US Pushes Developing Transport Fuel From Waste
October 30th, 2008
Researchers at Purdue University are proposing a new “flexible” approach to producing alternative fuels from municipal solid wastes, agricultural wastes, forest residues and sewage sludge. They say the new approach could supply up to 20% of transportation fuels in the US annually. The method offers a potential solution to problems which might be created by increasing production of ethanol with conventional methods, which use corn grain as a feedstock. Boosting ethanol production with conventional methods requires additional crops and heavy fertiliser use, increasing run-off into waterways and threatens ecosystems.
Market Proof. The new concept, called flexible carbon-to-liquid fuel process, requires no additional crops and uses primarily wastes as the feedstock. The Purdue scientists say the method is also immune to the market fluctuations of corn and other crops and less affected by disturbances such as feedstock supply shocks and market demand changes. It also could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% compared with burning petroleum-derived gasoline.
Waste To Gas. The system first requires processing carbon-containing waste, such as paper, wood, plastic and rubber, into small pieces with a diameter of a few millimetres, or thousandths of a meter. The pieces are then fed into a “gasifier,” where the materials are turned into a gas containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and other hydrocarbons. This gas is further processed to get rid of everything but the hydrogen and carbon monoxide, referred to as synthesis gas or syngas. The gas can then be used to directly run a turbine to generate electricity, or converted into gasoline and diesel fuel for transportation. The technique can be used to produce ethanol, jet fuel and other bio-fuels from the solid wastes.
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