Session vii s spatari (for website)

Energy Applications, New Products, New Risks

Sabrina Spatari, Ph.D., P.Eng Associate Professor, Drexel University Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering

November 5, 2015 Philadelphia, PA

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Diversifying Transportation Energy Supply • Energy independence or energy diversity?

– U.S. policy context for low carbon fuels – Motivation for developing “drop-in fuels”

• The role of biomass • Life cycle approaches • Major Challenges

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The Tar Sands Disaster Homer-Dixon, NYT Op-ed, March 31, 2013

Oil sands: 1J to process = 6 J SCO Conventional oil: 1J to process = 15 J crude oil

.. stopping Keystone XL would be a major step toward stopping large-scale environmental destruction, the distortion of Canada’s economy and the erosion of its democracy.

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Avenues for Decarbonizing Transportation • Biomass-to-biofuels, an avenue for decarbonizing transportation energy at large scale – the transportation “wedge” Pacala and Socolow, Science, 2004. 305: 968-972

• “All biomass is local” – Bruce Dale • Renewable, domestic, low carbon, BUT − Feedstocks today: grain/corn (ethanol); lignocellulose emerging – Mingles energy with food markets – Direct and indirect CO2 from land use change (LUC) – Other sustainability risks: water, biodiversity, food security – Will transform rural communities (socio-economic effects)

• Need for sustainable feedstock development: 4

Policy Context: • Since 2004, low carbon and renewable fuel policies in development around the world • LCFS (California, North-east states, Canada), RFS (US), Europe (EC) • Reduce GHGs relative to baseline gasoline ~93 gCO2e/MJ • Life cycle assessment (LCA)-based policy

• Biofuels and policy context for decarbonizing transportation energy supply • Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) • Incentives to develop “drop-in fuels” • Incentives to develop lignocellulosic energy products that avoid major sustainability risks: Better biofuels 5

LCFS/RFS: Fuel Cycle Model Vehicle use

Fuel cycle

Feedstock Production

Ethanol Conversion

- Fertilizer - Herbicides - Harvesting operations -CO2/N2O flux

Feedstocks: - corn

+ Indirect consequences

Vehicle Operation

- Chemicals, Enzymes, - Blending with gasoline -Nutrients - Vehicle operation -Co-products: CO2, protein meal, hulls (energy recovery) -Denaturant (2% gasoline) Technologies: -Dry grind process -Sugar generation -Fermentation -co-product crediting

Land Use Change (LUC)

Vehicle: -Ethanol-fueled vehicle (E92) -Compare with baseline -gasoline vehicle (93 g CO2e/MJ)

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The Whole Transportation Story

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Chester and Horvath Environmental Research Letters 2009, 4, (2), 024008.

Policy Context: • Since 2004, low carbon and renewable fuel policies in development around the world • LCFS (California, North-east states, Canada), RFS (US), Europe (EC) • Reduce GHGs relative to baseline gasoline ~93 gCO2e/MJ • Life cycle assessment (LCA)-based policy

• Incentives to develop lignocellulosic energy products that avoid major sustainability risks: Better biofuels • Biofuels and policy context for decarbonizing transportation energy supply • Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) • Incentives to develop “drop-in fuels” 8

Diverse Biofuel Platforms: LCA & TEA Life cycle environmental and techno-economic model development: • Aspen Plus (TEA), Simapro/Gabi (LCA) and GIS (Spatial) modeling: – Feedstock production, collection, transport – Material/energy balance basis (feedstock conversion);

• Integration with experimental research: – Thermochemical bio-oil blendstock development • In-situ and ex-situ catalytic bio-oil upgrading • catalytic pyrolysis products

– Biochemical conversion – Waste from fats, oils, greases, wastewater scum 9

Drop-in Blendstock Conversion Model Enzyme Production Feedstock: Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin

Cellulose* Xylose Arabinose Mannose Galactose

Lignin

Hydrolysis & Aerobic Fermentation

Steam & Electricity Energy Recovery

FFAs Water

FAAs DeOx

Lignin Separation & Wastewater Treatment

Lignin & biogas Syrup & solids

Centrifuge, Vacuum drying

Enzymes

Pretreatment

Blendstock 0% O Electricity Finished Products 10

* Pre-treated cellulose

Corn Stover and Switchgrass - Bioethanol Life Cycle GHG emission profiles GHG emissions g CO2e MJ-1

200 150

Switchgrass

Corn Stover

100 Gasoline 93 g CO2e/MJ

50 0 -50 -100

w/o LUC CO2

w/ LUC CO2

-150 -200 DA

AFEX

DA

AFEX

DA

AFEX

DA = dilute acid pretreatment followed by simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF) AFEX = ammonia fiber explosion pretreatment followed by SSCF 11

Spatari and MacLean (2010), Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 8773-8780

The Nonsense of Biofuels!

Michel, H., 2012* Low overall conversion of sunlight to terrestrial biomass <1%

Higher land use efficiency with  PV technology**

* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 2516 – 2518 **Geyer, R. et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2013, 47, (2), 1170-1176.

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Better, Biomass, Biofuels, valueadded co-products AND integrated systems â&#x20AC;˘ Value-added products (lubricants, chemicals) need to be co-produced to improve the economics of biofuels â&#x20AC;˘ Integrate renewable energy technology (wind and solar) with liquid/solid energy storage

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