Scientists from the Stevens Institute of Technology conducted a research and their preliminary analysis looked into a Biorefinery Collective of biomass-to-liquid fuels using centralized ATR or autothermal reforming and fast pyrolysis followed by synthesis using Fischer-TRopsch process. Different sizes of plants ranging from 35,000; 10,000; and 2,000 dry tonnes of biomass a day with 8 percent return, the experts found out that the sales price can go for $2.06, $2.40, and $3.30 a gallon, respectively, without taxes.

The process will involve collection of surplus biomass like crop residue and then pyrolizing this biomass into PO or pyrolysis oil, char, and NCG or noncondensable gas. The next step will be to move the PO into a processing facility so that the PO can be converted to synthesis gas via autothermal reforming and then FT synthesis to make it into a diesel fuel. These steps were tagged by the proponents as the Biorefinery Collective.

The higher density of the pyrolisis oil compared to the biomass my lower the transport cost to the ATR plant and pipeline transport can also be considered. The pyrolyzer collective will entail a number of farms in a certain location where each of the farm will send the residues of their crop to a pyrolizer in the area to convert it to pyrolysis oil.

The study sees the cost of the biomass to be the number one factor in pricing as the crude oil prices is to the current market pricing today. And they found out that effective methods of collection and delivery of the biomass will lead to lower cost.

According to a recent research, the biofuel industry will double its market value due to increased production and consumption in a decade’s time. Experts foresee it to grow from $82.7 billion this year to around $185 billion come 2021.

The widespread growth of the industry across regions will reshape industries and the geopolitical landscape according to analysts. Steps must also be taken to overcome challenges to meet the possible high demand of the ground, maritime, and aviation fuel markets.

Although the fuel industry have shown considerable success in the United States, European Union, and Brazil, the issue to face now will be sustainability, product neutrality, and feedstock versatility. The   experts agree that the use and production of biofuels will be spreading to developing and developed economies in the next ten years but the access to feedstock will lead to big trades across country with Brazil being the key supplier.

The projections were made by Pike Research thru their report called Biofuels Markets and Technologies detailing key opportunities and challenges in biodiesel and ethanol. They looked into developments of policies, market drivers, feedstock economics, production, demands in different sectors, and the major industry players.

The green tide is considered to be among the major problems in the marine environment across the globe. A massive breakout of green tide in the Yellow Sea near Qingdao in China created big problems. A massive amount of drifting green tide ended along the coastlines which caused negative effects to the environment and to the quality of seawater. The cleanup drive resulted to a collection of a million ton of macroalgal waste.

The study which was recently published in science journals studied the effects of temperature, alkali catalyst, and reaction time of the green tide. Different methods were utilized to study the characters of the solid and liquid products.

We decided not to really enumerate the process that was done since it is too technical for everyone but the experts were able to derive biooil that is a blend of aromatics, esters, fatty acids, alkenes, phenols, aldehydes, ketones, and other substances.

Dr, Sammy Boussiba is the head of MBL, and is presently the president of the International Society of Applied Phycology. MBL does extensive researches on algae for about decades and holds a commendable record for commercializing the production of algae systems used for the nutraceutical and feed markets.

Meanwhile, US and European branches of Primafuel laboratories shaped multiple technology baseline that is centered on the refinement, partition and alteration of biomass products. Also, the biorefinery program of Primafuel has been renowned by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for the expertise in biomass processing.

According to Rahul Iyer, Primafuel’s Chief Marketing Officer, the company possesses a sole licensing agreement with MBL on its strain selection and photobioreactor work, as well as bio fuels and co-products technology that will be created in the future. The partnership with MBL is focused on creating high-value algae strains cost-effectively. The CMO also noted that Primafuel has not conferred figures or objectives on oil cost and yield.

Dr. Boussiba summarized at the October 2008 Algae Biomass Summit points of disputes in economically feasible algae mass production. He illustrated the Ketura photobioreactor as the biggest operating photobioreactor in the world, and holds 300,000 cubic meters of water and tubes stretching to hundred kilometers.

