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At a Crossroads, Biofuels Seek a New Path Forward
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/538876/at-a-crossroads-biofuels-seek-a-new-path-forward/[font face=Serif][font size=5]At a Crossroads, Biofuels Seek a New Path Forward[/font]
[font size=4]New microbes and new techniques show promise for advanced biofuels, but the industry is still years away from real progress.[/font]
By Richard Martin on June 29, 2015
[font size=3]Attempting to chart a path forward for the beleaguered biofuels industry, a group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have devised what they describe as a novel method for producing renewable jet fuel. Using sugarcane and the sugarcane waste called bagasse, the new process (described in a paper in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) could enable green refineries to put out a range of products, including bio-based aviation fuel and automotive lubricant base oils.
The research appears at a time when biofuels have reached a crossroads. Shrinking government funding, investor disenchantment, low oil prices, and concerns over the loss of food cropland to grow corn and sugarcane for biomass have combined to bring the industry close to a standstill. Although production of renewable fuels in the United States doubled between 2007 and 2013, the use of biofuels as a percentage of overall transportation fuel has hardly budged. And while most major airlines have biofuel programs in some stage, aviation—which needs highly energy-dense, oxygen-free fuel—has proved an especially tough field to penetrate.
As a result, the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard, released in 2005 and expanded under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, has been called into question.
“The current first-generation biofuels mainly use food crops as feedstock and are either expensive or have modest (greenhouse gas) improvements over petroleum fuels,” concluded a report released in April by the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, written by James Stock, a professor of political economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a former member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. “The development and commercialization of low greenhouse gas second-generation biofuels—critical to the ultimate success of the program—has fallen far short of the very ambitious goals laid out in the EISA.”
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]New microbes and new techniques show promise for advanced biofuels, but the industry is still years away from real progress.[/font]
By Richard Martin on June 29, 2015
[font size=3]Attempting to chart a path forward for the beleaguered biofuels industry, a group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have devised what they describe as a novel method for producing renewable jet fuel. Using sugarcane and the sugarcane waste called bagasse, the new process (described in a paper in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) could enable green refineries to put out a range of products, including bio-based aviation fuel and automotive lubricant base oils.
The research appears at a time when biofuels have reached a crossroads. Shrinking government funding, investor disenchantment, low oil prices, and concerns over the loss of food cropland to grow corn and sugarcane for biomass have combined to bring the industry close to a standstill. Although production of renewable fuels in the United States doubled between 2007 and 2013, the use of biofuels as a percentage of overall transportation fuel has hardly budged. And while most major airlines have biofuel programs in some stage, aviation—which needs highly energy-dense, oxygen-free fuel—has proved an especially tough field to penetrate.
As a result, the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard, released in 2005 and expanded under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, has been called into question.
“The current first-generation biofuels mainly use food crops as feedstock and are either expensive or have modest (greenhouse gas) improvements over petroleum fuels,” concluded a report released in April by the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, written by James Stock, a professor of political economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a former member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. “The development and commercialization of low greenhouse gas second-generation biofuels—critical to the ultimate success of the program—has fallen far short of the very ambitious goals laid out in the EISA.”
…[/font][/font]
(Please note, US Federal Research Lab, copyright concerns are nil.)
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2015/06/15/leaving-on-a-biofueled-jet-plane/
[font face=Serif][font size=5]Leaving on a Biofueled Jet Plane[/font]
[font size=4]Researchers at Energy Biosciences Institute Develop Process for Drop-in Aviation Biofuel[/font]
Feature Story Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375 • June 15, 2015
[font size=3]The problem is simple to understand. Molecules of carbon and other greenhouse gases absorb heat. The more greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, the warmer the atmosphere becomes, exacerbating global climate change. Solving the problem is not so simple, especially with regards to aviation – the source of two-percent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. While biofuels have proven to be an effective, renewable, low-carbon alternative to gasoline and diesel, jet fuels pose unique challenges. These challenges have now been met with a new technique developed by researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership led by the University of California (UC) Berkeley that includes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the BP energy company.
