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TRANSPORTATION FUEL FROM CELLULOSIC BIOMASS: A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF ETHANOL AND METHANOL OPTIONS
Citation:
Borgwardt*, R H. TRANSPORTATION FUEL FROM CELLULOSIC BIOMASS: A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF ETHANOL AND METHANOL OPTIONS. JOURNAL OF POWER AND ENERGY. Professional Engineering Publishing Limited, Sufolk, Uk, 213(A5):399-407, (1999).
Description:
Future sources of renewable fuel energy will be needed to supplement or displace petroleum. Biomass can be converted to ethanol or methanol, either having good properties as motor fuel, but distinctly different production technology. Those technologies are compared in terms of production cost, potential for petroleum displacement, and effectiveness for management of greenhouse gas emissions. Supply curves that relate crop price to national biomass production potential are crucial to the comparison. The higher delivered cost of biomass that would be acceptable as feedstock for methanol production, plus the increased conversion efficiency and lower production cost that can be obtained by use of natural gas as a co-feedstock, are major factors favoring methanol. The overall net carbon dioxide emission-reduction and petroleum-displacement potential of methanol produced in a single process from biomass and natural gas in the U.S. is 9 times that of two separate processes that would produce ethanol from the same amount of biomass and produce methanol from the same amount of natural gas.