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Cellulosic Ethanol-Progress & Issues

Dr D K TULIExecutive Director & Centre Coordinator

DBT-IOC Centre for Advanced Bio-Energy Research

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.R&D Centre , Faridabad

Petrofed Conference Nov 2014

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Major Expectations from Bio-Energy

• Must be sustainable

• Must be available at the desired volumes

•

Has to be cost competitive with fossil fuels• Must have +ve environmental impact

• Has reasonable capex & opex

• No competition with farm land & food• Based on cheaper & surplus feedstocks

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Major Challenges in Bio-Energy

• Sustainability & scale

• Bringing down the costs

•

Feedstock collection, transport & storage• Multi-feed technology

• Higher NER & lower LCA

• Development of fungible fuels• Few technologies are ready

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Feed Stocks for Bio-Energy

• Ligno-cellulosic Biomass (LCB) ….all plants, livingor dead

•  Agricultural / forest wastes , Municipal bio-

waste, MSW• Plant seeds giving oils

• Micro-algae and marine plants

•

Carbon sources like CO / CO2 from waste gasesConversion of photosynthetic energy stored in

plants to useable energy

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AGENDA For

Discussions

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Ethanol as Gasoline Blend

• Up to 10 % ethanol in gasoline allowed

• Severe supply side constraints

•

Only source is sugarcane molasses• A big part of ethanol used for potable &

chemical industry

•

Sugar is a cyclical industry• Additional sources are necessary

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Production of Molasses by the Sugar

Industry

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14 Molasses

Molasses

INDIAN ETHANOL PRODUCTION CAPABILITY

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Lignocellulosic Biomass

Pre-Treatment Step

Saccharification

Fermentation

Separation/Purification Alcohol   T   Y   P   I   C   A   L

   P   R   O   C   E   S   S   O   U   T   L   I   N   E

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

CELLULOSIC ETHANOL

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FEED STOCK ISSUES

 –  Sustainable availability

 –

Cost ( ~ 30-40 % of ethanol cost ) –  Collection & Transportation

 –  Variability

 – Storage

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Crop residue Types

Sugarcane tops most surplus residue burnt in the fields

Wheat ,Maize, Jowar, Ragi & Bajra residue used mostly as cattle fodder

Chilli, Pulses, Oilseeds residues used as fuel for household needs

Data from tifac.org.in

NEEDS RELOOK

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Typical bulk densities of unprocessed biomass-

Transportation cost & Logistics

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Biomass densification- Options

• Mild Steam Explosion at intermediate locations

• Mild acid treatment & compression

•

Mechanical milling & compression• Only bailing

COSTING SHALL DECIDE THE CHOICE

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Supply Chain Operations (mid-, short-term decisions)

Challenges with Biomass Supply Chains and LogisticsManagement

•  Supply is constrained by availability

•  Supply is seasonal and uncertain

•  High logistics costs• Widely dispersed physical distribution

• Bulky and difficult to transport

• High transport costs

•

 Biomass compositional changes with time ?

Lack of technical information on biomass Supply chaindesign & management is a very weak link

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Global Scene on bio-Ethanol

Source : Biofuel Digest / EU reports / US DOE reports

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Problem

• An abundant number of non-food cellulosic (19)projects since 2005 have been cancelled or shutdown. 

• With each plant costing an average of US$ 200 million,investors are hesitant to invest in the wrong process orinvest without large stake ownership

• An examination of the current status of non-food liquidbiofuel projects suggests that there might be a series ofinternal and external issues preventing the successful

commercialization of non-food cellulosic biofuels.

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Results

• Geographic location

Elaborated based on Wood Bioenergy U.S report from Forintek Consulting and other sources

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Results

# Project City State Type Status

1 New Page Corp. Wisconsin Rapids WI Demonstration Cancelled

2 Cello Energy Bay Minette AL Commercial Cancelled

3 ClearFuels Collinwood TN Commercial Cancelled

5 Community Energy Systems Clatskanie OR Commercial Cancelled

6 Coskata Boligee AL Commercial Cancelled

7 Dynamotive Willow Springs MO Commercial Cancelled

8 KiOR Bude Bude MS Commercial Cancelled

9 Newton Falls Newton Falls NY Commercial Cancelled

10 Rappaport Energy Longview WA Commercial Cancelled

11 Raven Biofuels Ackerman MS Commercial Cancelled

12 Flambeau River Biofuels Park Falls WI Commercial Cancelled

13 Gulf Coast Cleveland Cleveland TN Commercial Cancelled

14 Rentech Rialto Project Rialto CA Commercial Cancelled

15 Coskata Semi-Commercial Madison PA Pilot Shut down

16 Rentech PDU Commerce City CO Pilot Shut down

17 ZeaChem Boardman OR Pilot Shut down

19 Gulf Coast Energy Livingston AL Pilot Shut down

Forintek Consulting.2013. Wood Bioenergy U.S.

