Water and Renewable Fuels

Ross Harding
Albany Water Summit XIV – Tuesday 17th
June 2008

Copyright © 2007 Herty Advanced Materials Development Center

 Outline

Renewable Flues – an overview

Renewable Fuel Drivers
Growth of Biomass Energy and potential Water Consumption Impacts
Issues and Opportunities
HERTY – accelerates a good idea to a great commercial success
Founded in 1938 to honor Charles
Herty, father of the Southern pulp and
paper industry
Charter broadened in 2005 to
cover all “Materials Manufacturing
Industries”
Georgia State Agency.
• Confidentiality assured.
• Independent
• Non-profit organization
• Commercialization Center
Staff:
• 40 people in Lab and Pilot Plant

HERTY - reduces the risk of product innovation

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Renewable Fuels Overview
 Renewable Fuels 101

A (Ross) definition – fuels made from natural sources which can regenerate in less than a
life time. For example:
• Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Biomass
Biomass (another Ross) definition– any organic material that once was green….trees,
grasses, sugar cane, corn.
Biomass Uses as fuel
• Combustion for heat and electricity production
• Gasification for syn gas production
• Burn the gas as a fossil fuel replacement
• Convert the gas into liquid transportation fuels
• Fermentation
• Break the biomass down into sugar and ferment the sugar into liquid
fuels
 No Single Solution

There is plenty of renewable energy sources. Our challenge is to

convert to so that it can be in the right place, in the right form at the
right time and at the right price.
Oil has been a ubiquitous solution to our energy and manufacturing
needs
Renewable Energy will come from many sources
Each geographic location, based on its natural resources, has a
“primary” potential renewable energy source and a number of
secondary sources.
 Solar

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_energy.html#two
 Wind

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_energy.html#two
 Geothermal

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_energy.html#two
 Corn Ethanol

http://www.card.iastate.edu/research/bio/tools/ethanol.aspx
 Total Potential
Biomass

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_energy.html#two
Forest Biomass
 Georgia has a strong position in
forest based biomass

Georgia not only has large areas of forest land but over 24 million
acres (2/3 of total Georgia land area) are privately owned, forested
and accessible for logging
7-10 million acres are cultivated as plantations
The largest regional impact will be from Biomass based cellulosic
ethanol, electricity, heat and power production
Drivers
Economic
Environmental
National Security
&
Quality of Life
Forget Global Warming – lets talk about $money$

The key driver for renewable fuels is the

wholesale cost of fossil fuels.
In Brazil Ethanol sells for US$2.20 per gallon
and Gasoline sells for $4.40 per gallon – its
easy to be Green
Everything is possible at half the price of
gasoline
 Some Useful Comparisons and Trigger Points

• Biomass
• At $75/barrel oil $10/Million BTU Natural Gas and $0.06kwh
economics of Forest based Biomass at $35 per dry ton as a feed
stock start to make sense.
• It takes VAST amounts of biomass and VAST acreage to replace
even small quantities of fossil fuels consumed
• Good plantations can produce 10 Green Tons/Acer/Year
• Ethanol yields of 50 gallons per green ton are possible
• Electricity can be produced at 10,000 tons biomass per MW
Get Specific – What is the impact on the US?
A growing imbalance
Energy use and quality
of life are inexorably
linked
Cheap Oil made the
US competitive but
inefficient – we need to
get efficient to compete
in an energy starved
world.
As 3rd world countries
advance –
energy
consumption
will boom
Per Capita
1.7kW/Person
 The message is - The US runs out first!

Proven Oil Reserve life

We need short term efficiency
200
180
160
140 AND
120
Years

100
80
60
We need long term self sufficiency
40
20
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 The Federal Government understands the impact - The “Energy Independence
and Security Act 2007” – targets 16 Billion Gallons of Ethanol from Cellulose by
2022

Georgia can
produce 1.6 Billion
Gallons from waste
and surplus forest
materials alone.
We need to target
10% minimum as
“our” share.

Copyright © 2007 Herty Advanced Materials Development Center

 The FARM BILL 2008 further supports the rapid development of renewable fuels
Energy:

• • PROMOTES BIOMASS CROP PRODUCTION, HARVESTING, PROCESSING: The bill creates and fully funds a program to encourage farmers to establish and
grow biomass crops in areas around biomass facilities such as biorefineries. It also provides matching payments to producers for harvest, transport and storage of
biomass delivered to such a facility.
• • PROVIDES BIOMASS LOAN GUARANTEES: The bill provides $320 million in mandatory funding for loan guarantees for commercial scale biorefineries for
advanced biofuels. The maximum guaranteed loan amount is $250 million and 80 percent of total project costs, with up to 90 percent of that guaranteed.
• • SUPPORTS RURAL RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY: The energy title provides $250 million in mandatory funding to provide grants and loan
guarantees for renewable energy and energy efficiency systems for farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses. This program leverages on average ten times the
federal funding it receives. The mandatory funding in the bill will more than double the amount previously spent on these projects.
• • ASSISTS CONVERSTION TO BIOMASS ENERGY: The bill provides $35 million in mandatory funding for grants to support repowering of existing biorefineries with
biomass energy systems.
• • ENCOURAGES PRODUCTION OF ADVANCED BIOFUELS: Included in the energy title is $300 million in mandatory funding for payments to support the
production of advanced biofuels, including biodiesel and cellulosic biofuels.
• • EXPANDS BIOMASS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: The Biomass Research and Development program is the premier biomass energy research program; it
is administered jointly with the Department of Energy. The bill continues this program and provides $118 million in mandatory funding, which more than doubles
current funding.
• • CONTINUES BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION INITIATIVE: Competitive grants to educate the public about effective biodiesel use and the benefits of biodiesel are
continued with funding of $1 million per year.
• • STRENGTHENS THE FEDERAL PROCUREMENT AND LABELING PROGRAM FOR BIOBASED PRODUCTS: The energy title amends the current biobased
products federal purchase preference and labeling programs to include intermediate ingredients and feedstocks and provide for automatic designation for items
composed of high levels of these feedstocks. Also sets a deadline for implementation of the biobased product labeling program and increases funding for this
program to $2 million per year.
• Decreases production tax credit on corn ethanol from $0.51 to $0.45 and increases provides $1.01 for cellulosic ethanol
 When Will it happen in Georgia

