National Advanced Biofuels Consortium · National Advanced Biofuels Consortium TAPPI Conference Tom Foust, John Holladay, Kelly Ibsen, Adam Bratis 14 March 2011 NABC: For Open Distribution.

National Advanced Biofuels Consortium

TAPPI Conference Tom Foust, John Holladay, Kelly Ibsen, Adam Bratis

14 March 2011

NABC: For Open Distribution

What is the NABC?

NABC : For Open Distribution

The National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC) is a collaboration among U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories, universities, and private industry that is developing technologies to produce infrastructure-compatible, biomass-based hydrocarbon fuels.

The consortium, led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and by NABC partners.

2

How does biomass fit into the petroleum infrastructure?

• Three possible insertion points• Develop new technologies that use today’s infrastructure


Strategies and Technologies


Converting biomass into infrastructure-compatible materials

Feedstock and Sustainability


HarvestResidues

Corn Stover and Loblolly Pine chosen as representative feedstocks for “herbaceous” and “woody” classes.

Promising sustainability data, availability and potential for scalability

Feedstock logistics advances from DOE, Catchlight and ISU being leveraged

Switchgrass being considered in Stage II

Leads: Catchlight Energy and ISU

Pretreatment of Cellulosic Biomass

Acid PretreatedLow severity: 190°C, 3 minutes, 0.63% sulfuric acid in liquid

Acid PretreatedHigh severity: 210°C, 3 minutes, 1.0% sulfuric acid in liquid

6NABC: For Open Distribution

Lead: NREL

Fermentation of Lignocellulosic Sugars

Mevalonate PathwayMevalonate Pathway

YEAST CELL

hydrolysatehydrolysate

Diesel & Chemical Precursor

Diesel & Chemical Precursor

Farnesene Synthase

Farnesene

7

[1] [2] [3] [4]

[1] Cane juice[2] Fermentation broth[3] Separations[4] Purification

[1] Cane juice[1] Cane juice[2] Fermentation broth[2] Fermentation broth[3] Separations[3] Separations[4] Purification[4] Purification


Lead: Amyris

Catalysis of Lignocellulosic Sugars

Process options to produce hydrocarbons from lignocellulosic sugars


Lead: Virent Technologies

Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis

NABC: For Open DistributionReplace sand (heat transfer medium) with catalysts

min0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 22.5

pA

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

FID1 A, (PY_081010-24\NB3425221R108IPA_2-1.D)

Area

: 20.5

488

0.5

49

1.2

72

2.5

94 2

.644

2.6

85 2

.827

- A

ceta

dehy

de 3

.250

3.4

17 3

.470

- A

ceto

ne 3

.779

- IP

A 4

.034

4.3

27 4

.385

4.5

61 4

.648

4.8

53 4.9

04 4

.959 5.2

29 -

2-B

utan

one

5.5

90 -

Ace

tic a

cid

+ 5

.637

5.8

91 6.5

15 6

.683

- m

ethy

l-pro

pano

l 7

.052

7.2

73 -

Ben

zene

7.4

24 7

.581

7.6

21 7

.738

7.8

14 7

.873

7.9

00 7

.980

8.1

20 8

.176

8.2

25 8

.416

8.7

27 8

.771

9.0

51 9

.184

9.2

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.316

9.4

81 9

.569

9.7

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10.

117

10.

299

10.

562

- To

luen

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0.73

2 1

0.82

1 1

0.94

4 1

1.22

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1.31

6 1

1.54

8 1

1.60

6 1

1.68

7 1

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8 -

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11.

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ctan

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2.08

7 1

2.20

5 1

2.29

3 1

2.38

4 1

2.49

6 1

2.66

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2.69

6 1

2.76

1 1

2.85

0 -

dim

ethl

ycyc

lohe

xane

12.

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13.

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14.

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Xyle

ne 1

4.30

3 1

4.48

7 1

4.55

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4.65

8 1

4.76

6 1

4.86

0 1

4.93

7 1

5.03

9 1

5.10

6 1

5.21

2 1

5.27

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8 -

Fura

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boxa

ldeh

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15.

378

15.

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472

15.

604

15.

653

15.

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- P

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5.95

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6.01

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16.

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16.

301

16.

376

16.

517

16.

600

16.

705

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741

16.

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16.

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- C

10H

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her

16.

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- D

ecan

e 1

7.10

7 1

7.15

1 1

7.19

8 1

7.34

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7.43

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Cre

sol i

som

er -1

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17.

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17.

