DOE to Award Honeywell’s UOP $25M for Pyrolysis Oil to Renewable Fuels Demo Unit
12 January 2010
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| Converting biomass to renewable fuels via a pyrolysis pathway. Source: UOP. Click to enlarge. |
The US Department of Energy has selected UOP, a Honeywell company, for negotiation of a $25 million award to build a demonstration unit in Hawaii to convert cellulosic biomass into renewable hydrocarbon transportation fuels.
The demonstration unit will employ the RTP rapid thermal processing technology developed by Ensyn Corp. RTP rapidly heats biomass at ambient pressure to generate high yields of pourable, liquid pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil—essentially a bio crude oil—will then be upgraded to green transport fuels using technology developed by UOP working with DOE, the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
The demonstration plant, which will be built at the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Kapolei, Hawaii, is expected to start up in 2014.
In 2009, UOP and Ensyn Corp. launched a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, LLC, to offer technology and equipment to convert second-generation biomass into pyrolysis oil for power generation, heating fuel and for conversion into transportation fuels. (Earlier post.)
The RTP technology is a fast thermal process in which biomass is rapidly heated to approximately 500 °C in the absence of oxygen. A circulating transported fluidized bed reactor system—similar to the one used in the UOP Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) technology—is at the heart of the process.
A tornado of hot sand vaporizes the biomass, which is then rapidly quenched, typically yielding 65 wt% to 75 wt% pyrolysis oil. This pourable liquid can then be used as fuel for industrial heat or electrical generation, or it can be further upgraded to produce transportation fuels as in this project’s application.
| Envergent’s RTP process. |
A range of cellulosic feedstocks used in the demonstration unit, including selected waste agriculture products, pulp, paper, woody biomass, algae and dedicated energy crops like switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum will be provided by Ceres Inc., Cargill, Grays Harbor Paper Co., HR BioPetroleum, Targeted Growth Inc., Imperium Renewables, and Mesa Engineering.
The biofuel produced will be analyzed by a panel of petroleum refiners including Tesoro, CountryMark, Kern Oil and Refining Co. and evaluated for end-use by Honeywell, General Motors and Boeing. Life Cycle Analysis will be performed by Michigan Tech University.
UOP also earlier announced that Italian power company Industria e Innovazione selected the RTP technology for the development of a facility to convert biomass into pyrolysis oil for renewable power generation. The facility is projected to start up in 2012.
In 2008, UOP received a $1.5 million grant from the DOE to develop economically viable technology to stabilize pyrolysis oil from second generation biomass feedstocks for use as a renewable fuel source. The UOP award was one of five made by the DOE in this area. (Earlier post.)
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I have often wondered why Hawaii does not create their own energy. Gasoline and oil is brought over in tankers for cars and power generation when they have wind, sun and biomass galore. They have some of the highest electric power rates in the nation and would like to keep the environment clean.
I can only attribute this to a lack of leadership. If their leaders had worked with industry and the department of energy over the years, much of this would have been taken care of. However the DOE people were Bush appointees from the oil industry for the last 8 years, so that explains a lot.
Posted by: SJC | 12 January 2010 at 12:34 PM
The Decider maintained 42% vacation time before his Saudi buddies financed 9/11, which triggered the Patriot Act, Iraqi Freedom, Halliburton etc. profiteering, and global financial meltdown.
Hawaiian alternate energy was under review..
Posted by: kelly | 12 January 2010 at 01:00 PM
So many cause and effect relationships are obvious over the last two terms it is overwhelming, but no one says a thing. It is all free market. Well the free market has had 50 years to bring renewable energy to the country and nothing much has happened.
Many times the private sector can not or will not do what needs to be done. There is not a large enough profit in it for them. So we look to the government to help do those things that need to be done, but are not. I would prefer that the private sector do these things but they do not and we can not wait any longer.
