E3 Biofuels: Responsible Ethanol

I have been a frequent ethanol basher, but I have run across an ethanol process that I can endorse. It is an attempt to make ethanol in a closed-loop process. I have often joked that the true test of an ethanol plant's efficiency would be if they could afford to cannibalize part of their production to run their plant. That's similar to what E3 Biofuels is doing. Read about what they are trying to to do:

http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2006/06/e3-biofuels-responsible-ethanol.html

Cheers,

RR

Just a FYI:

University of California-Berkeley has a plant patent which describes a distinctive variety of the green alga known as Botryococcus that is unique in the quality and quantity of the liquid hydrocarbons it produces. The ancestors of Botryococcus are thought to be responsible for many of the world's fossil fuel deposits. These green colonies to be used for the production of bio-derived liquid hydrocarbons, which are potential substitutes for petroleum in the synthesis of many liquid fuels and petrochemicals - an inexpensive way to grow bio-derived gasoline and diesel components = a "Low Carbon Solution" to the world's ever increasing demand for fossil fuel derived energy.

Plenty Energy, Inc. has done production (patent prnding)of bio-derived hydrocarbon chains in novel algae. This new strain was derived from a variety isolated by Dr. Arthur Nonomura, while at the University of California in Berkeley. This new strain grows faster than previous wild-type algae and, when combined with methods to switch on growth and accelerate hydrocarbon production, this technology may allow bio-fuel production at costs much lower than currently possible. "This variety of Botryococcus has been shown to produce high levels of long-chain hydrocarbons that could be processed and utilized as gasoline and diesel..We are enthusiastic about the prospect of reducing the burning of fossil fuels and l...hope to be able to implement a commercially viable development program of the algal strain" said Dr. Nonomura. The production of bio-fuels with the reduction of GHG CO2 emissions can be achieved with this new algal strain so that we can "grow" bio-derived gasoline and diesel components at prices that could be as low as US $25-35 per barrel -compared to the current crude oil prices of US $65-75 per barrel.
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also the The MixAlco process now has cost/reward data:
http://www.fuelandfiber.com/Archive/Fuel/Research/Holtz
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: A high concentration of dairy farms in central Texas has caused degradation of waterways with excess nutrient runoff. Conventional methods of controlling manure pollution are not sufficiently effective. The MixAlco process may be an economically feasible method of treating manure wastes while at the same time producing products of value for fuel and chemical markets. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the MixAlco process for treatment of cattle wastes and to learn more about the microbial ecosystems present in the reactors.

OBJECTIVES: The application seeks to secure funding toward the purchase of a gas chromatograph for researching the conversion of fiber and manure to fuels and chemicals. The GC will be used to analyze for carboxylic acids and gas components emanating from an acidogenic digester. Previous work on the MixAlco process has established GC as the method of choice for analysis of fermentation products: it can analyze products in both the gas and liquid phases and is sufficiently robust to handle raw samples. Primary objectives of the proposed research project are to: 1) Apply the acidogenic digestion to conversion of cattle wastes, monitoring fermentation products with respect to digester operating conditions, and 2) Characterize the microbial populations present in the fermentations. Correlations between the microbial population structures and growth conditions will be determined.

