Hybrid, Hyperlocal: 5 Paths of the New Fuel Economy
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …We think that the emergence of a long-term, low-cost natural gas source will ultimately break production of fuel and chemicals into five key streams.
Long chain molecules. Winning? Bio-based. These are the long molecules primarily used in chemistry – areas like flavors, fragrances, some lubricants. High-value, low-volume targets. Here, biological processes look like long-term winners, since ultimately what distinguishes them is that biology can, through metabolic engineering in platform micro-organisms like e.coli, develop one-step processes to create these “tailored molecules” from fermentation of biomass-based sugars. …
Affordable, low carbon fuels. Winning? XTL. These are the workhorse fuels of the future – offering some of the low-carbon attributes which are sought with bio-based molecules, while accessing some of the “at-scale, low cost” properties of, say, natural gas. Now there are biomass to liquid, coal to liquid, and gas to liquid technologies, or BTL, CTL and GTL. We think that XTL may well emerge as a winner here – feedstock combinations of natural gas with a biomass sweetener that adds low-carbon properties. …
Super low carbon fuels. Winning? Bio-based, in electric-hybrid engines. For super low carbon, there’s just no better way to go than biofuels as long as one is seeking a renewable fuel. We see the combination of electric hybrids and low-carbon fuels as being far more robust on value (that is, on a combination of carbon attributes, price, and range) that all-electric vehicles, for some time. …
Low price fuels. Winning? Fossil blends and bio-synthesis. For chasing low-price, there isn’t anything as cheap as natural gas in the biomass world, excepting feedstocks that are transitionally available at zero cost, like MSW (and are unlikely to stay there once the value is proven). …
Hyperlocal fuel? Winning? Depends on where you live, but generally bio. What is a hyperlocal fuel? It is a fuel where feedstock, refining, finance and distribution all happen in the one place. The community that produces its own low-cost, low-carbon fuels, and finances them, is not going to see money leak out of a community to pay for imported fuels, or leak out of the community to repay project loans on fuel technologies. READ MORE
