From Bench to Booming: Deploying Engine-Efficiency Enhancing Emerging Bio-Blendstocks at a Large Scale

What if we designed fuels and engines cooperatively such that engines could exploit unique fuel properties towards higher efficiency? And what if these co-optimized fuels derived from biomass? These questions have been at the heart of the Department of Energy Bioenergy Technology Office’s Co-Optima initiative, which has explored the fuel properties of hundreds of compounds that could be made from biomass and the cost and environmental effects of selected bio-blendstocks. When a bio-blendstock is identified that has desirable fuel properties such as high octane, its pathway to wide-scale deployment must contend not only with going from bench to commercial scale production, but also challenges associated with fuel distribution and infrastructure. Additionally, the energy and environmental effects of bio-blendstocks deployed at a large scale must be evaluated. We have developed methods to combine vehicle choice, bioenergy sector, and life cycle analysis models to evaluate how vehicles with engines that are co-optimized with biofuel blends may emerge onto the market, driving demand for these blends which spurs the growth of the biorefinery industry and influences the energy and environmental effects of the light duty transportation sector. In addition, the analysis has considered the influence on net jobs as the biofuels industry grows. Two bio-blendstocks were considered in the analysis, a methyl furan mixture and isopropanol, which were compared against an ethanol as a baseline bio-blendstock. Analysis results will be presented along with a consideration of how to evaluate the effect of such a deployment of biofuel on land use change.