Food and energy costs, together with healthcare, are arguably the three most important factors in how well we thrive on planet Earth. While healthcare costs certainly continue to rise, it is food and energy costs that are most volatile. Food and energy costs seem to fluctuate the most during periods of emergence and spread of…
The recommended approach for scaling bioenergy and biofuels technology follows a similar stage-gate process to that used in traditional Chemical Process Industry (CPI) processes. But the processing of solids in bioenergy applications leads to some subtle differences, and unique challenges, that need to be considered The transportation fuels industry has seen a fundamental change in…
Australian state and federal governments from both sides of politics have shown varying levels of support for the biofuels industry over the past few decades. In 2000, the federal government enacted the Fuel Quality Standards Act 2000 (Cth), which provides a regulatory framework for setting national fuel quality and labelling standards for ethanol and biodiesel,…
Biodiesel is a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl (methyl, ethyl, or propyl) esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids (e.g., vegetable oil, soybean oil, animal fat (tallow) with an alcohol producing fatty acid esters. Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus…
. Bioprocess technology typically uses microbes such as yeast, bacteria, or fungi to produce a product by fermentation and/or enzymes to transform or modify a chemical or material to produce a final product. Bioprocess technology is also commonly integrated with conventional physical and chemical methods to achieve a total process. A fuel ethanol plant is…
Like any early-stage venture, having a solid pro forma at the beginning is essential for emerging biofuels projects. Some examples of developing and emerging biofuels might include advanced algae-based biodiesel or biofuels created using petroleum-like hydroprocessing or advanced biochemistry. They might also include biogas produced through anaerobic digestion of residues, and maybe even wood pellet…
Ethanol experts are specialists that understand how to produce ethanol by fermentation of corn, milo (grain sorghum), sugar, or cellulose to ethanol. This type of expert requires knowledge of feedstocks (corn, milo, cellulose), enzymatic conversion of feedstocks to sugars, and fermentation of the sugars to ethanol. This expert should also be aware of the principles…
Biomass gasification is the process of turning some variety of biomass into higher-value products. This is most often done by converting a material containing carbon (like coal, biomass, waste, petroleum coke, etc.) —into syngas. This syngas is then burned to produce electricity, or it is further processed to manufacture chemicals, fertilizers, liquid fuels, substitute natural…