Posted by: SJC | 12 January 2010 at 01:11 PM
A nation continously being lead by bottom line and the quest for maximum profits, regardless of the world they live in; will, from time to time or when financial resources have been drained into fewer pockets, go through major 1929 style recessions.
The current recession is one more example of what was bound to happen without adequate regulations. This time around, USA's economy will be deeply affected for 10+ years and may end up behind Europe and China, if appropriate safeguards are not implemented soon enough.
Printing and borrowing $$ Trillions to keep the economy afloat without the necessary changes will set the stage for one more round within a decade or two.
USA may have to look to Europe (EU) to learn how to better regulate its economy and better control the banking-insurance Industries and Wall Street.
Transaction fees (starting at 1/4 % or 1/2 %) on those operators could be one way to limit speculation while collecting the funds required to lower the current overly high deficits.
Posted by: HarveyD | 12 January 2010 at 01:37 PM
E-P: Is this one of the process you often mentioned to efficiently turn celluslose and other feed stocks into fuel?
Posted by: HarveyD | 12 January 2010 at 01:56 PM
What's funny to me is that the current downturn we're experiencing means that economic conditions here are very similar to what passes for good times in Europe. Look at European unemployment over the last thirty years or so, before suggesting that we need to take tips from them.
Posted by: Matthew | 12 January 2010 at 02:09 PM
One of the great things about pyrolysis is that it not only produces oil but char, charcoal-like substance that can be put back into the ground to make excellent fertilizer, allowing biomass to flourish. It can be carbon neutral, possibly carbon negative. Of all of the concoctions we use to coax fuels out of cellulosic plants, pyrolysis should be investigated more. Pyrolysis is not new, ancient Amazonian Indians used it. Relying on the "free market" alone to provide the technologies to make something like this practical in the modern world reminds me of the old Charlie Brown Haloween special where Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin. I have preached this before: if we wait until peak oil passes and are on the steep downslope of the oil curve to have direct governmental action, we could be faced with a depression that makes 1929 look puny. Every major recession in my lifetime, 1974-75, 1981-82 and now the Great Recession have followed major oil price spikes.
Posted by: Brandon D Hunt | 12 January 2010 at 08:03 PM
Matthew:
From an economic point of view, EU has already surpassed USA and seems to better manage the current recession. The Wall Street & Banks-Insurances mess of the last 2 years is by far the worse of its kind in the world.
Many Americans may not like it but more (severe) regulations and government interventions may be required to get the country out of the current financial mess and recession. Something will have to be done to stop the fast manufacturing decline, oil wars and to reduce the huge budget and trade deficits.
The country has to go from the old OIL & COAL & ICE era to clean e-energy times. Uncontrolled free market and all powerful lobbies may not be the best vehicles to do it.
Too many Americans can no longer afford their acquired way of living and are due for a reality check.
Posted by: HarveyD | 13 January 2010 at 08:29 AM
Great comments guys, it looks like we agree that we need to transition to using less oil. How we go about doing that is a choice among many options and this looks like one of them.
Posted by: SJC | 13 January 2010 at 08:47 AM
Harvey, in what meaningful sense has the EU surpassed us? Yes, their economic area is now larger than ours, but that's only because they have been adding people and countries to it; they aren't wealthier per capita, or more productive, or anything like that.
In fact, most improvements in Europe in recent years have been due to their becoming more like us, not the other way around; German labor market deregulation is a great example.
I know it's a great dream of the watermelon greens that we become more like Europe, but that would be a foolish, foolish mistake.
Posted by: Matthew | 13 January 2010 at 09:26 AM
This is how discussions get off track. We might say that we should adopt a European method because it has proven to work. Then someone says that we should not be like Europe because of this and that. The non sequitur may have nothing to do with anything, but that does not stop some people.
Posted by: SJC | 13 January 2010 at 12:36 PM
Getting back to pyrolysis oils, this sounds like one of Robert Rapier's things. It's certainly in the right place. I'd watch his blog to see if he comments on it.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 15 January 2010 at 12:27 PM