Why We Must (and how we can) Have Sustainable Biofuels: AFEX Pretreatment Nears Commercialization

Transcription

1 Why We Must (and how we can) Have Sustainable Biofuels: AFEX Pretreatment Nears Commercialization Bruce E. Dale University Distinguished Professor Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science Michigan State University Presented at: 2014 BIO Pacific Rim Meeting San Diego, California 8 December 2014

2 (Renewable) Energy is Critical for Human Well Being 1. Rate of energy use (rate of doing work) strongly affects (determines?) national wealth and opportunities for human development 2. All rich societies use a lot of energy (~33% oil) 3. Fossil energy use makes us rich today what energy sources will make our children and grandchildren rich? Answer: fossil energy cannot, it will be gone in the next few decades. 4. How will the billions of poor people in the world ever access enough fossil energy to develop their potential? Answer: they cannot, it will be gone in the next few decades 5. Therefore, we must have renewable energy terawatts of it in the next few decades 6. Of all forms of (renewable) energy, liquid fuels are the most valuable and most problematic in terms of supply, price and price volatility 7. Peak oil is already here- it arrived in Only large scale, low cost, low carbon energy sources can reduce GHGs, provide energy security and long term prosperity 9. Only biofuels can replace petroleum in all mobile applications 2

3 Power Consumption and GDP (World Regions)

4 Worldwide Crude Oil Production Subdivided into World Regions and Top 10 Producers in 2010 Peak (Cheap) Oil

5 Comparative Value of U.S. Energy Sources over Time

6 Won t Tight Oil Save Us?

7 Some Basic Energy Facts: Why Liquid Fuels are So Important Services we need from energy (current primary sources of these services: fossil and renewable) Heat (natural gas, coal solar, wind, geothermal, biomass) Light/electricity (coal, natural gas, hydro/nuclear solar, wind, geothermal, biomass) Mobility (liquid fuels from oil 96%, some ethanol & biodiesel, & CNG)- most commerce All energy services (all BTU, ergs, GJ) are not created equal we value mobility (=oil) above all other energy carriers Electricity/batteries can never provide more than about half of mobility needs and they cannot support most commerce (trade) Commerce moves by trucks, ocean shipping, rail & jet aircraft Liquid fuels: not energy is the key economic security issue and right now liquid fuels means refined oil products The only potentially sustainable, very large scale source of renewable liquid fuels is sustainable plant matter or biofuels 7

8 Biofuels: A crime against humanity? [I]t's a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil... which will be burned into biofuel. 8 Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur, 2007

9 Agriculture and Biofuels: we are not asking the right questions We are asking: Can we impose a large new demand for biofuels on the existing agricultural system? We should be asking: Can we redesign US (and world) agriculture to produce biofuels, food/feed & large, positive environmental services? Would you enter the Indy 500 race driving a golf cart? Would you use a toothbrush to sweep the floor? Agriculture has changed before; it can change again Examine actual land uses: most land is used for animal feed We do not grow food we grow animal feeds One solution: think about the whole system and use land efficient animal feeds to increase sustainable biomass output 9 per acre

10 BIOREFINERY BOVINE 160 L 3 ML Rumen Fermenter Train 2 M kg (2000 tons) Physical/ Thermochemical DAILY FEED PRETREATMENT 14 kg Physical Enzymes Break Down Fiber Microbes Ferment Sugars PROCESS PRODUCTS Fuel ENERGY 10 WASTE GASES Molecules CO 2 Microbes Convert Fiber Volatile Fatty Acids CH 4 & CO 2

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12 AFEX Pretreatment Deployment & Applications James Wynn, Director Biobased Technology Derisking BIO Pacific Rim Conference December 2014

13 501(c)(3), non-profit Derisking and acceleration of biobased technologies

14 Focused on transitioning the AFEX technology to commercial scale by 2017

15 Under-utilized agricultural residues Current Modality

16 AFEX Pretreatment Bulk Density (kg/m 3 ) Durability (%) Untreated Corn Stover 50 N/A AFEX Pellets Corn grain Boac et al. (2008) Aplied Engineering in Agriculture 24, AFEX3 process converts corn stover into a corn grain -like commodity

17 AFEX Feedstock Versatility

18 AFEX Pellets Are a Versatile, Tradable Commodity

19 AFEX Pellets for Biorefinery Use

20 AFEX Depots: Decentralized Biomass Processing Biorefinery AFEX Depot tons/day of biomass Draw from 5-10 mile radius Multi depots per biorefinery Utilize grain infrastructure Lower cost solution for large biorefineries

21 Glucose (g/l), Xylose (g/l) Cellobiose (g/l), Ethanol (g/l) Fermentation Performance (3800L Scale) Zymomonas mobilis 8b, Fermentation time (h) Productivity = 2.0 g/lh Titer = >50 g/l Yield = 0.46 g/g glucose and xylose 0

22 AFEX Pellets for Biorefinery Use Challenges/risks Are high-solid loadings possible, while maintaining high yields? Are sugars fermentable? Can the process run clean, not sterile? Will fermentation hit process performance benchmarks (TPY)? Will the process scale-up effectively?* AFEX *to 3000L pilot scale at MBI facility

23 AFEX Pellets for Cattle Feed Use

24 Cattle weight (lb) Weight Gain in Cattle Feed Trial AFEX Control /1 10/1 10/31 11/30 12/30 1/29 2/28 Date AFEX-treated corn stover was palatable The cows remained healthy Comparable weight gain Meat quality was not affected

25 AFEX Pellets for Cattle Feed Use Challenges/risks Will animals eat pellets? Will animals eating the pellets stay healthy? Will the animals gain weight? Will the product quality be acceptable? AFEX

26 AFEX is a scalable, low-capex pretreatment for: Agricultural residues Energy crops Densification produces pellets that are storable and transportable AFEX pellets have multiple applications Cattle feed (beef and dairy) Bio-refinery feedstock (fuel and chemicals)

27 Thank facebook.com/mbibiotech