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Results

• Internal factors by type of closing

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Product development Strategy Technology

   N   U   m    b   e   r   o   t   t   i   m   e   s   m   e   n   t   i   o   n   e    d

Internal barrier

Cancelled projects

Shut Down projects

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Results

• External factors by type of closing

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Funding Competition Suppliers Government Energy costs Third party

relations

   N   u   m    b   e   r   o    f   t   i   m   e   s   m   e   n   t   i   o   n   e    d

External barrier

Cancelled projects

Shut Down projects

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Plant Owner Location Input Capacity

(t/year)

Output capacity

(t/year)

Clariant(ex Sud Chemie)

Straubing, Germany Agriculture residues, wheat straw 1000

Abengoa

Bioenergy,

Biocarburantes

Castilla y Leon,

Ebro Puleva

Babilafuente,

Salamanca, Spain

25 000 t/year (barley/wheat straw,

corn stover)

4000

Inbicon (Dong

Energy)

Kalundborg,

Denmark

30 000 t/year (wheat straw, other

lignocellulosics)

4300

Chempolis Oulu (Chempolis

R&D Centre),

Finland

25 000 t/year (non-wood, non-

food raw material)

formicobio TM process

Running ?

Beta Renewables

(JV Chemtex

(M&G), TPG,

Novozymes)

Crescentino, Italy Non-food biomass (giant cane and

wheat straw)

40000

Main cellulosic EtOH running demos (>1000 t/year) in EU

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Commercial scale cellulosic biofuel projects expected to be in operation by

2014.

Company Pathway Location Capacity

( MGY)

Feedstock Capital cost

(million)

KiOR Catalytic pyrolysis &hydrotreating to hydrocarbons.

Natchez, MS 41 Yellow pine $ 350

Clear Fuels Gasification & F-T

Synthesis to hydrocarbons.

Collinwood, TN 20 Woody

biomass

$ 200

Sundrop Fuels Gasification & MTG synthesis. Alexandria,

LA

50 Mixed biomass,

natural gas

$ 500

Zea Chem Dilute acid hydrolysis & acetic

acid synthesis to ethanol

Boardman,

OR

25 Agricultural

residue, hybrid

poplar

$ 391

Abengoa Enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol Hugoton, KS 25 Corn stover $ 350

Betarenewables

Enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol Sampson County,

NC

20 Arundo,

switchgrass

$ 170

DuPont

Biofuel

Solutions

Enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol Neveda, IA 25 Corn stover $ 276

POET Enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol Emmetsburg, IA 20 Corn stover,Corn cobs

$ 250

Mascoma Consolidated bio-processing to Kinross, MI 40 Hardwood $ 232

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Technology Path—NREL/ DOE Estimates

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  Indian Efforts in

Development of Cellulosic

Ethanol Technology

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Indian Efforts in Cellulosic Ethanol Technology

• Some basic R&D in several universities /

research labs since last decade

• Isolation / evaluation of natural enzymes main

activity

• Almost no work on enzyme characterisation ,

modification

• All efforts isolated and none was targeted at

commercial level

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Indian Efforts in Cellulosic Ethanol Technology

• Serious efforts , by few players, started about

5 years ago

• Ms Praj Matrix ,Pune established a 1 TPD pilot

with international collaborations (Qteros)

• Good amount of data collected on pre-

treatment , fermentation

• ICT-DBT centre in last 2 years has done

excellent basic R&D

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Indian Efforts in Cellulosic Ethanol Technology

• ICT-DBT developed a lab scale process based

on enzyme recirculation

• Collaboration with IGL to set up 8tpd unit at

Kashipur

• ICT-ICGEB-IOC combine to re-engineer micro-

organisms for hydrolysis & pentose

fermentation

• Basic work on synthetic biology initiated

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Indian Efforts in Cellulosic Ethanol Technology

• IOC(R&D) designed multi-feed multi-technologypilot with assistance of NREL,US

• This facility , costing Rs 8 crores , is helping togenerate authentic data which can be safely usedin subsequent scale up

• IOC-DBT centre shall in network with ICT & ICGEBdevelop hydrolysis & fermentation technologies

• Real life data on biomass type and availabilityunder fresh study

•  LCA of each process

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IOC-DBT Pilot --Pre-Treatment Section

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Conclusions

Several technology options for biomass conversion Scale of technology depends on biomass availability

Technology based on waste gases & MSW will compete with

biomass based technologies

Technology landscape is changing very fast

 Cost economics , overall LCA , sustainability will decide the

best suited technology

However , 2nd / 3rd generation liquid biofuel technologies

have a definite place in future transport fuel pool

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RESEARCH TEAM

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