Biomass and Biofuel

Nick Shea and Matt Sickler

Summary

- Forms of Biomass
- History of Use
- Society
- Technology
- Methods of Production
- Environment
- Problems
- Promising Areas
- A Hypothetical - Ethanol Cars
- The Future of Biomass
Forms of Biomass - Solid Biomass
Forms of Biomass - Fuels

- Biofuel VS Biomass
- Energy Density

- Ethanol and Biodiesel

- 1 gallon biodiesel ~ .99 gallons diesel
- 1 gallon ethanol ~ .667 gallons gasoline
Forms of Biomass - Fuel Statistics

- Ethanol
- ~16 Billion gallons (USA) in 2018
Forms of Biomass - Fuel Statistics

- Biodiesel
- ~2 Billion gallons (USA) in 2018
- 5%+ of all transportation (EU)
Forms of Biomass - Fuel Statistics
Forms of Biomass - Fuel Statistics
Brief History of Use

- Biomass has been used since early humans

harnessed wood fire ~700,000 - 120,000 years ago

- Ancient civilizations used simple

lamps, burning plant or animal oils.
(1st century Jewish lamp pictured)
Brief History of Use

- More modern whale oil lamps became the

prevailing source of light in the centuries
before the industrial revolution

- This drove an unsustainable whaling

industry, persisting until the rise of the
kerosene lamp in the late 1800s
Brief History of Use - A Note

- Historical use of “biofuels” is really just the more dense biomass substances -
like whale oils

- Henry Ford’s Model T was designed around an ethanol engine in the 1920s
- Rudolf Diesel made the diesel engine to run on peanut oil in the 1890s
Biomass and Society

- Fueling our current transportation (more details later)

- Small scale energy needs

- 11% of American households used wood to heat
Biomass and Society - Get-Togethers and Cooking

- Social gatherings
- Ties to evolution and early society

- and...
Biomass and Society - Ethanol Alcohol
 Biomass and Society - Economics

- Directly employs 87,292

- Indirectly employs 295,969
more
- $30.2 billion in household
income
- $43.4 billion towards GDP
- 465 million barrels of imported
oil displaced
- Valued at $47.2 billion in 2012
Biomass and Society - Food vs Energy
HUNGRY AMERICANS

- Debate over using land for energy crops vs food crops

- Morally justifiable to grow food for fuel?
- 40 Million Americans struggled with hunger in 2017

ENERGY PRODUCTION
Technology - Fuel Use In Cars and Trucks
- Octane is necessary in fuel to
prevent “knocking” in the engine
- Currently ethanol is used as an
octane booster in the US
- Pure ethanol’s Octane rating: 113
- E10 is most common - Octane
rating: 87
- Replaced tetraethyl lead, MTBE,
and BTEX
Technology - Biofuel Production
Technology - Ethanol Production
Technology - Biodiesel Production
Technology - Cellulosic Ethanol

- Production of ethanol from

plant waste (cellulose)
- Potential for 21.13 million
gallons of ethanol/year

- Incredibly underwhelming
- ~816 million gallons
ethanol/day in USA
- Most companies producing
this form are bankrupt
Technology - General Biomass Conversion to Power

- Similar to energy production of coal:

Technology - Fast Trees and Grasses

- Fast Trees and Grasses best for production

- Most chemical energy in the shortest time for energy production
- Ex: Hybrid Poplar - 5 to 8 feet per year

- Problems:
- Invasion of ecosystems (especially grasses)
- Food vs Fuel (as before)
- Soil degradation
- Need a LOT of biomass for a substantial amount of energy
Technology - Trash Energy

- A true technofix to the societal problem of waste

- Power plants within landfills

- 2016: From 71 plants in USA: 14000000 MWh (only 51% from biomass)
Technology - Trash Energy: How it Works

Either:

1. Burn trash to take up less space and turn turbines with steam (shown)
2. Burn methane released from trash/biomass (anaerobic decomposition)
Environment - The Good

- Carbon Neutral*
- Replace Fossil Fuels
- Replace CO2 emissions potentially
- Renewable
- Mostly consistent source of energy
- As opposed to wind/solar
- Still affected by some factors

