The potential and challenges of drop in biofuels OH O H H H H - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The potential and challenges of “drop in” biofuels OH O H H H H H H - O 2 H H C C C C H OH H H H H H H O OH H OH “Petroleum - like” biofuel Carbohydrate Hydrocarbon Sergios Karatzos, Jim McMillan and Jack Saddler International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 39 (liquid biofuels) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy (FPB/B)

Commissioned Task 39 ‘drop in’ biofuel report  OVERVIEW  Definition  Role of Hydrogen in drop in biofuels  Role of Hydrogen in petroleum industry  TECHNOLOGIES Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC

Definition of a “drop - in” biofuel  Bioethanol: Biogenic ethyl alcohol  Biodiesel: Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)  Drop in Biofuels: Liquid bio-hydrocarbons that are functionally equivalent to petroleum fuels and as such compatible with existing petroleum infrastructure.  Examples:  Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO)  Hydrotreated Pyrolysis Oils (HPO)  Fischer Tropsch Liquids (FT liquids) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 3

Oxygen Challenge  Oxygen is present in biomass in the form of hydroxyls, esters, and ethers  Can oxidize fuel components, reactors and pipeline metallurgy to cause corrosion  Oxygen content reduces energy density CH 3 Ethanol Biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 4

The Hydrogen-Oxygen dilemma  “Drop - in biofuels” is a loose term referring to liquid biofuels containing low or no oxygen content  Deoxygenation requires hydrogen inputs or “oxidizing/burning” of feedstock carbon  High H/C eff ratio feedstocks such as lipids are well suited for drop-in biofuel production Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 5

What will determine the success of “drop in biofuels”?  Drop-in biofuel technologies complexity and hydrogen demand  Commercialization challenges such as capital, yield and refinery insertion  Crude oil is becoming increasingly hydrogen deficient (‘heavier’ and ‘sourer’) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 6

Crude oil quality declining… 90 80 Million barrels per day 70 60 50 Heavy Sour Light Sour 40 Light Sweet 30 20 “Sour” = High Sulfur 10 0 1990 2000 2010 2020 Purvin & Gertz forecast for world crude oil quality (Source: data from EIA) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 7

Future competition for Hydrogen inputs…  Heavy oil processing e.g. Venezuela and Alberta  Ammonia industry  Drop-in biofuels? Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 8

Hydrotreating and Hydrocracking  Hydrotreating (Removes sulfur impurities as H 2 S)  Hydrocracking (breaks heavy oil to lighter molecules) Heavy crude molecule Gasoline range molecule Diesel range molecule Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 9

US Hydrotreating capacity 1990-2030 30 25 million barrels per day 20 15 10 Rapid increase in H 2 consumption in US refineries 5 0 1990 1995 2000 2004 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 10 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC Source EIA, Annual Energy Outlook 2006

Natural gas: Where H 2 comes from  90 % of commercial H 2 comes from steam reforming natural gas CO 2 CH 4 Steam reforming H 2 ENERGY INTENSIVE PROCESS!! Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 11

Role of H 2 in upgrading petroleum and drop-in biofuels Petroleum Drop-in Biofuels  No Sulfur  Increasing Sulfur content  Increasing heavy oil  High Oxygen content of needs cracking feedstock needs hydrogenation Both require Hydrogen for upgrading to finished fuels Hydrogen will likely come from Natural Gas Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 12

Commissioned Task 39 ‘drop in’ biofuel report  OVERVIEW  Definition  Role of Hydrogen in drop in biofuels  Role of Hydrogen in petroleum industry  TECHNOLOGIES Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC

The commercialization potential of Drop in Biofuel platforms and their H 2 dependence  Oleochemical (HVO, algae)  Thermochemical (Pyrolysis - HPO, Gasification FT-liquids)  Biochemical (Advanced Fermentation)  Hybrid platforms (e.g. Virent, Zeachem, Lanzatech) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 14

