Routes to Higher Hydrocarbons BIO, Pacific Rim Summit

Transcription

1 Routes to Higher Hydrocarbons BIO, Pacific Rim Summit Thomas D. Foust, Ph.D., P.E. Director, National Advanced Fuels Consortium NREL Bioenergy Center December 9, 2013 NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

2 Advanced Biofuel Conversion Routes Sugar Catalytic- Conversion Fermentation with engineered microbes Gasoline Diesel Jet Biomass Pyrolysis/ Liquefaction Hydrotreating & Upgrading Algae growth & oil harvest Syngas gasification Methanol Synthesis Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Gasoline Diesel Jet Refinery 2

3 Gasification Technology fairly well developed Classes of gasifiers Air Blown Gasification (updraft or downdraft) low cost and thermally efficient, product gas not well suited for fuel synthesis high N 2 content Indirect Gasification good thermal efficiency, syngas not diluted with N 2 product gas relatively high in tars Direct Gasification Good product gas, lower in tars, - high cost of O 2,, lower thermal efficiency, syngas high in CO 2 Entrained Flow Gasification Excellent product gas, essentially no tars high cost of O 2, low thermal efficiency, higher capital cost because of increased complexity 3

4 4 Thermodynamics and kinetics of biomass conversion Intermediates Gasification is inherently a lower efficiency process based on thermodynamic analysis

5 5 Pros/Cons and challenges of gasification routes Pros Good experience base Only significant technical challenge is cost and complexity Capable of producing high quality diesel and jet fuels Chemistry works and is relatively proven Cons Cost is a significant challenge Previous attempts to reduce costs have met with limited success Challenges Reducing capital costs High process complexity

6 Sugar or Soluble Carbon Intermediate Pathway 6 Fermentative Cell Enzyme Production Diesel HC Fuels Pretreatment & Conditioning Enzymatic Hydrolysis ISOPRENE ANTI-MALARIAL DRUG Lignin Aqueous Phase Reforming Acid Condensation Condensation & HDO Gasoline Jet Fuel Value Add Heat and Power Dehydration & Oligomerization Diesel

7 7 Fermentation Pathway hydrolysate YEAST CELL Mevalonate Pathway -Farnesene Farnesene Synthase Diesel & Chemical Precursor [1] [2] [3] [4] [1] Cane juice [2] Fermentation broth [3] Separations [4] Purification

8 Biomass Fractionation and Pretreament 8 Catalytic Pathway Process Heat Lignin C 1 -C 4 Alkanes Aromatics, Alkanes Lignocellulosic Materials Hydrogenolysis C 2 -C 6 Oxygenates H 2 ZSM-5 Gasoline Soluble Sugars Starches Polysaccharides C 5 &C 6 Sugars Furans Phenolics Acids Aqueous Phase Reforming H 2 Base Catalyzed Condensation HDO Alkanes Kerosene Jet Fuel Hydrogenation Sugar Alcohols Dehydration Alkene Oligomerization Alkene Saturation Alkanes Diesel

9 9 Pros/Cons and challenges of sugar routes Pros Produces high quality components for diesel and jet both fermentative and catalytic routes Initial higher value applications Builds upon OBP cellulosic ethanol technologies so good building base Cons High capital cost approaches Overall yields and efficiencies lower than thermal routes Lignin component only used for heat and power at high capital cost Challenges Better organisms fermentative Better catalysts catalytic Lower costs Better utilization of lignin

10 Lipid (Autotrophic/Heterotrophic) Intermediate 10 Algae Yeast or Bacteria Fungi Enzyme Production Commodity Chemicals (Ethylene) Pretreatment & Conditioning Enzymatic Hydrolysis Fatty Acids TAGs Specialty Chemicals (Carotenoids) Reduction/Decarbonylation HC Fuels Algae Cyanobacteria n-alkanes Olefins Photosynthetic Bacteria TAGs

11 11 Algal routes to advanced biofuels Biology and Cultivation Energy efficient harvesting and dewatering systems Biomass extraction and fractionation Product purification A gasifier being used by a NAABB partner to convert algal biomass to fuels Biomass Harvesting and Recovery Algal Strains - Growth, productivity, stability, and resilience Cultivation system design Temperature control Invasion and fouling Input requirements CO 2, H 2 O sources, energy Nitrogen and phosphorous Siting and resources A nano-membrane filter being developed by a NAABB partner. Process optimization Thermochemical Biochemical Fuels characteristics Co-Products Conversion and End-use

12 12 Pros/Cons and challenges of algal routes Pros Capable of producing high quality fuels High yields Negates food versus fuel debate Does not need fresh water Cons Significant technical risk Cost barriers significant and numerous Challenges Cell biology Cultivation Harvesting and extracting Economic uses of cell mass

13 13 Bio-Oil Intermediate Initial Results (NABC data) Good Feasibility tests very positive Economics show the potential to be very attractive (< $2.00 gge for refinery integration case) Excellent leveraging of petroleum refining infrastructure Bad Products are almost exclusively aromatics (BTX) mostly in the gasoline range Chemistry is very complex and poorly understood making process design dubious

14 14 Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis (CFP) Hydropyrolysis (HYP) Based on Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Technology Pervasive in Petroleum Refining

15 Acetadehyde IPA IPA Butanone Acetic acid Benzene Benzene Toluene Ethylbenzene - p-xylene o-xylene Toluene Furfural - Octane dimethlycyclohexane Ethylbenzene Decane o-xylene Furancarboxaldehyde Naphthalene Phenol C9H20O2 ether C10H22O ether - Decane dimethoxy - methyl-naphthalene Phenol Cresol isomer Cresol isomer methoxy-methyl Phenol dimethoxy Phenol CFP/HYP Catalyst Impact Standard Fast Pyrolysis pa FID1 A, (PY_ \NB R108IPA_2-1.D) Acetone methyl-propanol Area: p-xylene methyl-naphthalene min Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis/Hydropyrolysis pa FID1 A, (PY_ \NB R134IPA_2-5.D) min Quality Yields

16 16 Potential Co-Processing Points Refineries contain many potential insertion points for co-processing of a variety of biomass-derived feedstocks Hydroprocessing Units Typically designed to remove sulfur Potentially suitable to deoxygenate triglycerides or other bio-oils Conversion Units Designed to break down larger molecules into smaller ones Potentially suitable for upgrading of pyrolysis oils into fuels Source: Wikipedia

17 17 Conclusions Ethanol future still uncertain Café standards driving to higher compression engines Significant activity in commercialization Butanol also a possibility Future is advanced biofuels drop- in. Although preliminary results are promising many challenges remain: Biomass Yields and costs Lignin utilization Must integrate into future fuel mix need Algae Significant technical challenges Cell biology Cultivation Harvesting Cell mass utilization

18 Questions? Biomass for Advancing America 18