Comments on: First Ever Second-Generation Biofuel Plant Opens in Germany

By: Engineer

Engineer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:56:15 +0000

rtz :
April 17th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
How about some synthetic diesel?
CHOREN uses the exact same technology (gasification to produce syngas followed by Fischer-Tropsch, which converts the syngas into renewable/green diesel). Range Fuels uses a slightly different variation: gasification followed by alcoholization. Alcoholization is apparently a variation of methanolization, a process that is used to produce methanol out of syngas. Methanolization is apparently more efficient than Fischer-Tropsch, but…

We’ll see. Stay tuned.

By: rtz

rtz — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:34:03 +0000

How about some synthetic diesel?

http://www.syntroleum.com/

By: Engineer

Engineer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:43:02 +0000

akitadog,
You are right CWT does something similar. CWT’s technology is good enough to put biodiesel producers out of business. However, as explained here, CWT (like biodiesel) can only convert lipids (fats and oils in English) into fuel. That’s great when you’re next to a Turkey slaughterhouse, but in general the feedstock is limited. Choren can handle all kinds of biomass, including cellulose. Cellulose is considered the holy grail of biofuels because there is so much of it AND it is so difficult to convert into liquid fuels.

By: akitadog

akitadog — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:50:06 +0000

So what is it that companies like Changing World Technologies do? Is it not second-gen biofuels? They take organic waste and convert it into diesel fuel, fertilizer and other substances with industrial applications. They’ve been around for a few years now.

By: kph

kph — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:19:32 +0000

Engineer:
Amen. This is definitely a direction worth exploring. Recycling and burning as fuel may give better energy returns, but if you’re going to make liquid / gaseous fuel from something, might as well use an old landfill.

By: Engineer

Engineer — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:10:37 +0000

As I mentioned before, I believe these are (one of) the (few) guys to watch. Gasification has several advantages over fermentation-distillation including use of all the carbon in the feedstock, using mixed feedstocks and (possibly) efficiency (since you don’t need that heat hog called distillation).

And the German minister can relax. Other companies are working on making gasification modular, so that it remains profitable, even on small scale.

Let’s hope it’s the beginning of the end for the FOOD->FUEL debacle!