Fuelling the World with Biomass

Our reliance on gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel shows little sign of declining despite the push to net zero. Could replacing crude oil in hydrocarbon liquids with cellulosic biomass feedstocks provide the solution?

HYDROCARBON liquids (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) make modern society possible. Hydrocarbon liquids are low-cost, dense energy carriers that are cheap to store and transport. A single gallon (3.6 L) of gasoline provides work equivalent to more than 400 hours of human labour. Hydrocarbon liquids are also feedstocks for much of the chemical industry. A third of global energy demand is met from crude oil that is primarily delivered to the final customer as hydrocarbon liquids. These liquids are also made in smaller quantities from coal, natural gas, and biomass. If crude oil had never existed, we would probably still have invented gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel because of their remarkable and useful properties.

However, the challenges of climate change mean we must reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Some propose we invent and deploy fossil fuel substitutes such as batteries, but, in the real world that is a century-long task – perhaps, even an impossible one. A much faster transition to low-carbon fuels requires using existing infrastructure, including oil refineries, to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from non-fossil fuel sources.

Can e-Fuels Drive the Hydrogen Revolution? Clean and carbon-neutral, e-fuels are a direct substitute for fossil fuels.

There is no doubt that hydrogen is emerging as an important player in the battle against climate change. The International Energy Agency describes hydrogen as “a key pillar of decarbonization for industry” and has compiled a database of close to 1,000 low-carbon hydrogen projects. The market for green, or zero-emission, hydrogen alone is forecast to grow from $444 million in 2021 to almost $4.4 billion by 2026—a compound annual growth rate of 58%3.

The challenge will be to convert this palpable enthusiasm into practical applications. It is true that hydrogen has been worked with for decades and that the technology required to produce it without carbon-dioxide emissions is relatively proven. But it has yet to be successfully scaled. Also, the comprehensive value chain required—spanning production, transport, storage and utilization—is in its very early stages.

Porsche's eFuel could be a climate game-changer

Carbon-neutral gasoline? Sounds good to us.

Internal combustion may be yestercentury's technology, but cars and trucks running on dinosaur juice will continue prowling the world's roadways for decades to come -- though they may get a lot cleaner in the coming years. Porsche, along with a constellation of partners, is working to commercialize a carbon-neutral liquid fuel, which could be an environmental game-changer if scaled up.

Plainly named but patently cool, eFuel is a synthetic gasoline that burns exactly like the traditional stuff yet has minimal environmental impact. "We pursue eFuels as a complement [to electrics]," said Jan Ohmstedt, project manager for Porsche's eFuels project, at a media event. He explained this is an innovative way of cleaning up existing internal-combustion-powered vehicles before they eventually get replaced by cleaner electrics. eFuel could also be used to efficiently power classic cars, keeping our automotive heritage alive -- and sustainable -- well into the future. This point is particularly near and dear to Porsche, as around 70% of the cars it's ever built are still on the road.

Biodiesel is booming. It may help the climate, but there's a big environmental risk

Ed Cinco of Youngstown, Ohio, has a problem. He's the director of purchasing for Schwebel's Baking Company and he can't get enough soybean oil, a key ingredient in the company's bread and buns. Suppliers won't even talk to him.

"The only quotes I can get, for 2022, are from the person I currently buy from," Cinco says. "So I am basically at [that supplier's] mercy."

Prices are rocketing upward, from 35 cents per pound a year ago to almost a dollar. Cinco says companies that crush soybeans and extract the oil are sending it elsewhere: "They all want to go to biodiesel."

The electric car side effect that no one is talking about

Detroit - An acrid smell hangs in the air at Trenton Forging Co on the outskirts of Detroit as a two-tonne hammer slams a bar of red hot steel with enough force to shake the building.

A worker uses tongs to position the piece, heated to 2200 degrees, under the hammer, then onto a conveyor belt. The process is repeated 7000 times a day at the 90-employee plant, resulting in fuel rails that feed gasoline to injectors.

But the days of forging fuel rails is numbered. They're among hundreds of parts in internal combustion engines that won't be needed when the world transitions to electric vehicles, a fact that isn't lost on Dane Moxlow, the vice president of Trenton Forging, whose grandfather started the business in 1967.

"This might go away completely," Moxlow, 33, said as a pair of workers behind him inspected a freshly made rail. "Is it something we worry about? Yeah. But it's also something we plan for."