*in theory
Environment - The Bad

- Nothing is carbon neutral that needs to be harvested, shipped, and processed

- Unless everything made is from renewable sources and all power used was also renewable
- Inefficient production - Chemical to Thermal to Electrical
- Inefficiency means lots of mass
needed, which leads to land
issues
- Drought, pests, and disease can
destroy a crop of corn
- Though unlikely
Environment - The Ugly

- Land use/effects
- Soil degradation
- Soil sequestration
- Fertilizer Use
- Eutrophication
- Deforestation
- Rainforest loss
- Amount needed
- 26.1 lbs of corn/gallon
ethanol
- ~1 acre corn to 328
gallons ethanol
Pure Ethanol Cars - A Hypothetical N

- 2018 - 33.08 million acres of corn for ethanol production

- Primarily E10
- For E100 - 330.8 million acres of corn needed BUT
- 1 gallon of gas = 1.5 gallons of ethanol
- So 330.8 million * 1.5 = ~500 million acres of corn harvested
- Much larger than the state of Alaska (425 million acres)
- The 2016 average for Nitrogen in fertilizers used on corn fields: 145 lbs/acre
- Which means a total of 35974500 tons of Nitrogen potentially running into
local waterways
- This is destructive to local ecosystems as well
- Pesticides
- Effects of Nitrogen
The Future of Biomass

- Planes - need a dense fuel - biofuel can work

- United Airlines already have biofuel powered planes - though limited range for now
- Bioplastics - biodegradable substitute for petroleum based plastics
- If time permits - an additional slide on this topic
- Trash Energy - may be used in moderation
- There is a psychological problem where people may view producing trash as a positive
- Cellulosic Ethanol - save our crops for the people
- Instead of using the edible parts of our food, use plant waste to create ethanol
Questions?

If we are not able to answer them now, please post in the discussion forum.

We are always learning more about biomass, it is a fantastically complex area of

energy production, which allows for a variety of perspectives to be taken - we are
not the law when it comes to opinions on the matter!
Bibliography
“11 Facts About Hunger in the US.” DoSomething.Org, https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us. Accessed 21 Apr. 2019.

“5 Everyday Products Made from Biomass: A Few May Surprise You.” Energy.Gov,

https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/5-everyday-products-made-biomass-few-may-surprise-you.

Adler, Jerry. “Why Fire Makes Us Human.” Smithsonian, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-fire-makes-us-human-72989884/.

Biello, David. “Fertilizer Runoff Overwhelms Streams and Rivers--Creating Vast ‘Dead Zones.’” Scientific American,

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fertilizer-runoff-overwhelms-streams/.

Biofuel from Waste - BioFuel Information. http://biofuel.org.uk/biofuel-from-waste.html.

“Biofuels Basics.” Energy.Gov, https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/biofuels-basics.

“Biofuels: The Benefits and Drawbacks.” National Geographic, 27 Feb. 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/biofuel/.

Cellulosic Biorefineries: An Ethanol Revolution | Biomassmagazine.Com.

Bibliography
Energy for Plastic. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/hamman1/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.

Foley, Jonathan. “It’s Time to Rethink America’s Corn System.” Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn/.

History of Biofuels | History of Renewable Fuels. http://www.ethyl.environmentalhistory.org/?page_id=58. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

History of Biofuels - BioFuel Information. http://biofuel.org.uk/history-of-biofuels.html.

Momani, Brian. Assessment of the Impacts of Bioplastics: Energy Usage, Fossil Fuel Usage, Pollution, Health Effects, Effects on the Food Supply, and Economic Effects

Compared to Petroleum Based Plastics. Interactive Qualifying Project Report, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 6 Mar. 2009,

https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-031609-205515/unrestricted/bioplastics.pdf.

