Alternative Liquid Fuels

Brian G. LefebvreNovember 12, 2007

U.S. Total Energy Usage– how much, what for, from what?

Petroleum Demand– how much liquid fuel is used in the U.S.?– why so much?

Petroleum Supply– where does the U.S. get their liquid fuel?

Alternatives– current usage– future prospects

Outline

U.S. Total Energy Usage

Total US consumption1

– world = 380 quads in 19982

1 = http://wilcoxen.cp.maxwell.syr.edu/pages/804.html2 = http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/energy/stats_ctry/Stat1.html

U.S. Total Energy Usage by Sector

Total US consumption by sector1

1 = http://wilcoxen.cp.maxwell.syr.edu/pages/804.html

U.S. Total Energy Usage by Source

Energy Source Percentage of total

Petroleum 38.8%

Natural Gas 23.2%

Coal 22.9%

Nuclear 7.6%

Hydro power 3.8%

Other (biomass,geotherm,solar,wind) 3.6%

Data from 19981

Petroleum Demand

2005 – U.S. demand 20.8 million barrels/day3,4

– 1 barrel = 42 gallons– 1 barrel → 19.5 gallons of gasoline– ~ 50% of US oil for passenger-related

transportation– 67% of US oil consumption is for transportation– 71% of transportation fuel is passenger-related

– cars, motorcycles, light-duty trucks

– ~ 140 billion gallons/year!– Nov 2005: $24 billion in oil imports (33% of trade

deficit)

2005 – world demand 83.8 million barrels/day4

3 = http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html4 = http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html

America is Addicted to Oil

Bush State of the Union address – Jan 2006

Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources -- and we are on the threshold of incredible advances.

So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative -- a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research -- at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy. (Applause.)

We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years. (Applause.)

Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. (Applause.) By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past. (Applause.)

Vehicle MPG

Fuel Economy Leaders: 2007 Model Year5

Rank Manufacturer/ModelMPG

city/hwy

1 Toyota Prius (hybrid-electric)    60/51

*** 1991 Honda Civic CRX HF (manual) 49/52

2 Honda Civic Hybrid 49/51

3 Toyota Camry Hybrid   40/38

4 Ford Escape Hybrid FWD 36/31

5 Toyota Yaris (manual) 34/40

6 Toyota Yaris (automatic) 34/39

7 Honda Fit (manual) 33/38

8 Toyota Corolla (manual) 32/41

9Hyundai Accent (manual)          Kia Rio (manual)

32/3532/35

10Ford Escape Hybrid 4WDMercury Mariner Hybrid 4WD

32/2932/29

5 = http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/overall-high.htm

Conservation is Important!

Doubling the mpg of all passenger cars would reduce total oil demand 25%

– From 140 to 105 billion gallons of gasoline/year– From 7.6 to 5.7 billion barrels of oil/year

Current renewable fuels– Ethanol from corn: 6 billion gallons/year– Biodiesel from soybean oil: 0.25 billion gallons/year

Petroleum Supply

Crude oil supply5

– from U.S.: 5.18 million barrels/day– Texas: 1.06 million barrels/day

– foreign sources: 10.13 million barrels/day– OPEC: 5.59 million barrels/day– OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries– Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait,

Libya, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates (Iran, Qatar)

5 = http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_a.htm

History of U.S. Crude Oil Supply

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

1905 1919 1932 1946 1960 1973 1987 2001

Year

Oil

Im

po

rts

(Th

ou

san

d B

arre

ls p

er D

ay)

Total ImportsNon-OPECOPEC

Persian Gulf

Top 5 U.S. Crude Oil Suppliers

Brainstorm– list of possible countries

Survey Says?– vote from list of possible countries

Top 5 U.S. Crude Oil Suppliers

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

1971 1976 1982 1987 1993 1998 2004

Year

Oil

Imp

ort

s (

Th

ou

sa

nd

Ba

rre

ls p

er

Da

y) Canada

Mexico

Saudi Arabia

Venezuela

Nigeria

Alternatives to Traditional Internal Combustion Engines

Other fuels– ethanol (current, flex-fuel, or dedicated vehicles)6

– mixed alcohols– biodiesel (in standard diesel engine)7

– compressed natural gas8

Gasoline-battery hybrids9

– plug-in hybrids (aftermarket now, production later?)10

Electric-only vehicles– cars11

– scooters– bicycles12

6 = http://www.e85fuel.com/index.php

7 = http://www.biodiesel.org/8 = http://automobiles.honda.com/models/civic_gx_phill.asp?ModelName=Civic+GX

9 = http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=402256010 = http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html

11 = http://www.evworld.com/12 = http://www.ebikes.ca/hubmotors.shtml

Alternatives to Traditional Internal Combustion Engines

Nov 2006 PRISM

Can engineers serve up enough cellulosic ethanol to quench our thirst for foreign oil?