It is happening already
• Davis Oil
• Fermenting millions of gallons of waste soda and juice into
6 Million Gallons of Ethanol In Perry and selling it as E85 in
their gas stations
• FRAM Renewable Fuels
• Converting saw dust into 300,000 tons/year wood pellets
for co firing to replace coal
• Range Fuels
• Broken ground on Phase 1 of 100 Million gallons per
year (3000/ton/day pine) Gasification to ethanol plant in
Soperton
• Yellow Pine
• 50MW wood fired power plant Fort Gaines
• Weyerhaeuser
• 1000 ton/day waste fuel boilers Port Wentworth
 The Impact on Water
Consumption of Biomass
Based Fuels
Disclaimer – each and every process is different and unique, each track of land has
different production rates, different harvest needs…..I hate when people
approximate, generalize and then draw conclusion around renewable fuels……that
being said let me approximate, generalize and draw conclusions……..
Targets for Georgia by 2020
• GEFA estimates in the “Meeting Future
Electricity Demand” briefing paper to the
Governors Energy Policy Council that
approximately 1000 MW of
electricity/heat/power will be required from
renewable biomass
• Meeting a target of 20% of gasoline demand will
require 1.6 Billion Gallons of cellulosic
ethanol
 A new regional model – think in circles

Availability of Sustainable Biomass and Transport Costs are driving the solution to a smaller
regional model inside a 25-50 mile collection and distribution circle

• Locally Grown – Locally Converted – Locally Consumed

Transportation of Biomass
• One of the largest costs of biomass is transportation
• Current costs $0.14 per ton per mile min 50 miles
• 50% of trees are water – but in a form that is costly to deal with and most often a negative cost
Consumption of Biomass
• 10,000 tons per MW
• 50 gallons of ethanol per green ton
• A 50 Million gallon ethanol plant or 100 MW power facility will consume 1 Million green tons of
biomass annually
Availability of Biomass
• At forest production rates of 7 tons/acre/year and a 16 year rotation you need 150,000 acres
year to sustain production of 1 Million tons per year
• Assumes no irrigation
• A 25 mile radius circle contains approx 1.3 Million acres
Total and net water consumption estimates vary on technology:
• Electricity production from combustion and steam – same as
for coal based generation
• 0.5 gallons per kWh end consumption
• 13 Million Gallons per MW per year
• Gasification will use a fraction of this amount
• Cellulosic Ethanol
• 2 gallons per gallons produced by thermal path
• 6 gallons per gallons produced by fermentation path
• FYI
• Oil Refining to produce gasoline uses 2.5 gallons of water per gallon
of gasoline
• Corn ethanol 3-4 gallons water per gallon ethanol produced
Annual Consumption of Resources
For Each 25 - 50 mile circle

• 50 Million Gallons Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

• 1 Million green tons of biomass per year
• 100 - 300 Million gallons of water per year
• 100 MW electricity from steam
• 1 Million green tons of biomass per year
• 1300 Million gallons of water per year
• NOTE: Gasification and combustion of syn gas will use a faction of this
water consumption
 Bio based fuels could change the face of rural US

Illustration only:
Georgia at 10% US
production
35 cellulose ethanol
plants producing 50
Million gallons with $100
Million capital investment
each at 25 mile radius
1.6 Billion Gallons
5 Million acres
50 Million Tons Biomass
Replace 20% of Georgia’s
gasoline needs by 2022
 Georgia can accelerate the speed, scale and value of a new set of
bio fuels industries by investments designed to accelerate the
implementation of decisions to build new plants and operate them at
peak production
Georgia Economic Value Added by Accellerated Commercilization

4500

4000
20% Economic Impact Value Added by Investment in
Millions $ Economic Impact

3500 Georgia Biofuels Commercialization Center and

Renewable associated marketing, distribution and incentive
3000 programs
Economic Impact With Biofuel Commercialization
2500
Center and package of marketing, communication
2000
10% and incentives
Renewable
1500 Economic Impact Without Biofuel
Commercialization Center and package of
1000 marketing, communication and incentives

500

0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Year

Copyright © 2007 Herty Advanced Materials Development Center

 Herty and Renewable Fuels

Feedstock Optimization – cost effective,

abundant and reliable fuel. Each “energy
conversion process” requires different and
unique feedstock for optimum cost effective
energy production
Supply Chain Optimization
Process Integration
Commercialization and Scale Up - Herty is an
industry trusted independent third party
commercialization center.
Herty provides a hub location to develop at pilot
scale, the processes and equipment required to
develop this new and growing industry.
 Partners and Customers

Associations
• GA Forestry Assoc.
• P2E
• GA Conservancy
• Peanut Growers Assoc.

Universities and Agencies

• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Georgia
• GEFA and Dept Eco Dev
Copyright © 2007 Herty Advanced Materials Development Center
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