The US Department of Energy is seeking applications for projects to develop technology or processes for converting thermochemically-derived biomass intermediates (such as, but not limited to, syngas, ethanol, mixed alcohols, mixed oxygenates [C2 and higher molecules], olefins, pyrolysis oils, and ethers) to liquid hydrocarbon molecules that could be a direct feed into current petroleum refineries; or that are direct replacements (blend stocks) of gasoline, diesel, or jet fuels; or chemical products that enable the production of thermochemically-derived biomass fuels.
DOE expects to have approximately $12 million available for new awards under this announcement, subject to annual appropriations. Approximately $4,500,000 is expected to be available for new awards in FY 2011 and an additional $7,500,000 is expected to be available for awards made under this announcement in years FY 2012 through FY 2013, again, subject to annual appropriations.
The new Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0000467) notes that moving beyond ethanol to hydrocarbon fuels will become increasingly important as blend walls are reached and the ability to meet legislated renewable fuel requirements necessitates the incorporation of fungible fuels. Renewable and conventional fuels must also exist together for the foreseeable future and limiting renewable fuels only to gasoline blending will eventually surpass the ability of existing refineries to adjust their product slate to compensate.
DOE has already issued two FOAs on the upgrading of pyrolysis oils (“Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil Stabilization” (DE-PS36-08GO98018) and the follow-on “Upgrading of Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil” (DE-FOA-0000342). (Earlier post.) DOE will not consider applications for the new FOA that duplicate work done under those two prior FOAs.
DOE notes that refinery feedstocks—as well as finished fuels—are complex hydrocarbon mixtures of varying carbon chain lengths. Moving beyond renewable gasoline-only blending components such as ethanol presents the opportunity to take advantage of mixed oxygenates as feedstocks for building these hydrocarbon mixtures. Developing a refinery feedstock, in particular, would be instrumental in significantly reducing dependence on oil by facilitating replacement of the entire barrel of oil currently used to make fuels and chemical products. Moving beyond renewable gasoline-only blending components also presents the opportunity to re-direct the oxygen present in thermochemically-derived intermediates to value-added co-products that bring desirable economic benefits to biofuels processes.
The role of oxygen is expected to be an important aspect of the process development because the nature of the process will impact both the final product yields and operating costs of the upgrading process. In some cases, oxygen may be recovered in a value-added, biofuel-enabling chemical product. Applications must describe how the proposed processes/technologies being developed will remove or otherwise re-route oxygen present in the intermediates, to result in a hydrocarbon refinery (or infrastructure-ready) feedstock, hydrocarbon fuel blendstock, and/or biofuel-enabling chemical product.
DOE expects that the process will be catalytic and that the selected catalyst will be able to direct the chemistry of oxygen rejection and/or re-distribution to a chemical product.
Applications must show how any fuel product(s) resulting from the proposed process will meet the renewable or advanced biofuels portion of the EISA 2007 renewable fuel standard (RFS). Applications must therefore include a life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of the process, comparing the proposed, finished product to the petroleum-derived equivalent.
DOE is encouraging partnering with other organizations having capabilities uniquely suited to the objectives of this FOA. This includes, but is not limited to, foreign-based universities or companies. The other organizations would be expected to bring relevant and unique experience to the proposed work and would be subject to all other FOA requirements.
DOE anticipates that these projects will be critical in attracting private capital and the petroleum refining industry’s support for this biomass to fungible hydrocarbon fuels pathway. This FOA is expected to identify and potentially resolve technical processing issues associated with lon- term thermochemical intermediate upgrading, bringing the technology to a process development unit (PDU) or pilot ready status at the end of the project.