“We’ve combined chemical catalysis with life-cycle greenhouse gas modeling to create a new process for producing bio-based aviation fuel as well as automotive lubricant base oils,” says Alexis Bell, a chemical engineer with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. “The recyclable catalysts we developed are capable of converting sugarcane biomass into a new class of aviation fuel and lubricants with superior cold-flow properties, density and viscosity that could achieve net life-cycle greenhouse gas savings of up to 80-percent.”
Bell is one of three corresponding authors of a paper describing this research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper is titled “Novel pathways for fuels and lubricants from biomass optimized using life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment.” Corinne Scown, a research scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, and Dean Toste, a chemist with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, are the other two corresponding authors. Additional authors are are Madhesan Balakrishnan, Eric Sacia, Sanil Sreekumar, Gorkem Gunbas and Amit Gokhale.
The concentrations of carbon and other greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere are now at their highest levels in the past three million years, primarily as a result of the burning of petroleum and other fossil fuels. Biofuels synthesized from the sugars in plant biomass help mitigate climate change. However, jet fuels have stringent requirements that must be met.
Scown cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the importance of drop-in aviation biofuels.
“In a 2014 report, the IPCC pointed out that drop-in biofuels are the only viable alternative to conventional jet fuels,” she says. “If we want to reduce our dependence on petroleum, air travel is going to require renewable liquid fuels because batteries and fuel cells simply aren’t practical.”
…
“With some minimal modifications to both the catalysts and the reaction schemes we can produce drop-in diesel as well,” he says. “We’re planning further studies on this.”
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Researchers at Energy Biosciences Institute Develop Process for Drop-in Aviation Biofuel[/font]
Feature Story Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375 • June 15, 2015
[font size=3]The problem is simple to understand. Molecules of carbon and other greenhouse gases absorb heat. The more greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, the warmer the atmosphere becomes, exacerbating global climate change. Solving the problem is not so simple, especially with regards to aviation – the source of two-percent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. While biofuels have proven to be an effective, renewable, low-carbon alternative to gasoline and diesel, jet fuels pose unique challenges. These challenges have now been met with a new technique developed by researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership led by the University of California (UC) Berkeley that includes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the BP energy company.
“We’ve combined chemical catalysis with life-cycle greenhouse gas modeling to create a new process for producing bio-based aviation fuel as well as automotive lubricant base oils,” says Alexis Bell, a chemical engineer with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. “The recyclable catalysts we developed are capable of converting sugarcane biomass into a new class of aviation fuel and lubricants with superior cold-flow properties, density and viscosity that could achieve net life-cycle greenhouse gas savings of up to 80-percent.”
Bell is one of three corresponding authors of a paper describing this research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper is titled “Novel pathways for fuels and lubricants from biomass optimized using life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment.” Corinne Scown, a research scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, and Dean Toste, a chemist with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, are the other two corresponding authors. Additional authors are are Madhesan Balakrishnan, Eric Sacia, Sanil Sreekumar, Gorkem Gunbas and Amit Gokhale.
The concentrations of carbon and other greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere are now at their highest levels in the past three million years, primarily as a result of the burning of petroleum and other fossil fuels. Biofuels synthesized from the sugars in plant biomass help mitigate climate change. However, jet fuels have stringent requirements that must be met.
Scown cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the importance of drop-in aviation biofuels.
“In a 2014 report, the IPCC pointed out that drop-in biofuels are the only viable alternative to conventional jet fuels,” she says. “If we want to reduce our dependence on petroleum, air travel is going to require renewable liquid fuels because batteries and fuel cells simply aren’t practical.”
…
“With some minimal modifications to both the catalysts and the reaction schemes we can produce drop-in diesel as well,” he says. “We’re planning further studies on this.”
…[/font][/font]
