# Presentation: 388130

## Non-food Sources for Biodiesel 

**Dr. Richard S. Sapienza **
- METSS Corporation
- Westerville, OH.
- and
**Thomas Sapienza**
- Strategic AgFuel Technologies
- Phoenix, AZ

## Observations of Climate Change

- Evaporation & rainfall are increasing;
-    More of the rainfall is occurring in downpours
-    Corals are bleaching
-    Glaciers are retreating
-    Sea ice is shrinking
-    Sea level is rising
-    Wildfires are increasing
-    Storm & flood damages are  much larger

*"I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?“   **— Robert Redford*

## Recycling Carbon Dioxide

## Biodiesel Feedstocks

-  Traditional The most common form of Biodiesel is that made by the transesterification of vegetable oils
- In the US, soybeans provide the most common feedstock
- In Europe, rapeseed [canola] provides the most common feedstock
- Other Common Feedstocks
- Sunflower oil is commonly used in France and Eastern Europe
- Palm Oil is common in Malaysia
- Used cooking oil is quickly becoming a common feedstock
- Tallow is also becoming common and contains highly Saturated Fatty Acid Triglycerides.

## Greenwashing

- Environment, Perils, Promises and Perplexities of Green Propaganda  - analyzing our perceptions and actions
- The diverse practices proclaim a 'correct' ethical or green choice, but make more tangible the contradictions and responsibilities that we encounter personally and as a society.

- Biofuels policy has increased biofuel production
- However, at a high cost
- Feed prices up 60-100%, or more
- Total cost increases $25-33 billion/year
- True retail cost of gasoline replaced over $5/gallon
- Regressive effects on food and fuel prices
- For little real gain
- Energy security is lower
- International scorn increased
- Little net gain in energy supply

## the other oil shock

- shortages and soaring prices for vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.
- foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year
- protests have erupted
- And all this is happening even as global climate change may be starting to make it harder to grow food in some of the places best equipped to do so, like Australia.

- in Chongqing, China, announced a limited-time cooking oil promotion in November, a stampede of would-be buyers left 3 people dead and 31 injured.
-  in the developing world, cooking oil is an important source of calories and represents one of the biggest cash outlays for poor families

- Biofuels accounted for almost half the increase in worldwide demand for vegetable oils last year

- "An Agricultural Crime Against Humanity"

## Biofuel Policy Effect

**Soyoil Price**

**Soymeal Price**

**costs to domestic soybean users**

**costs of other feed ingredients**

- 68.5% of these increases attributed to biofuels policy

## Emerging Feedstocks

- Plants that can thrive under adverse conditions: *Jatropha curcas ** *
- Hydroxylated Fatty Acid Triglycerides: Castor Oil and Lesquerella Oil
- Short-chain Fatty Acid Triglycerides: Cuphea *Viscosissima*
- Microalgae That Produce Lipids...

## Slide 9

## Oils and (Biodiesel) Esters Characteristics 

**Oils and (Biodiesel) Esters Characteristics**

## Jatropha

- Jatropha, like the oil palm, grows as a tree that produces fruit with oil-bearing seed
- not eaten by animals and is a vigorous, drought and pest resistant plant
- low cost and high yielding
- 40-60 g oil/100 g seed kernels
- Grown in many places
- methyl esters from Jatropha oil meet the standards for biodiesel

**Goldman Sachs cites *****Jatropha curcas***** as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production**
**Jatropha, biodiesel crop, will make money at crude oil prices a third below their current level, according to U.K.-based D1 Oils Plc teamed up with oil giant BP**
**“****Archer Daniels Midland Company, Bayer and Daimler to cooperate in Jatropha biodiesel project”**
**Jatropha diesel “already fulfills the EU norm for biodiesel quality". **

## Challenges

- Jatropha oil _is hydroscopic_ - absorbs water and needs nitrogen blanketing on steel tanks.
- Right from the time of expelling, the oil needs to be kept in storage conditions that prevent undue degradation. Exposure to air and moisture must be minimized - hence the need for nitrogen blanket on the tanks.
-  Makes Jatropha _high in acid_, therefore tendency to degrade quickly, particularly if not handled properly through the supply chain. Will affect catalyst use increasing cost?

