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Baniel says that the company's goal is to team up with fermentation plants to complete the last stage of ethanol production. "When we started, we thought we might need to go all the way to biofuel," he says. "However, we discovered that there are technologies for fermentation of sugars that are way ahead of anything that we possess."
The company anticipates that its pilot plant will be ready in the latter part of 2010. In the meantime, Baniel says that the company will test multiple steps of its process at various industrial plants in Israel to see whether the technology can run efficiently at large scales.
James McMillan, manager of biochemical refining process research and development at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO, says that scaling up the technology to run robustly is the key to its long-term success. "The proof in the pudding is demonstrating it performs under robust conditions and can handle upsets that happen in the real world, all at a cost that's attractive in the marketplace," says McMillan. "That's what has to be shown." He adds that when it comes time to build a plant, the company may have to invest in expensive materials to contain HCL, which is extremely corrosive and potentially volatile, especially in its gaseous phase.
Another company that is using concentrated acid hydrolysis to produce ethanol is BlueFire Ethanol, based in Irvine, CA. The company is using sulfuric acid, which is slightly cheaper than HCL, to break down sugars from cellulosic sources like municipal solid waste and wood residues. John Cuzens, chief technology officer at BlueFire Ethanol, says that recycling HCL in a gaseous form may help improve sugar yields. However, he cautions that HCL-Cleantech will have to account for the increased risk associated with potential hydrochloric gas emissions.
"Their process may have chlorine gas escaping, and the chlorine gas will corrode everything outside and inside the reactor," says Cuzens. "So the carbon steel walkways--virtually everything in the plant they have to watch for."
Startups say reduced mandates for oil companies make it difficult to finance biorefineries.
Startup Algenol partners with Dow Chemical on a demonstration ethanol plant.
why is there no research into biomass to methane? this is a friendlier gas to handle than either ethanol or hydrogen..
there may be better fuels as you suggest. the only three things ethanol has going for it are 1.)that there are a diversity of methods for producing it that are already in use, 2.)corn and sugar cane based ethanol, regardless of the food vs. fuel issue, have already created a robust market for ethanol, whereas other biofuels, even biodiesel have a very small market, and 3.)there are already millions of flex-fuel vehicles on the road capable of using it.
Of course, natural gas also has an established infrastructure and a huge well-established market, so perhaps vehicles that run on CNG make the most sense. The amount of CNG that is obtained from non-fossil-fuel sources is negligible at this time, but production of biomethane could probably be scaled up very rapidly in the future.
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RD
212 Comments
Ethanol - Terrible Fuel
Ethanol is a corrosive solvent with low energy value. It damages many fuel system components, increases air pollution such as ozone and formaldehyde. It can't be run through most conventional pipelines. It absorbs water which makes fuel go bad quickley. It has high volatility which increases evaporation into the air. And because it has lower energy, we get fewer mpg, which causes consumers to buy more volume of gas, and thus pay more in gas tax. Why must Technology Review keep telling us better ways of making a TERRIBLE FUEL? Better would be focusing on isopropanol (not made from food), or other high energy fuels which are compatible with existing equipment, and don't go stale.
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SirExcedrin
1 Comment
Re: Ethanol - Terrible Fuel
It was entertaining to see how RD could be wrong on every point of his post. Was all the information about ethanol lifted directly from MegaOilron brochures? How is it that in Brazil 96% ethanol with 4% remaining water has been sold at the pump for more than 25 years without any of your imaginary problems arising?
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