by Lorenz Bauer and Gerald Kutney (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest) … In this report, we are focused on bioenergy and biofuels (and not bioproducts) that are moving from the lab to initial commercial demonstrations and that potentially solve significant barriers to commercialization.
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If these incremental improvements in efficiency eventually lower the cost of biomass derived feed to below that of fossil fuels, they will constitute a major breakthrough technology.
Never-the-less, to date there are no commercial technologies that meet the target of producing transportation fuel or large volumes of commodity chemicals at a cost close those of fossil derived materials. Commercial focus has been shifting to higher value products. However, the demand for these bioproducts is not large enough to support a biofuel industry that achieves the greenhouse gas reduction targets and they can have viewed as supplemental method for reducing the cost of fuel production. Separation and purification of the products increases operating and capital costs of these projects. True breakthrough technologies will directly lower the cost of fuel production, produce large quantities of commodity chemicals and/or improve the carbon utilization of the biomass. We have identified the following technologies as having the potential to significantly lower the costs of biomass conversion:
- Advanced Fermentation
- Biochar
- Bioenergy Carbon Capture & Utilization (BECCU)
- Catalytic fast pyrolysis
- Ethanol conversion to other products
- Gasification
- Hydrothermal Carbonization/Liquefaction (HTC/HTL)
- Upgrading Volatile Products
- Solvent and ionic liquid pretreatment methods
- Tars READ MORE