## LESQUERELLA

**LESQUERELLA**
- 24% of seed is oil
- 60% hydroxylated fatty acids
- Gum with high value produced with oil

**CASTOR**
- 48% of seed is oil
- high uniformity and consistency in a naturally material
- 90% hydroxylated fatty acids
- Allergens and ricin not present in oil
- high yielding, as much as 350-650 kg oil /hectare
- requires moderate rainfall and can withstand long periods of drought
- uncomplicated crop that requires little attention

## Lubricity of Castor Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

- EMA/ISO Lubricity Limit

- .045mm

- Castor FAME based additive significantly improves the pour point of other vegetable biodiesel without greatly affecting other properties such as density, viscosity and flash point

## Castor Biodiesel

- Castor and Lesquerella oil prices are relatively high making them impractical for use as biodiesel feedstock.
- castor oil (food grade) is used in food additives, flavorings, and candy (i.e., chocolate)
- esters are important ingredients in various cosmetics and toiletries.
- However, increased lubricity at low levels (<1%) may provide an effective lubricity enhancer for low sulfur diesel fuels.
- Castor FAME products can act as cold flow improver additives for biodiesel
- Low volume, high value markets

## Cuphea

- Plant indigenous to North America, can be grown in many US regions
- Produces predominantly short-chained fatty acids C8:0 and C10:0
- This is not FAME Biodiesel but a straight vegetable oil (SVO) fuel

- Cuphea Oil Viscosity

- Small, sticky seeds
- Agronomics not yet developed – harvesting difficult

## Viscosity and Fuel Performance

- Normal Vegetable oils have high viscosity which leads to injector coking and eventual engine failure.
- Reduced viscosity of Cuphea oil makes it a candidate for a fuel *without *transesterification
- Cuphea oil and mixtures with #2 Diesel performed well in engine durability tests.
- Performance exceeded food vegetable oils and petroleum #2 Diesel.

## Simple extraction of materials

- Biomass

- Extraction

- Purification

- Usage

- Palm oil press

**Notes:**
Palm tree in tropical West Africa

Palm oil from palm tree fruit skin (reddish orange).

## Algae—the other biomass

- Grows wherever you won’t find terrestrial biomass
- Grows where few other plants could survive
- Hot climes
- Salt water
- Macroalgae
- Seaweed, kelp
- Fast growing marine and freshwater plants that can grow up to 60 m in length
- Emergents
- Plants that grow partially submerged in bogs and marshes
- Microalgae
- Microscopic photosynthetic organisms
- Single cell plants - Efficiency of microbes combined with the ability to capture CO2 photosynthetically
-  Produce up to 60% of their body weight as natural oil or lipids
-  Lipids as feed for biodiesel production

**Solar       bioreactor        microalgae       oil        biodiesel**

## Algae-to-biofuel with CO2 Sequestration

- 90% by weight of the algae is captured ("sequestered“) carbon dioxide
- Produces approximately 20 times the normal production volume for field crops
- Requires 5% of the normal water requirements for field crops
- Can be built on non arable lands and close to major city markets
- Can work in a variety of environments: urban, suburban, countryside, desert etc.
- Does not use herbicides or pesticides
- Will have very significant operating and capital cost savings over field agriculture
- Will drastically reduce transportation costs to market resulting in further savings,
- Will be easily scalable

## The percentage of oil in a microalga may reach a level as high as 80% of its dry weight, but an average figure would be nearer 40%. No higher plant makes that much oil.