APPROACH: A non-sterile acidogenic fermentation will be applied to cattle manure, with the goal of quantifying the productivity of the acid generation in response to different growth conditions. This digester is at the heart of the MixAlco process, which converts organic wastes to carboxylic acids, ketones and alcohols. To maintain high acid yields in the digester, methane generation must be suppressed. Thus two measurements that are critical to evaluation of the process are the concentrations of organic acids in the liquid phase and methane in the gas phase. The GC applied for in this proposal will be used to do both these measurements. The microbial populations present in the MixAlco digesters will be characterized using the BioLog identification system. To date the populations in the digester have been characterized in only the most general terms, such as the culture's origin (marine or terrestrial) and optimal growing temperature (mesophillic or thermophillic). Two characteristics that are required for effective performance of the fermentation are a high degree of salt tolerance and a low productivity of methane. Thus, improving the fundamental identification of the organisms present may enable further understanding and improvements of the microbial process.
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All the steps in the MixAlco process have been proven at the laboratory scale. A techno-economic model of the process indicates that with the tipping fees available in New York (126 dollars/dry tonne), mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for 0.04 dollars/L (0.16 dollars/gal) with a 60% return on investment (ROI). With the average tipping fee in the United States rates (63 dollars/dry tonne), mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for 0.18 dollars/L (0.69 dollars/gal) with a 15% ROI. In the case of sugarcane bagasse, which may be obtained for about 26 dollars/dry ton, mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for 0.29 dollars/L (1.09 dollars/gal) with a 15% ROI.
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Eventually we will have to move to bio I believe - but as you note the current economics - using the non-optimum crops/processes that appear to be the only ones in the game as yet - favors gasoline. But why not heavily subsidize the development of bio NOW as we make the modest changes noted in the penultimate paragraph in this post? We sure could easily replace the volume of oil we use today and in the future is we could use Algae (algae with a high oil density grows so fast, it can produce 15,000 gallons of bio-diesel per acre). We can use algae to produce hydrogen, and that hydrogen used to "fix" nitrogen;, or the algae process at this link ttp://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/06/university_of_n.html (A Berzin 1,000 megawatt power plant could produce more than 40 million gallons of bio-diesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year, requiring a 2,000-acre "farm" of algae-filled tubes near the power plant. There are nearly 1,000 power plants nationwide with enough space nearby for a few hundred to a few thousand acres to grow algae and make a good profit, or at least so Berzin says), or perhaps biological fuel cells perhaps using fuel via the newly created enzymes that they say can break down the starches in almost anything? IMHO there are a lot of non-gasoline options that may well make unnecessary any return to a life style that uses very little energy when oil runs out.
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Remember the days when the Clinton administration's budget proposal had $2.1 billion to help promote biofuels during the next decade?

I am likewise inclined to be a stronger supporter of biodiesel than the alcohol IC engine. The flaw with all the processes in every form of alcohol production is the environmental factors of water, land and fertilizer needed, plus transport cost and the fuel used in distillation.
I do not understand why the push towards corn based ethanol is so heavily touted, save for ADM and other big ag corps who will push for it and the corn producers will be next in league with big oil...
Diesel's engine design was made for vegetable oil in its first interation, as a form of "closed loop" to which the original poster referred, i.e., the fuel used for cultivation and harvest was the crop itself with fewer intermediate steps such as alcohol production and distillation.
Anyone who knows much about wine knows that without addition of sugar from an outside source or concentration by making raisins or allowing "noble rot" the grapes can only yield about 18% natural alcohol. To make port or sherry or other fortified wines, a portion of the wine must go through a still, actually several times, which stops fermentation and keeps the wine sweet (except for dry sherry). I have read of a new yeast strain that can produce over 20% alcohol from fermentation, but that is still not really very significant compared to our usual 18-14% yield. The still is still key to a more potent brew for drinking or fueling an engine.
Algae will provide a method of making the oil without significant environmental damage. As you note, there are tremendous amounts of readily available heat sources, i.e., the external cooling loop of the steam cycle in a condensor. Getting rid of the heat is very costly and needs diffusers and other long runs of piping in order not to shock plant and animal life at the exhaust point(s). Allowing the heat to naturally heat up waste ponds for algae conservation should result in another loop for cooling to the exhaust point(s) while keeping the algae warm and happy.
Those who understand the steam cycle know how much heat is lost to ambient from the original point to transmission of electricity -- over 30% efficiency is a goal to be obtained! Why let so much of that heat just be lost to the cooling water exhaust?

I wrote a pro-biodiesel essay a while back:

http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2006/03/biodiesel-king-of-alternative-fuels.html

I talked about the algae angle.

By the way, the MixAlco process discussed above by papau is the work of my research advisor at Texas A&M. I did my graduate school research on this.

RR

getting biodiesel - and none of them are making much progress. They are quite expensive stocks despite this - and some are getting still more expensive.

I wish I could look back and say I had done something as meaningful as research on the MixAlco process - I think you should be proud you hand a hand in it :-)