oil/used cooking oil

• Animal fats – tallow

• Future feedstocks under consideration – non-food crops suitable for less favourable

conditions, e.g. less productive land, lower rainfall

• Jatropha Camelina

•

• Sustainability issues for vegetable oils:

– lower GHG savings for many vegetable oils will not meet EU’s GHG saving

criteria in 2017

– ILUC factor may be higher for oil based crops

Feedstocks for FAME


UK Biodiesel – feedstocks and origins

3% 1%

26%

4%

25%

19%

16%

7%

Origin of UK biodiesel 2011/12

S. America

ROW

Other EU

Canada

Netherlands

United Kingdom

United States

Unknown

2010/2011

Used cooking oil

87%

Oilseed rape7% Soy

3%Palm1%

Tallow1%

Unknown1%

2011/12

Currently increased use of UCO

(mainly from Europe) due to

incentives – double counting

towards RED targets


Potential future locations of FAME biodiesel feedstocks

(2030)

•Potential location of ‘sustainable’

feedstocks i.e. those meeting EU

GHG saving requirements

(excludes UCO)

•Based on forecasts of ‘spare’

agricultural land

•Modelling forecast that supplies of

‘sustainable’ biodiesel might be

limited

Source: Based on modelling work carried out for DECC by Ricardo-AEA on global bioenergy supply


Biochemical routes for biofuels production


Established

technology Advanced biofuels



• Fermentation to bioethanol - commercial technology

• Fermentation to biobutanol - subject of research

• Global production dominated by US (corn) and Brazil

(sugar cane)

Bioethanol – sugar and starch crops

-

5

10

15

20

25

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Bil

lio

n G

all

on

s

Global Ethanol Production by Country/Region and Year

Africa

Australia

Mexico & Central America

Other

South America (minus Brazil)

Asia (minus China)

Canada

China

Europe

Brazil

USA

www.afdc.energy.gov/data/

US77%

UK4%

Spain6%

France6%

Other7%

Corn87%

Wheat5%

Sweet sorghum

3%Sugar beet2%

Other3%

Origin of UK bioethanol 2011/12


Potential future locations of sugar and starch feedstocks for

bioethanol (2030)

•Potential location of

‘sustainable’ feedstocks i.e.

those meeting EU GHG saving

requirements

•Based on forecasts of ‘spare’

agricultural land

•Supply heavily dominated by

North and Latin America



Bioethanol production – lignocellulosic materials

Requires additional steps

Milling/chopping

Challenge is to

overcome inhibition of

fermentation and low

conversion rates for

C5 sugars.

Can be combined

with hydrolysis step

Chemical Acids

Physical Steam explosion

Ammonia fibre explosion

Biological Fungi and bacteria

Breakdown shell of material

and increase reactivity

Cellulose Enzymatic hydrolysis

Hemi-

cellulose

Diluted acids or bases

Enzymatic hydrolysis

Can happen as part of

pretreatment

Split polymers in cellulose

into sugar monomers


• Over 50 demonstration and pilot plant operational in Europe, US, Japan, and Brazil

• Commercial plant listed below – several more planned for 2013 and 2014/ 2015

• Biorefinery concept being explored – e.g. uses for lignin

Status of biochemical lignocellulosic routes

Company Location Feedstock Output Start-up

Abengoa Bioenergy

Biomass of Kansas

US Corn stover, straw,

switch grass

75,000 2013 (under

construction)

Beta Renewables Italy Straw, giant reed

grass

60,000 2012

Ineos Bio US Vegetative waste,

waste wood, garden

waste

24,000 2013 (under

construction)

POET-DSM US Agricultural residues 75,000 2013 (under

construction)


Thermochemical routes for biofuels production


Two key routes – gasification and pyrolysis

Pyrolysis = thermal decomposition at high temperature in absence of

oxygen

Syngas from gasification process is mainly CO and H2. It can be

methanated to produce synthetic natural gas.

Catalysts (iron and cobalt in FT process) are used to

produce alkanes

Product conditioning: distillation, hydration, isomerization,

reforming and cracking

Bio-oil – can be of poor quality particularly if from feedstocks with high

ash content. Requires upgrading for use in diesel engines in road

transport

Potential products include diesel and gasoline type liquids and DME

(Dimethyl Ether) a gas with similar properties to propane



• Several pilot and some demonstration plant operational in Europe, North America and

Australia

• No commercial plant currently operational

• Enerkem have commercial (30,000 t/yr) plant under construction in Canada producing

ethanol, methanol and various chemicals from sorted MSW, and plans for two further

plant.

• Solena planning plant operating on waste to produce aviation fuel in UK for 2014/15

• CHOREN industries who were planning 200,000 FT plant in Germany operating on

wood chips are now insolvent; plans for plant utilising forest residues to produce FT

liquids in Finland have also been stopped

• Gasification plants typically need to be large scale to achieve the economies of scale

needed to produce biofuels cost-effectively, and could require large quantities of

feedstock to be transported.

• Pyrolysis technologies could be developed at smaller scale with bio-oil then transported

to central facility for upgrading

Status of thermo-chemical conversion routes


• Wide variety of wastes, agricultural residues and woody biomass potentially suitable

– Wastes: Organic component of municipal solid waste, food waste, wood waste

– Agricultural residues: Corn stover, cereal straw, bagasse

– Energy crops: perennial grasses such as switchgrass, giant reed grass

short rotation coppice e.g. poplar, willow

– Short rotation forestry

• Biochemical routes mainly using agricultural residues and organic waste

• Potential competitions for woody biomass with heat and power sector

• Waste feedstocks have large cost advantage, and use of wastes (and residues) also

avoids the food vs fuel debate

• Some R&D on tailoring energy crops to improve properties for conversion to biofuels

Lignocellulosic feedstocks


Comparative costs of biofuels (2020)

Petrol type fuels Diesel type fuels

Source: Based on work carried out by Ricardo-AEA for DfT


Potential location of future resources (2030)


Forestry resource Energy crops


• Currently much interest but long term prospect

• Several cultivation/conversion routes:

– Open pond on land

– Floating bags in inland seas and bays

– Biofilms

– Photobioreactors: closed vessel; higher productivity, higher costs

– Heterotrophic (“dark fermentation”), requires sugar or cellulose substrate

• Main R&D emphasis is on feedstock development

• Can use waste water as a cultivation medium

• Extract oils for conversion to FAME/HVO

Microalgae


Assessment of algae potential

Source: Algal Bioenergy Special Interest Group Report, Feb 2012


• Source: Algal Bioenergy

Special Interest Group

Report, Feb 2012

Timescales for

commercialisation

of algal products

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Judith Bates

01235 753524

[email protected]

www.ricardo-aea.com

advanced biofuel feedstocks and conversion technologies

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