## Challenges

- Algae look deceptively concentrated
- The ponds tend to have about ~0.2 to 0.4 gram/ liter

- Even at $70 per barrel oil, algal oils are a tough sale for dedicated biofuels facilities
- unknown) cost for oil extraction

## Slide 23

## Conclusion?

- The feed ingredient game has changed
- Limiting resource: feedstocks, not demand
- Feedstock prices bid up to energy value
- Higher petroleum prices = biofuels profits
- Even without federal support biofuel production would be increasing

- Common near term answer to the initially high cost of non-food biofuels is to aim for niche coproduct opportunities
- METSS focus on additive values
- SAFTech is to make algae the coproduct of existing viable business

## Sustainable Processes

- Attempt to satisfy...
- Investor demand for unprecedented capital productivity
- Social demand for low present and future environmental impact
- While producing...
- Highest quality products
- Minimum use of raw material
- Minimum use of energy
- Minimum waste
- In an ethical and socially responsible manner

## Lipodiesel

- LipoDiesel, clean-burning, renewable energy form that is harvested from the organic fat deposits suctioned away during liposuction.
- A perfect synthesis of economy, environmental awareness, and painless cosmetic surgery
- something the American consumer has been crying out for
- We‘d go from an obesity epidemic to an obesity solution
- "LipoDiesel is a win-win, a slam dunk, Americans will have the bodies they desire, and enjoy total energy independence.
- Congress could authorized a bill to subsidize mandatory liposuctions with funding from a new tax on gym memberships.
- The Ford Lipodiesel, the Ford Flabgrabber SUV, will be unveiled in 2009

## Strategic Adipose Reserve 

- Q: What is the diesel fuel equivalent of a pound of excess human fat?A 8.74 lb fat/gallon.
- Now you're thinking about the immense energy trapped in the nation's collective gut. (extra fat lbs. of avg. American) x (# of Americans) = lbs. available fat(lbs. available fat) / (8.74) = "Strategic adipose reserve, in diesel gallons.
- 20lb x 300,000,000 people/ 8.74 = 686 million gallonsthe stored fat energy wouldn't be enough to run our nation's vehicles for 2 days. That is absolutely mindboggling.

## Biodiesel Production Costs

| $21 million facility
30 Million Gallon  | Per-unit costs | Total   |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fixed costs (10 years 8% APR) | -$0.27 | -$8.2 m |
| Variable costs | -$0.071 | -$2.1 m |
| Vegetable oil costs (per gallon) | -$1.00 | -28.9 m |
| Methanol (per gallon) | -$0.95 | -$3.4 m |
| Glycerol offset (per gallon) | $7.50 | $18.1 m |
| Total (per gallon) | $0.816 | -$24.5 m |

## Three Biodiesel Generations

- Most commonly produced biodiesel is first generation methyl ester (FAME = Fatty Acid Methyl Ester).
-  Neste Oil's NExBTL renewable diesel is second generation biodiesel - production of middle distillate from vegetable oils pure hydrocarbons which by their properties and quality are chemically similar to fossil diesel -- "green diesel". Wider feedstock base can be utilized in the production process. Due to quality, it is possible to blend tens of percents into diesel.
- Third generation utilizes gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology and any feedstock which contains carbon can be utilized.

## Estimated changes 2008/2009 vs. 2007/2008 

## Matching Raw Material and Desired Product Oxidation States

- Methane

- Ethane

- Ethylene, Polyethylene

- Natural Gas

- Oil

- Coal

- Carbohydrates

- Polystyrene, Polyvinylchloride

- Polyester

- Acetic Acid

- Carbon Dioxide

- Carbon Monoxide

- Methanol, Ethanol

- Acetone

- Ethylene Glycol, Ethyl Acetate

- Glycerin, Phenol

- Limestone

## Conclusions

- By a factor of 105, most accessible carbon atoms on the earth are in the highest oxidation state
- However, there is plenty of available carbon in lower oxidation states closer to that of most desired chemical products
- High availability and the existence of photosynthesis does not argue persuasively for starting from CO2 or carbonate as raw material for most of the organic chemistry industry
- But, the same might not necessarily be true for the transportation fuels industry, especially if the energy carrier is carbonaceous but onboard CO2 capture is not feasible