27 technologies to produce lower carbon fuels from “second chance carbon” — and its practicioners. Who’s doing what, where, when, why and how?

Fuels produced from gasification of waste fossil liquids 

Waste fossil liquids encompass a range of possible feedstocks, including waste lubricant oils, coal slurry, petroleum sludge and waste solvents. 

Methanol by gasification + catalytic synthesis 

Waste fossil liquids can be gasified tproduce syngas, which is catalytically processed intmethanol as outlined in section 2.1.6. 

Case study examples: 

SVZ Schwarze Pumpe (TRL 8). 

Sustec Schwarze Pumpe GmbH operated a plant since the 1970’s, processing a range of feedstocks, including fossil waste oils. The mixed waste oils were first dehydrated and de-sludged, converted tsyngas in twentrained-flow gasifiers, and then converted thighly purified methanol via methanol synthesis and distillation. The plant never became economically viable. The company went into administration in 2010. Many of the peripheral systems necessary for the process have since been dismantled. 

Ethanol by microbial fermentation 

Industrially occurring gases that are rich in Ccan be converted tethanol (as well as butanol and other non-fuel chemicals) by proprietary microbes developed for this purpose. 

Case study examples:

LanzaTech (China, Belgium, India, South Africa) TRL 7-8.

Constructed two facilities in China producing 300 t/year of ethanol, one of which is still operating, and a facility in Taiwan producing around 750 t/year which is now shut down. Two commercial scale projects under construction at steel mills tuse blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace gases (Belgium & China). Planning demonstration facilities tuse CO-rich gases from hydrogen purification at refinery in India and ferro-alloy production off-gases at facilities in South Africa. 

Jet by microbial fermentation + AtJ 

Alcohol to jet technology is being developed by a number of companies, including Swedish Biofuels, Gevo, and Lanzatech/the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the USA. These routes typically target biomass-derived alcohols in order to produce biojet fuel, but as fossil-derived alcohols are chemically the same, the technologies could equally be applied to non-biogenic alcohols. Alcohol tjet processes are currently at TRL 5-6. 

Case study example:

Lanzatech
Lanzatech has produced over 15,000 L of synthetic paraffinic kerosene jet fuel blendstock from both biogenic and non-biogenic ethanol sources, including ethanol produced by fermentation of steel mill waste gases in their Shougang (China) demonstration facility. The AtJ technology was developed in collaboration with the US PNNL. A demonstration-scale facility is in the design-phase. This will produce 11 ML/year of jet and diesel fuel using ethanol produced from industrial waste gases and lignocellulosic ethanol.