Shell, Virent Energy Systems form 5-year partnership to make biogasoline; demo plant in 2010; increases momentum of biocrude, biogasoline trend

In the Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell and Virent Energy Systems announced a 5-year partnership to make biogasoline from a catalytic process from biomass. The Virent Bioforming process uses undisclosed catalysts to convert plant-based sugars into gasoline-resembling hydrocarbons, instead of fermenting into ethanol The process uses non-food feedstocks.

Shell did not disclose their investment in the project, but indicated that a demonstration plant for the technology was planned for 2010. Shell biofuel spokesmen said that biogasoline could use existing gasoline infrastructure for marketing and distribution, and that they expected biofuels to provide 10 percent of the global fuel supply by 2030.

The current energy-transportation system “has been a hundred years and billions of dollars in the making,” Rick Zalesky, vice president for biofuels and hydrogen at Chevron’s alternative-energy arm told the Wall Street Journal. “The ideal outcome of our research is to develop biomass-based transportation fuels that have chemical properties similar to those of gasoline and diesel,” he said. The profile covers efforts by Chevron, BP, Marathon, ConocoPhillips, and Shell to produce a viable alternative to petroleum that can utilize the existing oil company infrastructure.

Growing popularity of biocrude
The popularity of biocrude, or synthetic crude oil, has been increasing rapidly in recent months as policymakers and investors struggle to solve the increasing infrastructure and land-use issues of first-generation biofuels and feedstocks.

By using waste, [it] overcomes the food versus fuel debate which surrounds biofuels generated from grains, corn and sugar,” says Dr. Stephen Loffler of CSIRO, Australia’s national science laboratory. CSIRO recently announced the development of a second-generation biocrude process, in conjunction with researchers at Monash University.

The announcement last month by Sustainable Power and Borneo Oil to develop 20 bioreactors in Malaysia is the most significant international expansion announced to date in biocrude production. Startup companies such as LS9, UOP, Syntroleum and the LiveFuels consortium have firmly entrenched themselves as the second wave of biocrude development, behind Sustainable Power.

“It’s a trend,” said Will Thurmond, author of Biodiesel 2020, and a leading authority on global biomass development. “The Chinese, among others, see biocrude as a 1.5 generation biofuel that, gets us out of many of the problems associated with first generation fuels, and while we are waiting for second-generation fuels like cellulosic ethanol.”

Numerous entrants into biocrude development
The LiveFuels consortium “is a national alliance of labs and scientists dedicated to transforming algae into biocrude by 2010″, according to the consortium’s website. The scientific alliance will be led by Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. The alliance is expected to sponsor dozens of labs and hundreds of scientists by the year 2010.

“We believe Sandia has the strengths needed to lead the alliance in its early growth phase,” said Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, CEO of LiveFuels. “Sandia is a DOE laboratory managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and possesses expertise in process engineering, biocience and biotechnology. Sandia is also home to the DOE Combustion Research Facility, a unique science and engineering user facility which can test the combustion characteristics of the biocrude produced by the LiveFuels alliance.”

LS9 was cofounded by molecular geneticists Dr. George Church of Harvard University and Dr. Chris Somerville of the University of California. LS9’s technology uses designer enzymes to convert fatty acid intermediates into petroleum replacement products via fermentation of renewable sugars. LS9 was recently honored at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for its work in biocrude.

UOP, a division of Honeywell, announced last June that it expected to develop military aviation jet fuel, using a synthetic biocrude made from algae. The UOP project is backed by $6.7 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). UOP is working with Honeywell Aerospace, Cargill, Arizona State University, Sandia National Laboratories and Southwest Research Institute on the project.

The National Renewable Energy Labortatory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado, re-started its algae research project last October in partnership with Chevron, although it is not clear whether NREL will explore biocrude as an alternative to algae-based biodiesel. NREL ran an project exploring the development of biodiesel from algae between 1978 and 1996.

ConocoPhillips and Archer Daniels Midland Company announced last September that they would collaborate on the development of renewable transportation fuels from biomass. The ConocoPhillips process— similar to one under investigation by Neste Oil, converts oils and fats to a synthetic, hydrocarbon diesel fuel that burns cleaner and has a reduced aromatic content than conventional diesel, but meets existing specifications for the fuel. ConocoPhillips also funded an eight-year, $22.5 million research project at Iowa State University, with a focus on conversion of biomass to fuel through fast pyrolysis.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

The Top 10 Biofuels Stories of 2008: #3, Gasification, pyrolysis, green fuels

2008 was supposed to be the year when cellulosic ethanol went mainstrean, with Range Fuels' planned launch of its DOE-supported demonstration scale plant. Instead, it was companies such as Sustaina...

Virent Systems ramps up R&D operations for biogasoline from Aqueous Phase Reforming process

In  Wisconsin, advanced biofuels pioneer Virent Systems, which has a joint R&D agreement with Royal Dutch Shell to produce biogasoline from plant sugars using catalysts and the Aqueous Phase Refo...

Biogasoline advances as Virent develops aqueous reforming technology

From Biofuels Digest correspondent Bob Brooks, member SAE Conventional hydrocarbon gasoline made from a broad spectrum of non-food biomass feed stocks is gaining support from major firms. The fuel,...

Virent Energy Systems: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profiles

Virent Energy Systems Based in: Wisconsin 2008-09 ranking: #3 Business: Virent’s patented catalytic BioForming process combines proprietary aqueous phase reforming (APR) technology with establ...

Today in Biofuels: Shell ventures into biogasoline; US corn exports up 6 percent in ‘07 in food vs. fuel surprise; India condemns Western ethanol policies, doubles ethanol requirement

Top Story:In the Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell and Virent Energy Systems announced a 5-year partnership to make biogasoline from a catalytic process from biomass. The Virent Bioforming process uses ...

BP Solar CEO to become new CEO of Virent, as bioforming technology readies for commercialization

In Wisconsin, the Shell Oil-backed green gasoline company Virent Energy Systems announced that the CEO of BP Solar, Lee Edwards, will become CEO of Virent in January as the company moves towards comme...