Center for Biorefining Receives USDA/DOE Biomass R&D Grant (2008-03-06)
Paul Chen
Roger Ruan and Paul Chen are the recipients of a $975,676 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for their proposed project titled 'Development of Scalable Biorefining Processes for Distributed Biomass Conversion.' Here is the summary of the proposal:
Summary
Thermochemically converting cellulosic biomass into biofuels and bioproducts is facing two major challenges: high transportation costs associated with bulky biomass and high capital costs of current conversion technologies. Our novel strategy to address these challenges is to develop an innovative pyrolysis system that can be installed and operated on farms at affordable costs. However, Commercial pyrolysis facilities are very limited and current plant sizes are in the range of 45 to 100 tons per day, which will require large capital investment and a huge supply of feedstock. Most of the pyrolysis and gasification technologies require substantial post-conversion treatments of the conversion products. The goal of the project is to develop and demonstrate an innovative pyrolysis system for converting cellulosic biomass to easy-to-transport-and-handle bio-oils which can be further converted to biofuels and bioproducts. Our project addresses the second technical area defined in the RFA, which is ¡°Overcoming Recalcitrance of cellulosic biomass through developing technologies for converting cellulosic biomass into intermediates that can be subsequently converted into biobased fuels and biobased products.¡± The ¡°Detailed Description of Technical Areas¡± in the RAF states that ¡°Pyrolysis efforts should focus on improving stability and longterm storability and reducing the Total Acid Number (TAN) of bio-oils. Improving the yields of converting bio-oils to fungible fuels is another R&D area of importance.¡± To address this specific issues, the supporting objectives of the proposed activities are (1) to develop efficient and cost-effective microwave assisted pyrolysis (MAP) processes that yield high quality bio-oils, (2) to develop processes to improve the purity, stability, long-term storability of bio-oils, (3) to explore the potential of converting bio-oils to fungible fuels and biomaterials, and (4) to conduct techno-economic and environmental analysis of the processes and products. The proposed activities are highly relevant to the objectives outlined in 7 U.S.C. 8606(c). The successful completion of the project will move microwave assisted pyrolysis of biomass significantly closer to its industrial application.
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