Technology pathways to “drop - in” CONVENTIONAL INTERMEDIATES Higher alcohols Hydroprocessing Bio (e.g. Gevo) sugar crop Isoprenoids hydrolysis fermentation sugars (e.g. Amyris) Biomass fiber Sun photons, water, CO 2 Thermo catalytic FT liquids gasification syngas and nutrients conversion (e.g. CHOREN) HPO pyrolysis biooil upgrading (e.g. ENSYN) animal digestion Oleo Blending lipids oilseed crop Autotrophic LEGEND algae materials drop-in processes fuel Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 15

Commercial drop-in biofuel companies Neste Oil facility, Rotterdam  All based on oleochemical  Neste Oil: 630,000,000 gallons diesel from palm oil  Dynamic Fuels: 75,000,000 gallons diesel from animal fat Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 16

Many examples of commercial biofuel flights  Virtually all based on oleochemical  US Navy: Sept 2011 Solazyme algae oil and palm oil  Continental Airlines: Nov 2011 Solazyme algae oil  Alaska Airlines: Jan 2012 tallow and algae  Lufthansa: July 2011 Jatropha, Camelina  Finnair: July 2011 Used Cooking Oils  Many more Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 17

Thermochemical drop-in biofuel platforms INTER- CATALYTIC MEDIATES UPGRADING treatment 1 treatment 2 Gases Pyrolysis HPO 500°C Hydro Hydro oil Hydrocracking Gasoline No O 2 Biomass Jet Tropsch Gasification FT liquids 900°C Fischer Diesel Syngas some O 2 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy (FPB/B) 18

Example of pyrolysis drop in facility: KiOR  13,000,000 gallons per year in Mississippi (in operation) H 2 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 19

Forest BtL Oy and Choren’s Carbo-V  34,000,000 gallons per year of Gasification FT liquids by 2016 (Finland) CO 2 H 2 H 2 Pretreat. Gasification FT Hydrocracking conditioning Sundrop biofuels 50 MGPY Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 20

Drop in biofuels leveraging on Oil refineries OLEOCHEMICAL OIL REFINERY Lipids Gases THERMOCHEMICAL treatment 1 treatment 2 Hydrocracking Gasoline Pyrolysis HPO Hydro Hydro oil Jet Biomass Diesel Tropsch Gasification FT liquids Fischer Syngas over the fence H 2 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy (FPB/B) 21

Challenges of hydrocracking biofeed: The Haldor Topsoe experience  Higher Hydrogen consumption  requirements more than doubled when just 5% of feed was replaced with biofeed!  Presence of oxygenated gases such as CO and H 2 O  Heterogeneity of feedstock (Catalyst design challenges) Source: Haldor Topsoe, 2009 22 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC

Major upscaling challenges for each platform  Pyrolysis  Hydrogen  Hydrotreating catalyst  Gasification  Capital / scale  Feedstock /yields  HVO oleochemical  Feedstock Sources: Jones et al. 2009; Swanson  Refinery insertion challenges et al. 2010; Pearlson et al. 2011 Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 23

Biochemical: Sugar fermentation to drop-in FERMENTATION Target molecule SUGAR Modified algae, Long alcohols bacteria or yeast Aliphatic chains  Major advantages  Pure and “functionalized” product streams suitable for value added markets  Major challenges  Volumetric productivity about 10x lower than ethanol  Recovery challenges: e.g. recovery from fermentation broth and intracellular expression  Sugar feedstock highly oxidized (H/C = 0) Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 24

Summary  Oleochemical: commercial now and less H 2 -dependent with considerable potential for growth (feedstock challenges?)  Thermochemical well suited for long term drop-in biofuels  H 2 and catalyst challenges (Pyrolysis), Scale challenges (Gasification)  Leveraging on oil refineries: more challenging than expected  Biochemical “drop - in” products more valuable in rapidly growing chemicals markets  Accessing cheap/renewable Hydrogen will be a key challenge for both drop-in biofuels and crude oil of decreasing quality Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy at UBC 25

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 39 colleagues www.Task39.org Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy (FPB/B)