Cellulosic Ethanol Competing Technologies

There are very many alternatives to the current gasoline and diesel based vehicle technology and it can be difficult to make an “apples-to-apples” comparison among them. The technologies that can be said to compete with the Enzymatic Cellulosic Ethanol process can be categorized in the following manner:

• Biomass consuming technologies, not producing vehicle fuel (e.g. bio-electricity, district heating)
• Alternative Vehicles (e.g. electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, natural gas vehicles)
• Non-ethanol Biomass-to-liquid technologies (e.g. Biomass gasification to Fisher-Tropsch diesel, di-methyl-ether (DME))
• Other Biomass-to-Ethanol technologies (e.g. biomass gasification to ethanol (catalytic), strong acid hydrolysis and ethanol fermentation)

These competing technologies are very different and in many cases, they are not mutually exclusive, or at least, they could with great benefit co-exist in a long period of slow transformation and continued technology improvement. Also it will vary from region to region, which technology is preferable. Bio-electricity runs most efficiently on low-ash feedstock, such as wood and in areas with district heating. Electric vehicles would be expected to find their niche in urban areas and possibly expand into other areas when the technology eventually proves ready for longer ranges. Biomass gasification processes, if they become viable, would be expected to have a preference for low ash biomass and for being built to handle large capacity plant scales, meaning that a location in a forest area would be ideal. We cannot exclude that any of these technologies may get their share of the future biomass and fuel market, but we do, no matter what, feel convinced that the enzymatic cellulosic ethanol process, will be a technology, which most economically can convert a large share of the available biomass to automotive fuel for the following reasons:

• Ethanol is proven and a reliable energy carrier for automotive vehicles in Brazil, the United States and elsewhere. Plus, cellulosic ethanol can adapt into these markets without any bridging cost
• Ethanol technology is the largest and most proven biofuel, however, it is still in the development stage when it comes to application potential. Together with an additive, ethanol is now used in heavy-duty diesel engines in 900 Swedish buses, and could one day be an ideal energy carrier for fuel cells
• Cellulosic ethanol is a radical game-changing technology, but the basis for the technology draws upon valuable experience from related industries. These industries include: starch based ethanol, biomass heat and power processes, anaerobic digestion, and pulp and paper. Because it pulls from more established technologies, this limits the technology novelty of cellulosic ethanol to be mainly around the biomass pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis part.
• Auto-sufficiency in heat and power from combustion of un-converted material and possible electricity export contributes to making the process economical and CO2-emission neutral
• Unlike several of the biomass consuming competitors the enzymatic cellulosic ethanol process operates at least as well on high ash containing and wet biomass residues, such as corn stover and grasses. Plus it has no preference for more costly wood
• Ethanol is an attractive building block for many chemicals, not just transport fuel. Due to the versatility of ethanol, it has the potential to be the building block of a whole new economy, the biobased economy.

Source: Novozyme