Mole, Beth. “Fertilizer Produces Far More Greenhouse Gas than Expected.” Science News, 14 Sept. 2014,

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fertilizer-produces-far-more-greenhouse-gas-expected.

https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/07/23/how-and-when-did-humans-discover-fire

Rapier, Robert. “Cellulosic Ethanol Falling Far Short Of The Hype.” Forbes,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2018/02/11/cellulosic-ethanol-falling-far-short-of-the-hype/.
Bibliography
Russell, Ann E., et al. “Nitrogen Fertilizer Effects on Soil Carbon Balances in Midwestern U.S. Agricultural Systems.” Ecological Applications, vol. 19, no. 5, 2009, pp.

1102–13. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1890/07-1919.1.

The Truth about Bioplastics. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-truth-bioplastics.html.

“This Young Whale Died with 88 Pounds of Plastic in Its Stomach.” Environment, 18 Mar. 2019,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale-dies-88-pounds-plastic-philippines/.

Transesterification to Biodiesel. http://www.etipbioenergy.eu/value-chains/conversion-technologies/conventional-technologies/transesterification-to-biodiesel. Accessed 8

Apr. 2019.

United Airlines Could Power Jets with Biofuel Made from Trash. https://phys.org/news/2018-12-airlines-power-jets-biofuel-trash.html.

US EPA, OA. “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” US EPA, 29 Dec. 2015, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.

USDA ERS - Fertilizer Use and Price. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/fertilizer-use-and-price.aspx. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

Waste-to-Energy (Municipal Solid Waste) - Energy Explained, Your Guide To Understanding Energy - Energy Information Administration.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=biomass_waste_to_energy..
Bibliography
What Is Syngas - BioFuel Information. http://biofuel.org.uk/what-is-syngas.html. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

World of Corn 2018. http://www.worldofcorn.com/#us-corn-at-a-glance.

Zimmerman, Mackenzie. Ethanol and Octane For Beginners. https://mnbiofuels.org/media-mba/blog/item/1511-octane-and-ethanol-for-beginners.

"Better Biofuels." Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/better-biofuels. Accessed 7 Apr. 2019.

"Biofuels Basics." Department of Energy, www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/biofuels-basics. Accessed 7 Apr. 2019.
"Energy Resources: Biomass." World Energy Council, www.worldenergy.org/data/resources/resource/biomass/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.
"Energy Use for Transportation." US Energy Information Administration, 23 May 2018, www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=us_energy_transportation. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
"Global Ethanol Production." US Department of Energy, Apr. 2018, afdc.energy.gov/data/10331. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019. Chart.
Gustafson, Cole. "History of Ethanol Production and Policy." North Dakota State University,
www.ag.ndsu.edu/energy/biofuels/energy-briefs/history-of-ethanol-production-and-policy. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
"How Biopower Works." Union of Concerned Scientists, 12 Nov. 2015, www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-biomass-energy-works.html.
Accessed 7 Apr. 2019.
Mosier, Nathan S., and Klein Ileleji. "How Fuel Ethanol Is Made from Corn." Purdue University, www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/id/id-328.pdf. Accessed 10 Apr.
2019.
Ortega, Enrique, et al. "Are Biofuels Renewable Energy Sources?" Global Bioenergy,
www.globalbioenergy.org/uploads/media/0710_Ortega_et_al_-_Are_biofuels_renewable_energy_sources.pdf. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
"Overview for Renewable Fuel Standard." Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/renewable-fuel-standard-program/overview-renewable-fuel-standard. Accessed 10 Apr.
2019.
Place, Eric De. "The Problem With Biofuels." Sightline, 21 Feb. 2008, www.sightline.org/2008/02/21/the-problem-with-biofuels/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2019.
"US Corn for Fuel Ethanol, Feed and Other Use." US Department of Energy, Feb. 2019, afdc.energy.gov/data/10339. Accessed 10 Apr. 2019. Chart.
Bioplastics (Has Time Permit?)

- Benefits:
- Production is more energy efficient
- Biodegradable - breaks down in water with proper bacteria in months or years (not centuries)
- Some varieties are edible
- Can be used within living tissue (in suturing and bones)

- Drawbacks:
- Still releases carbon dioxide in aerobic decomposition
- Still releases methane in anaerobic decomposition
- Still a plastic - even if it breaks down quicker - problems with pollution and waterways
- Need to create new methods of recycling if implemented fully
- Still comes with land use problems of any biomass