Advanced BioFuels USA

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From California comes news that Oberon Fuels has been officially awarded a grant for $2,876,139 from the California Energy Commission (CEC) for a first-of-its-kind, multi-phase project to produce the first renewable dimethyl ether (rDME), with what could arguably be the most carbon-negative transport fuel ever produced at scale.

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Low carbon fuels reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, zero carbon fuels add no net carbon in their lifecycle, while negative carbon fuels actually vacuum the sky out of more emissions than are ever emitted by the combustion.

There’s also the concept of a zero-emission vehicle, which has no tailpipe emissions, but ZEVs don’t inherently reduce greenhouse gas emissions —with an electric vehicle, you could have stunningly high greenhouse emissions at the coal-fired power plant where the power is generated, and nothing at the tailpipe.

But carbon negative is the best, and DME’s fuel, generated from dairy waste, checks in a whopping Carbon Intensity score of -278, compared to 100 for conventional fossil fuel.

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Oberon will upgrade its existing DME pilot facility to demonstration scale and facilitate the first production of rDME in the U.S. By making automation, design, and other system changes, Oberon expects the production capacity to double compared to current stable production volumes, as well as to be able to use a new by-product from the paper industry to produce the fuel. The project will take place in Brawley, California, south of the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley.

In addition to scaling up the plant and testing new feedstocks, the project will also test modified diesel trucks fueled by rDME in the Imperial Valley and other Southern California locations. Oberon will work with commercial partners to assess the technical feasibility and economics of converting renewable methanol, a by-product of the pulping process, into rDME and developing an associated rDME fueling infrastructure.

The leap to DME

This project is a key building block to statewide production of rDME from California’s methane, removing this potent greenhouse gas from waste streams and converting it to an ultra-low carbon or carbon-negative transportation fuel. Beyond this project, these technology enhancements will be leveraged into Oberon’s first commercial-scale facility converting dairy biogas to rDME. Oberon can then replicate its initial commercial production facility for statewide rollout of rDME production facilities. These commercial plants will convert in-state methane emissions from dairy manure, food waste, and agricultural waste to rDME.

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Hydrogen, and other applications beyond diesel replacement

While most of the focus on DME has been on its application as a diesel fuel replacement, it can also serve as both a cost-effective, easy-to-transport hydrogen carrier and as a blending agent with propane to reduce propane’s carbon intensity when DME is made from renewable feedstocks.

Since rDME is an efficient hydrogen carrier, rDME can be transported to a hydrogen fueling station and then converted to renewable hydrogen to fuel zero-emission vehicles. The stripping will typically release CO2, but the immense carbon negativity of the fuel more than offsets that emission, and DME-based green hydrogen is also carbon negative. And is 3-4 times more dense than conventionally transported hydrogen, and safer — so, no Hindenburg going up in flames while delivering a hydrogen fuel.

With only a 20 percent blend of dairy manure-based rDME, propane’s carbon intensity (CI) value is reduced from 82 to 10. With over 4,000 vehicles, including school buses, police cars, and shuttles, running on propane in California, rDME offers the potential to significantly reduce overall GHG emissions. So, you can grill with carbon pride from your propane tank each summer, if Oberon is in the mix.

The Fleet advantage in using DME

California is tilting towards zero emission vehicles, but for cash strapped city and county fleets, new vehicles can be expensive. Here’s a drop-in solution that does not require a new vehicle purchase that is even better than zero emission, it is carbon negative. So, for school bus fleets, here’s something that can be done today, not 15 years from now at fleet replacement time.     READ MORE