BETO publishes biofuels and bioproducts analysis
Published by Francesca Brindle,
Editorial Assistant
Hydrocarbon Engineering,
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the publication of a report, titled 'Biofuels and Bioproducts from Wet and Gaseous Waste Streams: Challenges and Opportunities'. The report is the first comprehensive assessment of the resource potential and technology opportunities provided by feedstocks, including wastewater treatment-derived sludge and biosolids, animal manure, food waste, inedible fats and greases, biogas, and carbon dioxide streams. These feedstocks can be converted into renewable natural gas, diesel, and aviation fuels, or into valuable bioproducts.
Complementary to the 2016 Billion-Ton Report, this new resource assessment, conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), concludes that wet and gaseous organic waste streams represent a substantial and underutilised set of feedstocks for biofuels and biopower. The analysis found that the US has the potential to use 77 million dry t of wet waste per year, which would generate about 1300 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy. Also, gaseous feedstocks (which cannot be 'dried' and therefore cannot be reported in dry tons) and other feedstocks assessed in the report could produce an additional 1300 trillion Btu of energy — bringing the total to nearly 2.6 quadrillion Btu/y. For perspective, in 2015, the US’ total primary energy consumption was about 97.7 quadrillion Btu.
BETO is exploring of a broad range of possibilities to identify the potential for producing market-relevant platforms. Many waste-to-energy technologies are at an early stage and, therefore, could potentially benefit from DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme, which increases US private sector commercialisation of innovations to build a strong national economy. SBIR technical topic areas for both the fiscal year 2016 (topics 10 b & c) and fiscal year 2017 (topics 14 a & b) included aspects of converting waste to energy.
Not only are wet and gaseous waste streams available now and unlikely to diminish in the near future, finding a beneficial use for them often helps to address the unique and local challenges of disposing of them. Alternative strategies are increasingly necessary due to decreasing landfill capacity and stringent disposal regulations. Also, these waste streams are often located where energy is in highest demand. For these reasons, waste feedstocks could help jumpstart the US bioeconomy via niche markets. Research, development, and scale-up of technologies to utilise waste resources is part of BETO’s work to develop domestic, sustainable, cost competitive biofuels and bioproducts.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/clean-fuels/11012017/beto-publishes-biofuels-and-bioproducts-analysis/
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