One can say without hesitation that the owners of the Swedish car, SAAB, are the best off. As it is this car manufacturer is famous all over the world for the safety features of their car and also for the fact that they are credited with introducing certain innovative features that are now being adopted by car manufacturers all over the world. It is hence natural that SAAB cars would also lead the way when it comes to manufacturing cars that run on alternative fuels.

SAAB has not let down its fans and has come out with the SAAB 9-5 BioPower. This car has got the capability of reducing the CO2 emission by as much as 70%, a percentage that has not been achieved by any other car manufacturer prior to SAAB. The 9-5 BioPower can run either on petrol or on a mixture of petrol and bioethanol (E85). There is no need for special adjustments to be made by the driver to run the car on these different fuels.

Using wood chips to create ethanol is a great way, as long as we’re using the kind of wood Scandinavia is famous for — the kind that doesn’t kill worldwide photosynthesis…

In an article titled Moving Away from Food Source Ethanol, Alternative Fuels Blog talks about this, and I think it’s an excellent resource…

One such energy farm is Destiny, in Florida, which recently announced that it would become an eco-city spotlighting sustainable farming practices. Having already planted several hectares of sorghum, a type of grass, they plan to also plant algae and jatrophai in an attempt to manufacture bio fuels from non-food materials. Because the sorghum uses less water than corn and can thrive in less fertile soil, it may come to rival corn when making ethanol.

The University of Florida will participate in the project by assessing the crops to determine which will be best suited to bio fuels with the smallest impact to the environment. They will also look at costs involved in the use of the sorghum. One of the reasons non-food raw materials may be more attractive is the fact that presently bio fuel companies must compete with the food industry to obtain their raw materials for ethanol. As the food market increases prices, the price of bio fuel increases as well. By finding an alternative to food, the price of bio fuel may be kept considerably lower.

Destiny is not the first energy farm to plant sorghum nor is it the first to focus on non-food crops for bio fuels. The state of Oklahoma recently planted a large section of switchgrass to determine its viability as an alternative fuel source.

In conjunction with Sindicafé (Sao Paulo Coffee Industry Union), the Federal University of Minas Gerais conducted tests to ensure the product’s viability. Not only is the reliability of the product important but also, the economics of using the beans for bio fuel versus selling the inferior beans to other coffee related industries. And even if proven that the bio fuel can work, there will be many steps to ensure the ideal comes to fruition. But in the meantime, individual companies within the coffee bean sector may choose to fuel their equipment with the diesel, as it will be much cheaper than gas stations. Further, the process is less expensive than using other food products because the supply of coffee bean oil already exists.

Other oils that Brazil is testing are castor oil, palm oil and soybean oil with the intent of diversifying the raw materials used to produce clean burning bio fuels.

bio fuels ethanol

Bio fuels are indeed types of alternative fuels. There is some discussion, however, as to what constitutes a bio fuel. Some feel that it only refers to food source gasoline such as ethanol made from wheat, corn or sugar cane. Others believe that bio specifically refers to biodegradable, and others yet, understand bio to mean any sustainable resource such as plants and organic waste.

Further, many scientists refer to bio fuels as agro-fuels, since the underlying composition of a bio fuel is that it is sustainable and it came from living organisms. Another form of bio fuel is bio diesel that is made from fats found in plants, cooking oils, soybean oil, canola oil and some animals.

The thing that is most bizarre about bio fuels is the price. When it first became available at limited numbers of gas stations In Canada, the promotional material said it was a cheaper gas and helped the planet. Many people would not buy it believing it was some sort of gimmick and feeling that their car would not perform as fast using gas made from wheat or corn. But the point was it was much cheaper to manufacture so no one should have any complaint about filling his/her tank with bio fuels.

Today, it is claimed that it only costs about one dollar US per gallon to produce the bio fuels but all the gas stations that pump ethanol are charging the same ridiculously high price as normal gas. Now they tell us that it costs just as much to produce the corn based gas as regular gasoline. So other than the pollution factor, why would people bother buying bio fuels especially when most cities only have one gas station and then many have none?