[Gasification] Cellulosic Ethanol a dead end

[mmbtupr at aol.com]

     from   Lewis L Smith

Industry sources indicate that it take the equivalent of 35% to 45% of 
the energy in the final product to produce a marketable crude oil from 
tar sands.

The change in volume between a refinery's input of crude and its output 
of saleable products could vary from roughly minus seven percent to 
roughly plus five percent, depending on a number of factors, such as :

[1]     Refinery fuel consumption of fuels obtained from refinery 
output, such as C2's, C3's, C4's and No. 6 fuel oil.

[2]     The degree of reduction in the number of molecules with 
branches [ as in isomers ] as opposed those which are "straight chain".

[3]    The proportion of H2 obtained from crude oil products versus 
that from other materials.

[4]    The amount of non-crude materials, such as additives and ethanol 
blended into the final product available for sale.

Different statistical sources may treat one or more of these items 
differently, so one must always read the footnotes !


Cordially. ###



-----Original Message-----
From: Pels, J.R. (Jan) <pels at ecn.nl>
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification 
<gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Mon, Nov 12  10:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Cellulosic Ethanol a dead end

This 35% result is of course terribly low. It means that for every
gallon EtOH you need two times the energy in that gallon to produce it.

> If you think converting the 70% starch in corn into sugar and
> then into ethanol is inefficient, (MAYBE 35% more energy out
> than in)

But you have to get your references correct. Is it gasoline from oil?
Well, you don't get 100% gasoline from oil. You waste some of it in the
refinery. (Hard to get a number, since a significant part of the oil is
converted to other useful products).

Let's not forget that alternatives to oil also waste. E.g., tar sands
need 0.6 barrel of oil extra to produce 1 barrel of oil. And then some
is lost when it is processed into gasoline. Fisher-Tropsch diesel from
coal is equally wasteful.

And also, if the lost energy is useful heat it is not wasted. This
applies to all examples.

Finally, if that wasted energy is coming from biomass it is still
wasted, but it is 100% green.

Jan

========================================
Dr. Jan R. Pels
ECN - Biomass, Coals and Environmental Research
P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands
telephone: +31-224-564884; fax: +31-224-568487
mobile: +31-6-10923218
e-mail: pels at ecn.nl
========================================



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