Across the US, thousands of companies such as Trenton Forging are warily eyeing a future of electric vehicles that contain a fraction of the parts of their petrol-powered counterparts and require less servicing and no fossil fuels or corn-based ethanol. It's a transition that will be felt well beyond Detroit, as millions of workers at repair shops, fuel stations, oil fields and farms find their jobs affected by an economic dislocation of historic proportions.

Burning wood for electricity may be renewable, but it may not help the climate

Here's another example of a climate-change solution that may actually be the opposite. Wood pellets made from trees cut in the forests of North Carolina and the Southeast are a growing alternative fuel for power companies in Europe that want to be more climate friendly.

Growth in wood pellet exports from the United States to Europe has been driven by European policies that treat wood pellets as zero carbon, and by government subsidies on both sides of the Atlantic. But a new report says producing and burning wood pellets actually winds up being more polluting than coal, which it's replacing.

The report "Greenhouse gas emissions from burning US-sourced woody biomass" was released Thursday by think tanks Chatham House in the U.K. and Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts.

Burning forests to make energy: EU and world wrestle with biomass science

• A major political and environmental dispute is coming to a boil in the run-up to COP26 in Scotland this November, as the EU and the forestry industry push forest biomass (turning trees into wood pellets and burning them to make electricity), claiming the science shows biomass is sustainable and produces zero emissions.

• Forest advocates and many scientists sit squarely on the other side of the argument, providing evidence that biomass burning is destructive to forests and biodiversity, is dirtier than coal, and destabilizing for the climate. Moreover, they say, the carbon neutrality claim is an accounting error that will greatly increase carbon emissions.

• These views collided in July when the European Commission called for only minor revisions to its legally binding Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) in regard to biomass policy as part of the EU Green Deal. Critics say the plan, if approved by the EU Parliament in 2022, will fail to protect global forests from the wood pellet industry.

• Here, Mongabay offers a review of the science on both sides of the biomass debate, summarizing key studies and reports, and providing links to primary sources for enhanced insight into these complex issues. The EU decision to include wood pellets as part of its clean energy mix could help shape global biomass policy at COP26.

It’s Time to Unplug the Hype Over Electric Vehicles

For more than a century, the promise of electric vehicles (EVs) has been parked just beyond the nearest traffic light. In 1901, the Los Angeles Times declared “The electric automobile will quickly and easily take precedence over all other” types of motor vehicles. "If the claims which Mr. Edison makes for his new battery be not overstated, there is not much doubt that it will make a fortune for somebody.”

In 1911, The New York Times declared that the EV “has long been recognized as the ideal solution” because it “is cleaner and quieter” and “much more economical.” And yet today, 110 years after EVs were dubbed the Next Big Thing, they account for just 2% of new car sales in the U.S.

The ‘Green Energy’ That Might Be Ruining the Planet

The biomass industry is warming up the South's economy, but many experts worry it's doing the same to the climate. Will the Biden Administration embrace it, or cut it loose?

Here’s a multibillion-dollar question that could help determine the fate of the global climate: If a tree falls in a forest—and then it’s driven to a mill, where it’s chopped and chipped and compressed into wood pellets, which are then driven to a port and shipped across the ocean to be burned for electricity in European power plants—does it warm the planet?

Most scientists and environmentalists say yes: By definition, clear-cutting trees and combusting their carbon emits greenhouse gases that heat up the earth. But policymakers in the U.S. Congress and governments around the world have declared that no, burning wood for power isn’t a climate threat—it’s actually a green climate solution. In Europe, “biomass power,” as it’s technically called, is now counted and subsidized as zero-emissions renewable energy. As a result, European utilities now import tons of wood from U.S. forests every year—and Europe’s supposedly eco-friendly economy now generates more energy from burning wood than from wind and solar combined.

The device that reverses CO2 emissions

Cooling the planet by filtering excess carbon dioxide out of the air on an industrial scale would require a new, massive global industry – what would it need to work?

The year is 2050. Walk out of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, and drive north across the sun-baked scrub where a few remaining oil pumpjacks nod lazily in the heat, and then you'll see it: a glittering palace rising out of the pancake-flat ground. The land here is mirrored: the choppy silver-blue waves of an immense solar array stretch out in all directions. In the distance, they lap at a colossal grey wall five storeys high and almost a kilometre long. Behind the wall, you glimpse the snaking pipes and gantries of a chemical plant.

Porsche Working on Synthetic Fuel to Make ICE Cars as Clean as EVs

The hydrogen-based fuel will be ready for testing in 2022, including in the new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car.