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l iso

mer

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8.02

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8.06

4 1

8.10

8 1

8.18

5 1

8.22

1 1

8.32

6 1

8.37

6 1

8.50

0 1

8.59

9 1

8.67

8 1

8.76

9 1

8.86

9 1

8.92

7 1

9.05

8 1

9.16

1 1

9.20

2 1

9.40

0 1

9.45

3 1

9.49

1 1

9.57

3 1

9.73

4 1

9.76

4 1

9.80

7 1

9.89

3 1

9.95

9 2

0.06

6 2

0.15

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0.21

7 2

0.26

6 2

0.35

5 2

0.41

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0.45

3 -

met

hoxy

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heno

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0.62

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0.85

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9 2

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1.14

2 2

1.36

3 2

1.42

1 2

1.55

4 2

1.58

6 2

1.62

5 2

1.67

4 2

1.79

4 2

1.86

6 2

1.99

3 2

2.08

9 2

2.12

2 2

2.37

5 2

2.43

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5 22.

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ethy

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lene

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Phe

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2506

8

Standard Fast Pyrolysis

min0 5 10 15 20 25 30

pA

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

FID1 A, (PY_100410-32\NB3425253R134IPA_2-5.D)

2.559

2.643

3.762

- IP

A

4.572

7.252

- Ben

zen e

10.52

1 - To

luen

e

13.24

0 - Ethy

lben

zene

13.46

2 - p-Xylen

e

14.07

1 - o-Xy

lene

16.86

3 - Dec

ane

20.52

4 - Nap

htha

lene

22.61

4 - methy

l-Nap

htha

lene

22.91

0 - dimetho

xy Phe

nol

30.17

7

Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis

Lead: UOP

Hydropyrolysis

NABC: For Open DistributionAdd H2 (reactive gas) during pyrolysis

Gas / P (psi) Catalyst

He / 400 none

H2 / 400 none

H2 /400 2wt% DCat-CS1

Lead: RTI

Hydrothermal Liquefaction

Demonstrated on NABC loblolly pine forest residue and corn stover feedstocks in a 1 L continuous reactor

Produced low oxygen oil with yield of 30 wt% (53% yield on a carbon basis). The oil contains 10% oxygen on a dry basis

Moving forward: research focus is to increase the oil yield, reduce operating conditions, complete product analysis and demonstrate production of final fuel


Lead: PNNL

Combining Methanol synthesis with conversion to fuels

12NABC : For Open Distribution

By combining two processes can we (1) lower CAPEX and OPEX, (2) operate with a stable catalyst and (3) make a quality product?

Lead: PNNL

Feedstock Composition

Operating Conditions

Measured Conversion Yields

Process Model in Aspen Plus

Flow rates

Process Economics

Fuel Product Yield

Cost $gal

Minimum FuelSelling Price

Techno-economic and Lifecycle Analysis

R&D TEA LCA


Leads: NREL and ANL

Other Crosscutting Technologies


Refinery Integration (BP and Tesoro)Insertion point 2 preferred from a refinery perspective.Must be amenable to processing in existing refinery processes

Fundamentals (NREL)Combine fundamental and applied studies to develop improved predictive

kinetic/mechanistic models for thermal pyrolysisCatalysis (Albemarle)

Catalytic Pyrolysis is similar to FCCTest with lab deactivated catalysts. Fresh catalysts give erroneous results

Separations (Pall)For biofuel applications, the product is usually a liquid and contaminants are

usually solids and/or another liquid phase.Separations need to be a key aspect of process strategy development

Major NABC Milestones

15*Strategy teams have 2-4 lower level milestones that contribute to these


Nov 2010

Feb2011

May2011

Aug2011

Nov2011

Feb2012

May2012

Aug2012

Nov2012

Feb2013

May2013

Aug2013

8/10 2010

E‐MilestoneCompleted Stage I R&D

Plan

E‐MilestoneCompleted Stage I R&D

Plan

Stage II Mid-stage ReviewNABC Start

E‐Milestone*Demonstrate production of key final products (7/15/11)

E‐Milestone*Demonstrate production of key final products (7/15/11)

E‐Milestone*Demonstrate conversion of LC hydrolysate (8/1/11)

E‐Milestone*Demonstrate conversion of LC hydrolysate (8/1/11)

D‐MilestoneComplete feasibility study (8/10/11)

D‐MilestoneComplete feasibility study (8/10/11)

E‐Milestone *Demonstrate catalyst performance (6/15/13)

E‐Milestone *Demonstrate catalyst performance (6/15/13)

Selection of process(es) for

reports (8/15/12)

Selection of process(es) for

reports (8/15/12)

D‐Milestone Design ReportLCA (8/15/13)

D‐Milestone Design ReportLCA (8/15/13)

E‐MilestoneComplete Stage II R&D Plan (9/15/11)

E‐MilestoneComplete Stage II R&D Plan (9/15/11)

E‐Milestone *Demonstrate 50% carbon

efficiency (6/30/13)

E‐Milestone *Demonstrate 50% carbon

efficiency (6/30/13)

Go/No Go Down-select

Thank you! Questions?


National Advanced Biofuels Consortium · National Advanced Biofuels Consortium TAPPI Conference Tom Foust, John Holladay, Kelly Ibsen, Adam Bratis 14 March 2011 NABC: For Open Distribution.

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