ALTEX TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 10

Description

To produce biofuels, at competitive prices to fossil fuels, requires reliable and continuous solid biomass handling and feeding into pressurized reactors. Application of commercially available feeders is not reliable, due to lower density and more irregular configuration of raw biomass. Preprocessing to create a more uniform and consistent feed can help, but costs are high. New preprocessing methods are required to improve the handling and feeding to pressurized reactors. Furthermore, if these methods could enhance biomass handling, storage and transport from the field, and thereby reduce costs, this innovation would be highly desired. General statement of how this problem is being addressed: In the proposed solids handling system, a consistently sized and dense biomass feed is used with novel feed equipment to reliably transport solids into pressurized reactors, and then optimally size the material under pressure, for compatibility with a range of conversion reactors. Besides allowing consistent feeding of pressurized reactors, the densified biomass has handling, storage and transport advantages over raw biomass, and a considerable cost advantage over alternative approaches. What is to be done in Phase I? Under the proposed project, available feeding and sizing equipment will be updated and tested to show how woody biomass can be reliably fed into pressurized reactors, and then optimally sized for the reactor of interest. Forest residues and tree trimming biomass materials of interest will be tested. Analysis will then determine the performance and estimated cost of the approach, when applied to full scale biofuels plants. Of particular interest will be to show the proposed process can support the proposer’s low cost biomass to fuel end-to-end drop in liquid fuel (for example gasoline) process that is currently under development. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: One Biomass to Fuel conversion plant with the innovation can produce twenty three million gallons of synthetic gasoline each year. Assuming that all of the five hundred million tons per year biomass available is processed, approximately thirty three billion gallons of fuel would be produced, valued at seventy three billion dollars per year. Greenhouse gases would be reduced by two hundred and ninety one million tons per year. Key Words: Woody Biomass, Densified Biomass, Pressurized Reactors, Drop-in-fuel, Thermochemical Conversion, Biofuel.