Turning CO2 Emissions into Fuel

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Biorefinery/Fuel Production Infrastructure, Business News/Analysis, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Funding/Financing/Investing, Infrastructure, Not Agriculture, Pennsylvania, Process, R & D Focus, Sustainability

September 23, 2016

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by Gary C. Young (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Bio-Thermal Energy Inc.) A new process for the economical conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels such as ethanol has been developed. The proprietary noncatalytic process combines CO2 with a carbonaceous feedstock and water in the form of steam at temperatures between 1,600 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and low pressure, near atmospheric, in a gasifier to produce a syngas comprised mostly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The syngas can be converted to a fuel such as ethanol via a commercially available biochemical process.

The over-all process using Bio-Thermal-Energy Inc.’s technology for the conversion of CO2 emissions from a cellulosic ethanol plant to more ethanol is a process in which lignin is the carbonaceous material. Both carbon dioxide and lignin are byproducts produced from the corn stover-to-ethanol plant. A cellulosic ethanol plant with a capacity of 25 million gallons per year of ethanol produces enough CO2 emissions for another 21.3 million gallons of ethanol annually using the technology, with the combined plants profitable.

B-T-E’s proprietary process has six U.S. patents, one Japanese patent and other patents pending. The technology was proven experimentally at Westinghouse Plasma Corporation’s 12.5 ton-per-day pilot plant in Pennsylvania. Syngas was produced in the pilot plant using a feed comprised of CO2, steam and a carbonaceous material.

As a noncatalytic process, the carbonaceous material fed to the high-temperature gasifier can use flexible feeds such as gases, liquids, solids or a mixture. Furthermore, a wide variety of carbonaceous feedstocks can be used including corn stover, wood, switchgrass, lignin, municipal solid waste, methane, coke, carbon black, coal, charcoal or tires. The CO2 feed from a corn stover-to-ethanol plant does not require any purification and crude lignin from the plant can be fed to the CO2-to-ethanol plant, without costly drying or pelletizing operations. READ MORE

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