Alternatives to Traditional Internal Combustion Engines

Oct 2007 National Geographic

Ethanol from corn not a complete solution to liquid fuels needs13

Ethanol from biomass could replace half of current liquid fuels

13=http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/200710/biofuels/biofuels.html

Alternative Liquid Fuels Facts #1

Gasoline additives to boost octane rating– MTBE

– good: octane, volatility, pipeline shipping, energy– bad: groundwater damage

– ethanol– good: octane, groundwater damage– bad: volatility, pipeline shipping

– mixed alcohols– good: everything

Biodiesel– good: reduced emissions (except NOx)– bad: cold-temperature gelling, vehicle fuel pumping

Alternative Liquid Fuels Facts #2

U.S. gasoline consumption: 140 billion gallons/yr– ethanol: 4.9 billion gallons in 200614

– produced from corn– now at 6.9 billion gallons of capacity– 6.6 billion gallons of capacity in construction14

– biodiesel: 250 million gallons15 – 10x increase in 2 years

Net energy debate– 1 unit of fossil fuel produces:

– 3.2 units of biodiesel– 1.3 units of bioethanol– 0.81 units of gasoline

14 = http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/locations/15 = http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/fuelfactsheets/

U.S. Ethanol Production Facilities

U.S. Biodiesel Production Facilities

Expanding Production of Alternative Liquid Fuels

Currently use ~ 140 billion gallons of gasoline/year

Can we make more using CURRENT methods?– ethanol: 5 billion gallons using 14% of corn crop to

ethanol16

– 1.575 billion bushels (out of 11 billion bushels)– 300 gallons of ethanol/(acre*yr)

– biodiesel: 0.25 billion gallons using 5% of vegetable oil

– 5 billion gallons of vegetable oil TOTAL17

– 300 million gallons as waste cooking oil– 0.25 billion gallons by 60 gallons of

biodiesel/(acre*yr)

16 = http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=180417 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

Expanding Production of Alternative Liquid Fuels

Currently use ~ 140 billion gallons of gasoline/year

Can we make more with NEAR-TERM methods?– ethanol: 10 billion gallons from other sugars

– “waste biomass” like corn stover– 210 gallons of ethanol/(acre*yr)– corn stover: 70 gallons/ton, 250 million tons/yr– sustainably remove 50-66%

– ??biodiesel: algaculture– Algaeculture: 5000 gallons of biodiesel/(acre*yr)

15 = http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=180416 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

Expanding Production of Alternative Liquid Fuels

Currently use ~ 140 billion gallons of gasoline/year

Can we make more with MID-TERM methods?13

– ethanol: 90 billion gallons/year from more biomass– 1.3 billion tons of biomass at 70 gallons

ethanol/ton– Plant 50 million acres of fallow land with grasses

and trees– Improve farm productivity

– biodiesel: 6 billion gallons/year from algaculture– 10 million gallons/year at 600+ coal power plants– 5000 gallons/(acre*yr) * 2000 acres/plant

Current Ethanol Production Methods

Dry mill process is most popular in the U.S.18

– similar to beer production– Freshman Clinic 2 with Farrell

18 = http://www.ethanolrfa.org/resource/made/

Future Fuel Production Methods

Mixed Alcohol (MixAlco) method– presentation at:

http://engineering.tamu.edu/research/lectures/holtzapple_v3.html

– slides at:

http://engineering.tamu.edu/research/lectures/docs/holtzappleppt/lecture.htm

– make fuel from anything!– biomass, sewage sludge, garbage– pretreat with lim– ferment with “natural” organisms to acids– collect acid salts (e.g calcium acetate)– thermally convert to ketone– hydrogenate to alcohol (e.g. Raney nickel

catalyst)

Future Ethanol Production Methods

Ethanol from lignocellulose19

– similar to current method– additional pretreatment to liberate sugars from

complex polymers of 5- and 6- carbon sugars

19 = http://www.ethanolrfa.org/resource/made/

Ethanol from Lignocellulose

Renewable fuels standard– 250 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2012– cheaper feedstock

– renewable supply of 1.3 billion tons / yr20

– corn stover: 250 million tons, 50-66% usable21

– 68 gallons of ethanol / ton of corn stover, 3 tons / acre

– move to higher yield biomass could boost supply– More expensive processing

– chemical pretreatment– enzymatic pretreatment– fermentation of 5- and 6-carbon sugars in the

presence of inhibitors formed during pretreatments

20 = Perlack, R.B., Wright, L.L., Turhollow, A., Graham, R.L., Stokes, B., and Erbach, D.C., “Biomass as a feedstock for a bioenergy and bioproducts industry: the technical feasibility of a billion-ton annual supply,” U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of

Agriculture (2005). Available at http://feedstockreview.ornl.gov/pdf/billion_ton_vision.pdf21 = Morris, D. (2001). Biomass: which road to take. Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Available at: http://

www.newrules.org/de/biomassstrategy.pdf

Sources of Lignocellulose

Switchgrass22

– 3.4 tons / (acre * yr)– 1150 gallons ethanol / acre

22 = http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

Sources of Lignocellulose

Energy Cane23

– 30 dry tons / (acre*yr)

23 = http://engineering.tamu.edu/research/lectures/docs/holtzappleppt/lecture.htm

Sources of Lignocellulose

Energy Cane23

– 30 dry tons / (acre*yr)

23 = http://engineering.tamu.edu/research/lectures/docs/holtzappleppt/lecture.htm

Sources of Lignocellulose

Water hyacinth23

– 70 dry tons / (acre*yr)

23 = http://engineering.tamu.edu/research/lectures/docs/holtzappleppt/lecture.htm

In Practice

Iogen Corp. in Ottowa, Canada24

– 40 tons / day wheat straw to ethanol plant

Abengoa Bioenergy add-on to Spain plant– wheat straw

DuPont and Broin25

– partnership to build plant in Iowa?– Zymomonas mobilis as fermenting organism

– high ethanol tolerance (250 g/L sugar→120 g/L ethanol)

– “low” tolerance to common inhibitors

MixAlco pilot plant in Texas24 = http://www.iogen.ca

25 = http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1160057829655.xml&catref=ag1001

Conclusions

Engineers create and distribute life-enhancing technologies

21st century challenge is to continue this work in growing “global” market

Energy independence is an important aspect– conservation– renewable production methods

Engineers are making progress on renewable energy independence