(120d) Optimizing the Sustainability of Thermochemical and Biochemical Production of Cellulosic Ethanol

To lessen the United States’ dependence on the use of imported petroleum for producing various liquid transportation fuels, a number of biofuels development initiatives are underway. Aggressive renewable fuel policies will necessitate unprecedented biomass feedstock production and installation of fuel conversion and distribution infrastructure. Expansion of the cellulosic biofuels industry comes with potentially serious environmental side effects. NREL is actively developing cellulosic biofuel conversion technologies and investigating process optimization to these technologies with the goals of economic and environmental sustainability improvement. The environmental sustainability of the NREL’s process designs are assessed on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions, criteria air emissions, water consumption, and energy return on investment. This presentation will highlight the latest state-of-technology (SOT) and process modifications to NREL’s biofuel production technology, i.e., thermochemical and biochemical conversion platforms. Sustainability metrics will be assessed and updated based on the latest conversion SOT.