EVs are the future, but vehicles with internal-combustion engines are not going to disappear any time soon, which is why synthetic fuels could provide a greener option for the vast majority of the cars on the road today.

• The eFuels that Porsche is testing use CO2 and hydrogen ingredients and are made using renewable energy, which significantly lowers the greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum-based fuels.

• Porsche is far from first to dip into synthetic-fuel research. Audi, Bosch, and McLaren have all been talking about and working on the technology for years.

In the race for greener mobility, nearly every automaker is now focused on electric vehicles. But buying an EV doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of cars being sold today are powered by gasoline, and they're going to remain on the road for a long time. As a way to make driving existing vehicles more sustainable, Porsche has been working on synthetic fuels it calls eFuels that the company says can make an internal-combustion engine as clean as an EV.

Natural Gas Under Pressure As A Fossil Fuel; It Is Not A Bridge To Anywhere

Summary

• Natural gas is an economic disaster in the US and global demand will fall a record 3% this year.

• IEA says gas is not a bridging fuel.

• Leading US Utilities exit coal without purchasing new gas plants. Major US LNG export deal with French company Engie cancelled.

• Gas losing out to batteries on backup power.

• With new global emphasis on net zero emissions by 2050, investors might consider if investment in natural gas makes sense or whether they should pivot to renewable energy investment.

You know that things are changing when in some parts of the world it is cheaper to build a new solar PV facility with battery storage than to run a coal or gas power plant. And also it is refreshing to see a factual commentary about the role of gas in energy provision, as opposed to claiming that it is better than coal (with no reference to the fact that if escaped gas emissions are included, gas is comparable with coal in its emissions profile). In Australia, the Australian Gas Networks had an advertising campaign claiming that gas is “the cleanest” fuel; the advertising regulator Ads Standards has recently ruled that it is misleading to call gas “cleaner and greener” than other fuels. A major issue for the natural gas industry is the need to decarbonize, which is gaining momentum. To limit global warming to 1.5C requires that gas is largely phased out by 2050.

Grön hopes to start work in 2021 on renewable diesel plant that could be worth $9.2 billion

Officials with Grön Fuels said they are shooting for 2021 to break ground on a multi-phase renewable diesel fuel plant at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge that could be as much as a $9.2 billion investment over nine years.

“2021 is when we want to get started with it,” said Daniel Shapiro, co-founder of the Houston-based company. “We’ve got a significant amount of engineering work that’s going to be done. That’s the key thing that will determine when we start in the year.”

Valero reports strong Q3 for renewable diesel, ethanol

Valero Energy Corp. released third quarter financial results on Oct. 22. The company reported an overall net loss. Results for the company’s ethanol and renewable diesel segments, however, were improved when compared to the same period of 2019.

Valero’s ethanol segment reported $22 million in operating income for the three-month period, compared to a $43 million operating loss reported for the third quarter of 2019. The adjusted operating income was $36 million.

California moves to end sales of new gas-powered cars

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

California will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks in 15 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, establishing a timeline in the nation's most populous state that could force U.S. automakers to shift their zero-emission efforts into overdrive.

The plan won't stop people from owning gas-powered cars or selling them on the used car market. But in 2035 it would end the sale of all new such vehicles in the state of nearly 40 million people that accounts for more than one out of every 10 new cars sold in the U.S.

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California would be the first state with such a mandate while at least 15 other countries have already made similar commitments, including Germany, France and Norway.

The Dirty Secrets Of ‘Clean’ Electric Vehicles

The widespread view that fossil fuels are “dirty” and renewables such as wind and solar energy and electric vehicles are “clean” has become a fixture of mainstream media and policy assumptions across the political spectrum in developed countries, perhaps with the exception of the Trump-led US administration. Indeed the ultimate question we are led to believe is how quickly can enlightened Western governments, led by an alleged scientific consensus, “decarbonize” with clean energy in a race to save the world from impending climate catastrophe. The ‘net zero by 2050’ mantra, calling for carbon emissions to be completely mitigated within three decades, is now the clarion call by governments and intergovernmental agencies around the developed world, ranging from several EU member states and the UK, to the International Energy Agency and the International Monetary Fund.

Mining out of sight, out of mind

Let’s start with Elon Musk’s Tesla. In an astonishing achievement for a company that has now posted four consecutive quarters of profits, Tesla is now the world’s most valuable automotive company. Demand for EVs is set to soar, as government policies subsidize the purchase of EVs to replace the internal combustion engine of gasoline and diesel-driven cars and as owning a “clean” and “green” car becomes a moral testament to many a virtue-signaling customer.

