Key Metric Comparison of Five Cellulosic Biofuel Pathways

by Ben A. Thorp (TAPPI BioEnergy Technologies Quarterly) (T)he modern pathways for cellulose biofuels are pyrolysis, gasification, acid hydrolysis, and enzymatic hydrolysis.

… Commercial efforts in cellulosic biofuels are new and data to compare a specific offering with others within a class or to compare one pathway with another do not exist. Data are lacking for a complete comparison. This paper will start building a comparison metrics framework for cellulosic biofuel pathways.

…The metrics chosen are capital in dollars per annual gallon, yield in gallons per ton, the co-production of MAJOR secondary products, operating cost per gallon, and the selling price of the biofuel as a percentage of gasoline. These key metrics focus on conversion to liquid transportation fuels.

…Now, biofuels become one of the factors critical to the economic health and even survival of oil importing nations, supplementing oil for transportation needs and industrial process needs.

…After identifying raw materials and markets, the next step is identifying the most promising pathway, then identifying the promising technology within a pathway. The last step is to validate all choices. This means that there will not be a single technology of choice but several technologies of choice for combinations of raw materials and markets.

…Another conclusion is that capital cost should receive more attention from federal agencies. Neither DOE nor USDA have an announced goal in this area and no funding opportunity to date has focused on capital intensity reduction. READ MORE (subscription only)