Advanced BioFuels USA

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … According to POET CEO Jeff Broin, there’s a deal on the table — changing almost by the hour, but a deal none the less. A deal on the table to provide year-round E15 approval for the biofuels industry and that may offer some relief to small merchant oil refiners.

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The White House meetings are tremendous theater but ultimately are a side-show to the bigger question of where ethanol is going in the future — because there’s an E15 saturation point looming just as there’s an E10 saturation point already reached.

So, where’s the growth? There are four paths that the ethanol industry could take. Let’s examine.

E15 year round acceptance

The regulation in question governs Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP), a measure of evaporative emissions in fuel.

Gasoline evaporation contributes to ozone formation. Under current law, evaporative emissions from gasoline are limited during summer months, from June 1 through mid-September to prevent ozone formation. In primarily large, urban areas that are not in attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) evaporative emissions and gasoline are even more strictly regulated.

In 1990, Congress limited the amount of evaporative emissions from vehicle fuel at 9 pounds per square inch (psi) RVP. Pure ethanol has a 3 psi RVP, only when combined with gasoline at low levels, does the RVP of ethanol blended fuel exceed 9 psi. Despite E15 having a lower RVP profile than E10, E10 has been granted an one pound per square inch (psi) RVP waiver, while E15 has not received the same treatment.

Consequently, access to E15 is severely limited in many regions of the U.S., especially during the summer driving season, creating confusion for consumers and discouraging many retailers from offering E15 altogether.

We reported in January that the Environmental Protection Agency should decide soon whether or not it has the authority to approve E15 use year-round.

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Foreign trade
Exports? They are a dicey proposition.

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Then, we reported this month that USDA data shows ethanol exports fell by nearly half in February from the month before to 334.4 million liters, also 24% lower than in February 2017, on the back of China’s near absence as an import destination despite strong buying expected throughout Q1.

Why’s China not an importer? For one, China’s an exporter. As we reported last August, Chinese ethanol exports soared once again in July to 19,814 cu m, up 8% on the month, with about 65% of the total—12,945 cu m—headed to Saudi Arabia. North Korea and the Philippines absorbed much of the rest of the export volumes.

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E30 and other advanced engines

Now, war is surely about to break out over E25-E30 blending, now that RFA CEO Bob Dinneen testified in DC in his courtly but adamant manner that a high-octane, low-carbon ethanol blend in optimized engines would be the lowest cost means of achieving compliance with fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for car model years 2022-2025 and beyond,

As Dinneen put it, “most new and emerging internal combustion engine technologies are enabled by a high-octane, low-carbon fuel blend. For example, high-compression ratio technology (which EPA estimates will comprise 44% of the market by 2025) demands higher octane fuels to limit premature fuel ignition in the cylinder,” he said.

What’s he’s pointing to are ethanol’s unique properties—high octane rating, low lifecycle carbon emissions, high octane sensitivity, and high heat of vaporization. “These attributes make ethanol a highly attractive component for the high-octane fuel blends of the future,” he said.

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Nissan’s Solid Oxide Fuel Cell system, and what the fuss is all about

Fuel cells are important technology. You may remember them from the space program. They show up in the drama of Apollo 13, for example. Many car companies have investigated their potential — but here’s a breakthrough that addresses the major barriers for fuel-cell adoption, and has ethanol in the mix as the energy carrier.

Capacity expansion or switching via advanced fuels

There are many things that ethanol plants can switch over to, to achieve growth while bypassing the E10 saturation point and the resultant controversies.

Cellulosic fuels co-locations. As we reported this past week, there were more than 100 presentations at ABLC last week and not a clunker amongst them, but if I were to point the reader’s attention at one or two that stood out from the rest because of the short-term or long-term implications, I’d start with the news from Aemetis that they are embarking now on a $158 million cellulosic ethanol plant — to be built in Riverbank, California, in partnership with LanzaTech.

Butanol. It’s been discussed endlessly — there’s absolutely no dispute that butanol as an advanced alcohol blends at a higher rate and carries more energy than ethanol. Gevo and Butamax are embarked on that strategy — but it all comes down to achieving the right economies of scale. 

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Jet fuels. Byogy and Vertimass both have different paths towards the same goal. Using ethanol as a blendstock to make jet fuels. Oak Ridge’s research (which was licensed to Vertimass) uses direct catalytic conversion, the ethanol is used to produce a hydrocarbon blendstock that can be blended with petroleum at a refinery to produce biofuels such as drop-in hydrocarbon fuel, jet fuel, or diesel, or to produce renewable commodity chemicals such as BTX (benzene, toluene, and xylenes).

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