Opportunities and Obstacles in Large-Scale Biomass Utilization The Role of the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Communities: A Workshop Summary (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Feedstocks and Conversion Technologies
2 Feedstocks and Conversion Technologies
Pages 5-16
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From page 5... ...
Brian Duff pointed out that biomass is also very useful for transportation, as it can be processed into high-density fuels FEEDSTOCKS AND RAW MATERIALS for a wide variety of vehicles. The participants in the work Bryce Stokes noted that the United States has abundant, shop discussed in detail the challenges and opportunities for renewable biomass resources to use for feedstocks, although developing biomass utilization for both electricity generation the supply today and the form in which most of it exists is and production of fuels and chemical feedstocks.
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From page 6... ...
this category.5 Agricultural resources include grains that go into bio • Miscellaneous land includes areas in various uses not fuel production, oil crops, and crop residues. Energy crops inventoried, marshes, open swamps, bare rock areas, include perennial grasses, such as switchgrass, bluestem, desert, tundra, and other land generally of low agricul Miscanthus, and others, and perennial wood crops, which tural value and total about 68 million acres.6 include poplar, willow, pine, and eucalyptus, among thers.o • The urban land base includes streams and canals less Agriculture also generates animal manures and food and than an eighth of a mile wide, and ponds, lakes, and feed processing residues that could serve as production reservoirs covering less than 40 acres.
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From page 7... ...
Under both The model also assumed that energy crops would only baseline and high yield scenarios, biomass resources are be grown on cropland, cropland pasture, and permanent predicted to total from nearly 1.1 billion dry tons annually pasture without irrigation and using minimum tillage prac- by 2030 under the baseline scenario to as much as 1.6 billion tices. Energy crops also had to pay for themselves; that is, dry tons annually under the high-yield scenario.
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From page 8... ...
Stokes noted that the Billion-Ton of collection and transport, and systems for harvesting trees study did not include algae as a potential feedstock -- algae and short-rotation wood crops such as willow. was the subject of a parallel study -- but that it did identify It is important when developing any collection system, 106 million acres of suitable land for algae production with he said, to consider total cost, including the expense of drythe potential to produce 58 billion gallons of algal oil per ing materials at a refinery and labor costs.
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From page 9... ...
The and applied research ongoing on algae as a potential source private sector is involved, as well, developing high-biomass of biomass, but he noted that translating indoor lab results dedicated energy crops with increased nitrogen use effito outdoor production environments is not a trivial matter. ciency.
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From page 10... ...
security, the environment, and the economy, and clean energy In a uniform commodity feedstock vision, preprocessing offers potential solutions for each of these. Clean energy can depots would serve biomass production operations within translate into energy self-reliance and developing a stable, a 5- to 20-mile radius.
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From page 11... ...
demand for liquid fuels. can also promote the use of a diverse, domestic and sustain- According to DOE estimates, said Duff, the use of agriculable energy resource and establish a domestic bioeconomy, tural, forest, and urban waste streams, combined with energy as well as reduce carbon emissions from energy production crops and algae, could replace about 50 percent of imported and consumption.
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From page 12... ...
This 4.7 percent of demand. However, that same 1 billion tons of includes producing feedstocks in a way that preserves nutribiomass would generate about 65 billion gallons of gasoline, ents and maximizes carbon cycling, as well as minimizing which would meet about 30 percent of U.S.
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From page 13... ...
He noted that research eral content of biomass complicates matters. Also, the high is under way on a real-time near-infrared monitoring system oxygen content of biomass results in the production of sigthat would provide a compositional analysis of each truck- nificant quantities of carbon dioxide, which reduces carbon load of biomass coming into a preprocessing depot.
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From page 14... ...
Duff agreed with that assessment but noted needed for the use of algal oil at a commercial scale. One that converting a billion pounds of biomass into electricity of the most significant challenges algal oil faces is its heavy would be miniscule compared to reducing greenhouse gas use of water.
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From page 15... ...
Figure 2-9 bitmapped uneditable
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