Development of Cellulosic Biofuels

Chris SomervilleEnergy Biosciences Institute

UC Berkeley, LBL, University of Illinois

The Energy Biosciences Institute(www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org)

• $500M committed over 10 years• Research mandate to explore the application of

modern biological knowledge to the energy sector– Cellulosic fuels – Petroleum microbiology (bioremediation, biosouring,

corrosion, recovery…)– Biolubricants

2

Combustion of biomass can provide carbon neutral energy

Biomass

Photosynthesis “Combustion”

Work

Sunlight

CO2CO2

TillingLand conversionFertilizerTransportationProcessing

It depends on how the biomass is produced and processed

Net GHG emissions from various fuels

From: Americas Energy Future, NAS 2010

Overview of Brazil sugarcane

• ~8 M Ha planted in 2009• ~27 B liters ethanol, 2009• ~80-120 T/Ha• ~6400 L ethanol/Ha• ~429 mills• Plantings last 5-12 y• Large mill

– 22,000 tons/day– 750 truck loads/day

http://english.unica.com.br/content/show.asp?cntCode={D6C39D36-69BA-458D-A95C-815C87E4404D}

Primary uses of US corn

USDA Economic Information Bulletin #79, 2011

Renewable Fuel Standard(Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Year

Bio

fuel V

olu

me (

billion

gallon

s)

BiodieselGeneral AdvancedCellulosic AdvancedConventionalPrevious RFS Advanced

US Biomass inventory = 1.3 billion tons

Forest12.8%

Urban waste2.9%

Manure4.1%

Grains5.2%

Crop residues7.6%

Soy6.2%

Wheat straw6.1%Corn stover

19.9%

Perennial crops35.2%

From: Billion ton Vision, DOE & USDA 2005

26 B gals ~

~45 B gals

Napier grass: A potential energy crop(One-year old crop growing in Florida, photographed in October

2009)

Courtesy of Brian Conway, BP

An energy crop

Yield of 26.5 tons/acre observed by Young & colleagues in Illinois, without irrigation

Court

esy

of

Ste

ve L

ong e

t al

Crop models for biomass production indicate advantaged regions for biomass production

Fernando E. Miguez Steve Long German Bollero

Harvesting Miscanthus

http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/gallery/index.html

Response of Miscanthus to nitrogen fertilizer

Christian, Riche & Yates Ind. Crops Prod. (2008)

93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Year

0

5

10

15

20

Yie

ld (

t/HA

)

N0

N60

N120

Private forests are extensive

Alig & Butler (2004)USDA Forest Service PNW-GTR-613

Land Usage

AMBIO 23,198 (Total Land surface 13,000 M Ha)

Forest & Savannah

Cereal

4.6% Pasture & Range23.7%

30.5%

Other crops6.9%

Nonarable

34.4%

More than 1.5 billion acres of degraded or abandoned land is available for cellulosic

crops

Cai, Zhang, Wang Environ Sci Technol 45,334

Campbell et al., Env. Sci. Technol. (2008) 42,5791

Agave in Madagascar

Borland et al. (2009) J. Exp. Bot. doi:10.1093/jxb/erp118

Summary of Syngas-Liquids Processes

SyngasCO + H2

Methanol

H2OWGSPurify

H2

N2 over Fe/FeO

(K2O, Al2O3, CaO)NH3

Cu/ZnOIsosynthesis

ThO2 or ZrO2

i-C4

Alkali-doped

ZnO/Cr

2 O3

Cu/ZnO; Cu/ZnO

/Al2 O

3

CuO/CoO

/Al2 O

3

MoS

2

MixedAlcohols

Oxosynthesis

HC

o(CO

)4

HC

o(CO

)3 P(Bu

3 )

Rh(C

O)(PPh

3 )3

AldehydesAlcohols

Fischer-Tropsch

Fe,

Co

, Ru

WaxesDiesel

OlefinsGasoline

Ethanol

Co, Rh

Formaldehyde

Ag

DME

Al 2O

3

zeolites

MTOMTG

OlefinsGasoline

MTBE

Acetic Acid

carb

onyl

atio

n

CH 3

OH

+ C

OC

o, R

h, N

i

M100M85DMFC

Direct U

se

hom

olog

atio

nC

o

iso

buty

len

ea

cidi

c io

n e

xch

ang

e

Richard Bain, NREL

Distillation EthanolDrying

Co-Product Recovery

Animal FeedChemicals

Sugar Cane Process

Cellulose Conversion

Hydrolysis

Corn Process

Cellulose Process

ThermochemicalConversion

• Heat and Power• Fuels and Chemicals

Cellulose Pretreatment

Cellulose

• Miscanthus• Switchgrass• MSW• Forest Residues• Ag Residues• Wood Chips

Ferment-ation

SugarSugarCane

CornKernels

Starch Conversion(Cook or

Enzymatic Hydrolysis)

Ethanol Production Flowchart

Slide Courtesy of Bruce Dale

19

Projected costs of gasoline from various sources

From: Americas Energy Future, NAS 2010

21

Breakdown of Capital Costs for NREL Biorefinery

Source : Paul Willems from NREL design, May 2011

Detailed Split by SectionPretreatment

Sacharification &Fermentation

Enzyme Production

Distillation

Waste treatment

Boiler & Utilities

Storage

Batch processes have many inefficiencies

22

Time

Sugar

conce

ntr

ati

on Fu

el a

ccum

ula

tion

Unused capital

Catalyst Loss

Wastewater

Boiler

Hypothetical alternative scenario

Biomassgrinding

Ligninremoval

Solvent recovery

Ligninuse

Enzymaticdigestion

Enzyme production

Enzymerecovery

fermentation

Fuel separation

and volume adjustment

Wastemanagement

Fueluse

Endo

Exo-processive

Classical paradigm for the enzymatic degradation of insoluble

polysaccharides

Gustav Vaaje-Kolstad, Bjorge Westereng, Svein Horn, Zhanliang Liu, Hong Zhai, Morten Sorlie, Vincent Eijsink (2010) Science 330: 219-222

Discovery of a novel enzyme class (CBM33 & GH61)

• CBM33s are monooxygenases that introduce chain breaks on the surfaces of crystalline polysaccharides, including cellulose. They act synergistically with standard hydrolytic enzymes.

• Their activity can be boosted dramatically by adding external electron donors.

• Fungal ”GH61” proteins do approximately the same.

25G. Vaaje-Kolstad et al., Science 330:219-222 (2010)

Sources of biodiesel

CRC Report AVFL-17

Major types of components of FACE9A diesel

CRC Report FACE-1

Routes to potential fuels

Fortman et al, Trends Biotechnology 26,375

Concluding comments

• There appears to be significant underutilized land but expanded demand for land will require improved management of all land uses

• Cellulosic biofuels can contribute but are not large enough to be a “solution” to the energy/climate problem

• There are not technical barriers to production but there are many opportunities to fundamentally improve the production and diversification of biofuels

• Engineering and finance are the rate limiting step

The Future

http://genomicsgtl.energy.gov/biofuels/index.shtml