Deutsche Bank says it will no longer invest in fracking or Arctic oil as banks turn away from fossil fuels

• Deutsche Bank said it will no longer finance oil sand or energy projects in the Arctic as part of its new fossil fuels policy.

• The German lender is cutting ties with fracking projects in countries with scarce water supply, and aims to end business activities in coal mining by 2025.

• By the of end 2020, Deutsche Bank will review all existing oil-and-gas businesses in Europe and the US, it said.

• For businesses in Asia, a review is expected to conducted in 2022 but that will likely take longer as the region is highly dependent on coal power. 

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Deutsche Bank said on Monday it would no longer fund oil sand or new energy projects in the Arctic region, as banks become more conscious of their carbon footprint, and contributions to climate change.

The German bank also said it would end all fracking projects in countries with short water supply, and halt global business activities in coal mining by 2025.

By the end of 2020, Deutsche Bank said it would review all planned business activities that are highly dependent on coal in Europe and the US.

Unlocking the Potential of Hydrogen Energy Storage

Renewable energy sources are experiencing a period of rapid growth, with the U.S. Energy Information Agency forecasting that they will be the fastest growing source of electricity generation in the near future. However, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind suffer from supply and demand imbalances, because their most productive periods are when electricity demand is lowest, leading to a surplus of unused energy, and they are least productive when electricity demand peaks, leading to energy shortages that must be filled by other means. To address this issue, renewables must be supplemented with other dispatchable energy sources, which can instantaneously adjust output to match shifts in energy demand. One promising option to fulfill this dispatchable energy role is hydrogen energy storage.

Hydrogen energy storage is a process wherein the surplus of energy created by renewables during low energy demand periods is used to power electrolysis, a process in which an electrical current is passed through a chemical solution in order to separate hydrogen. Once hydrogen is created through electrolysis it can be used in stationary fuel cells, for power generation, to provide fuel for fuel cell vehicles, injected into natural gas pipelines to reduce their carbon intensity, or even stored as a compressed gas, cryogenic liquid or wide variety of loosely-bonded hydride compounds for later use. Hydrogen created through electrolysis is showing great promise as an economic fuel choice, with data from the International Energy Agency predicting that hydrogen generated from wind will be cheaper than natural gas by 2030.

UK becomes first major economy to pass net zero emissions law

New target will require the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

The UK today became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050.

The target will require the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, compared with the previous target of at least 80% reduction from 1990 levels.

The UK has already reduced emissions by 42% while growing the economy by 72% and has put clean growth at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy. This could see the number of “green collar jobs” grow to 2 million and the value of exports from the low carbon economy grow to £170 billion a year by 2030.

The Biofuel Boom Was Doomed From The Start

Why haven’t biofuels taken off? For years they have been touted as the fuel of the future, with high-profile commercial aircraft making headlines for pioneering all-biofuel international flights and promising a greener future for air travel. The first transatlantic flight powered solely by biofuel, a Gulfstream G450 owned by Honeywell International Inc., took place nearly a decade ago, in 2011, and was lauded as a harbinger of green jet fuel for all. At that time, Honeywell Vice President Jim Rekoske told the world, “We’re ready to go to commercial scale and commercial use.” But now, nine years later, the biofuel revolution that we were promised, both in the air and on our highways, is nowhere to be seen.  As of 2020, biofuels account for a piddling amount of the global jet fuel mix, clocking in at less than .1 percent in 2018 according to data from the International Energy Agency. Even though biofuel consumption is still rising, the acceleration is comically slow. “In the U.S., the federal Energy Information Administration projects that the consumption of all biofuels will rise from 7.3 percent of total fuel consumption in 2019 to just 9 percent in 2040,” reports Bloomberg Green, and that’s only if oil prices fail to recover. “Even if petroleum prices skyrocket, biofuel consumption is predicted to increase to just 13.5% by 2050.”

Despite all of their promise and the flood of headlines declaring that biofuels were going to be a big part of how we get around going forward, global investors just haven’t gotten behind biofuels. “Global investment in biofuel production capacity, meanwhile, plunged from $22.9 billion in 2007 to $500 million in 2019,” Bloomberg Green reports using data from BloombergNEF. “That has significant implications for decarbonizing transportation, which is key to keeping global average temperature rise to 1.5C to avoid catastrophic climate impacts.”