Production of Advanced Fuels from Biomass

The rising cost of energy and the deteriorating trends in global warming posed an interesting problem where Dynamotive recognized the need for a new fuel source over 15 years ago. Biomass presents the most accessible form of sustainable material that can be processed into advanced fuels. Notwithstanding this, technology, production logistics, ethical dilemmas and cost barriers still present significant challenges that have to be addressed.

Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation recognized the challenge early on and has developed a proprietary process that addressed these challenges and can deliver advanced (second generation) fuels from biomass at a cost less than $ 2 per gallon. This is achieved by upgrading Dynamotive’s BioOil.

Biomass fuels:
First generation fuels from biomass (Food crop based ethanol and biodiesel) have proven the capabilities of meeting technical requirements but have limitations as there is competition for their base resource (food vs fuel use) cost and infrastructure barriers for the end products.

Second generation biomass fuels are produced from non food biomass sources. The case for such fuels is that they can be produced sustainably, do not compete with food crops, are diverse in supply and as they are produced from biomass residues or dedicated non food crops the cost of the biomass input would be lower than food based biofuels.

A common factor in the production of biofuels in both in their first and second generation is that only a fraction of the biomass is processed to finished fuels, 40 % in the case of sugars and vegetable oils and approximately 50% in the case of current cellulose based second generation technologies wasting significant material that could be processed into fuel. Given these limitations and the cost of processing, the current state of technology seeks to break cost barriers through the traditional fossil fuel approach of scale.

Second generation technologies, are incipient, and are believed to require large scale processing to be economically viable. Typically, in the 500,000 tonne to 1,000,000 tonne per annum range at a single production facility. However, the issue of scale is a conundrum, while it’s necessary for cost efficiencies in the biomass processing steps, it’s a huge issue regarding supply. Moving large amounts of biomass to a processing site is cumbersome, costly and logistically complex. Further, significant energy has to be spent in transportation and handling.

Dynamotive’s approach addresses these issues while delivering advanced fuels at under $ 2 per gallon.

1. Food vs Fuel The Company converts residual biomass from agricultural and forestry operation and / or dedicated non food crops and through a thermo-mechanical process converts them into BioOil and Biochar. BioOil and Biochar plants can coexist with existing forestry and agricultural operations, providing an additional value source to operations.
2. Yield Dynamotive’s process converts roughly 85% of the total biomass into fuels. The balance is utilized to provide energy to the process. Energy efficiency is at around the 80% level. During the second stage of upgrading, the full liquid phase BioOil is processed, and a yield of approximately 38% of finished product is achieved.
3. Scale Dynamotive’s process is projected to be economically viable at 1/7 to 1/15 scale compared to the conventional technologies currently under development. Dynamotive projects that a plant processing under 70,000 tonnes of biomass a year would produce approximately 4,500,000 gallons of renewable gasoil at under $ 2 per gallon or on heating value equivalency this would equate to a gallon of Ethanol for under $ 1.20. The scale factor enables distributed production i.e. plants can be developed in diverse locations creating sustainable “green” jobs , while being compatible with agro and forestry operations.
4. Flexibility The two stage process developed by the Company also allows for the opportunity to further upgrade the renewable gasoil into mobile fuels at a centralized facility or the development of a fully integrated plant if production logistics and economics merit it. This provides for flexibility in development and application.
5. Investment Given the plant scale, the investment required is low comparatively. Approximately $ 30 million +/- 150,000 USD per MT of installed capacity or $ 0.46 per gallon of lifetime production capacity (67 million gallons).